1

I am curious about the way Apple Photos has sorted one particular photo in my library and would like to ask here if anyone can give me any clues.

I have a photo of myself taken in the early 80s. It's actually a photo of the original photo. A relative took a snapshot of the original photo using the camera on her phone (not iPhone) and sent to me via WhatsApp or FB Messenger (I'm not really sure which). Upon saving the image on my iphone, it got automatically uploaded to iCloud, where I have thousands of other recent photos.

Recently, I noticed that Apple Photos has set the date of this particular photo to April 5th 1983 at 01:44 PM. I asked the person who most probably took the picture almost 40 years ago and she confirmed the year and month could very well be correct. Apart from that, the picture was taken at a beach during daytime, so 01:44 PM also makes sense.

More Information

  • As far as I can see, there are no visible timestamps printed on the photo.
  • Photos recognises a face in the picture, but does cannot link my 2-year old face to me.
  • I don't have any other pictures from this time in my library
  • I don't remember ever inputing any info about the date this photo was taken. I myself would not have known either.

Question:

Is this just a very lucky guess from Apple or are there other technologies at play here? I appreciate any response.

Improve this question
5
  • 4
    See if there's any EXIF data in the photo using this free web tool.
    – IconDaemon
    Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 12:08
  • @IconDaemon I doubt it is EXIF data since that standard was released in the '90s, maybe there is an older standard which predates it?
    – unbeatable101
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 12:48
  • This question/answer at Photo.se may provide a clue.
    – IconDaemon
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 13:33
  • @IconDaemon Thanks a lot for your comments. I was not able to find any EXIF data linking to the date visible on Apple Photos. The thread you mentioned could indeed be a clue. In my case the most rational explanation is that at some point some software added a datetime stamp to the image. Wether by coincidence or by some kind of technology, the datetime stamp is incredibly accurate.
    – thePHPHero
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 10:59
  • The accuracy is what is mystifying. Apple knows all and sees all, I guess. :-)
    – IconDaemon
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:09

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .