James_Gray wrote:
I’m having the same issue as well, files transferred to the MPW from an SD card are having their ‘Date Created’ set to some time in January 2014, presumably when I set up the drive it decided it was 1 Jan 2014 and has been counting on the days from there. The file system ‘Date Modified’ and the date in the image EXIF info is correct. Is there a solution for this? I can find no way of setting the date or time on the device itself.
On the specific issue of viewing and setting the time on the MPW:
The manual directs you to the Hardware tab of the MPW Dashboard to view the current time the MPW is using. In fact in the latest firmware (v1.03.13) the current time has moved to the Home tab, bottom right corner. Go and check the Date and Time on your MPW now. . . Was it correct?
The MPW is basically a Linux server. As such, it seems to me that it will get the correct time from the internet, using a time server. As there does not seem to be any way to actually set the time, and my MPW has the correct local time, I have to assume that this is the case. In fact I was able to determine that my MPW is 15 seconds slow compared to my desktop PC, which shows me that it is maintaining its own time, and probably from internet time servers, as they usually provide a time a few seconds out. I’m not sure how the MPW gets the time zone to use, but again, it could use internet location information to set the location, and hence the time zone.
So, have you ever had the MPW connected to the internet for any length of time? It can take some time for a server to check and set its time. Usually a server will run the check once a day or similar. So I suggest that you start up the MPW, connect it to a network (not via USB, via Wi-Fi) that has access to the internet, and leave it running for a day or so, or until the time is updated. It may happen almost immediately after the MPW detects an internet connection. It may run on a schedule. If you want to force it to run a time update, brush up your Linux skills and SSH into the MPW, and run the appropriate commands.
Dates on files:
There are many dates stored in files. The important one for photos in the Date Taken. That should be set by the camera, and will (should) not be changed by any later file moves, copies, edits, etc., unless it is deliberately changed by the user.
The two other commonly visible dates are Date Created and Date Modified. Both of these can be changed when files are moved, copied, or edited, and when they are changed, the date and time used is sourced from the target device. So if you have the correct Date Created for a photo on an SD card, then copy it to the MPW, the Date Created could be changed to the current date and time of the MPW. This is the Date Created on the MPW file system. Date Modified works in a similar way. Note that whether the Date Created and Modified is changed in subsequent move, copy, and edit activities depends a lot on the software being used to execute those activities, and the target device and file system for those activities.
Note however that I have images created on a Nikon camera, copied from the SD card to the MPW, copied to an iMac, copied to a USB drive, copied to a Windows PC, copied back to the MPW via Wi-Fi, and the Date Created and Date Modified for each is equal to the Date Taken for each file. So it looks like the SD transfer doesn’t change the Create and Modified Date/Time. Some servers and software do.
Finally, when the MPW is connected to a PC/Mac via a USB cable it is acting as a dumb USB drive. The Date and Time which file activities use in that case are the Date and Time from the PC/Mac. When you are connected to the MPW via Wi-Fi, the MPW is acting as a server and uses its time information for file activities. You should see the same Dates and Times on files when connected via USB compared to viewing them when connected via Wi-Fi, but only if the MPW and your PC/Mac are set to the same Time Zone.
Dates and Times are usually stored in files as UTC time. When you view a list of files, the operating system you are using takes into account your location and adds or subtracts the necessary hours to the time in the file. A difference of 11 hours sounds like the MPW doesn’t have the correct time zone information for your location. So if you viewed the files via USB your PC/Mac will use its location information to decide the time offset. If you view the files via Wi-Fi the MPW is actually serving up the files, and it uses the location information it has to decide the time offset.
So WozzaT, I guess if you were in England and the MPW thought it was in Australia during Daylight Saving, newly created files would show a creation date 11 hours ahead of the current time. Something like that anyway.
