Error date on some mp4/m4v files.

[Forza-tng]

Describe the bug

On some video files, the date ends up decades in the past. I think it is due to a problem in how the metadata in the videos is encoded.

Steps To Reproduce

For example, video file 20120529_085506.m4v is detected as being created in 1946.

When looking at the timestamps we see the following:

❯ exiftool  -time:all  20120529_085506.m4v
File Modification Date/Time     : 2012:05:29 08:55:06+02:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2012:05:29 08:55:06+02:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2024:10:12 16:27:45+02:00
Create Date                     : 2012:05:29 08:55:06
Modify Date                     : 2012:05:29 08:55:06
Track Create Date               : 2012:05:29 08:55:06
Track Modify Date               : 2012:05:29 08:55:06
Media Create Date               : 2012:05:29 08:55:06
Media Modify Date               : 2012:05:29 08:55:06

However when using the QuickTime API, we can see where the wrong year comes from:

❯ exiftool  -time:all  -api QuickTimeUTC 20120529_085506.m4v
File Modification Date/Time     : 2012:05:29 08:55:06+02:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2012:05:29 08:55:06+02:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2024:10:12 16:27:45+02:00
Create Date                     : 1946:05:29 10:55:06+02:00
Modify Date                     : 1946:05:29 10:55:06+02:00
Track Create Date               : 1946:05:29 10:55:06+02:00
Track Modify Date               : 1946:05:29 10:55:06+02:00
Media Create Date               : 1946:05:29 10:55:06+02:00
Media Modify Date               : 1946:05:29 10:55:06+02:00

Platform

- OS: Android, Linux
- Browser: Opera, Firefox
- Memories Version: 7.5.2
- Nextcloud Version: 31.0.4
- PHP Version: 8.3.20
- exiftool: 13.10 (using system version)
- Host OS: Gentoo Linux x86_64

Screenshots

Additional context

There is some information on exiftool website about this: https://exiftool.org/TagNames/QuickTime.html and https://exiftool.org/ExifTool.html#QuickTimeUTC

I am not exactly sure how to solve the issue. Perhaps Memories can try with and without the QuickTimeUTC option to detect obviously wrong dates.

[toksoyy]

Hi. I'm having the same problem with whatsapp videos I backed up. I temporarily solved the problem by making an arrangement like this. I didn't do detailed research. I don't know where the real problem is.

I edited the getDateTaken function in apps/memories/lib/exif.php like this and indexed again with
occ memories:index --clear command.

 public static function getDateTaken(File $file, array $exif): \DateTime
{
    // If it is a WhatsApp video, pull the date from the file name
    $filename = $file->getName(); // edit

    if (preg_match('/VID-(\d{8})-WA\d+/', $filename, $matches)) {
        $dateStr = $matches[1]; 

        try {
            $dt = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Ymd', $dateStr);
            // timezone settings
            $tz = getenv('TZ') ?: date_default_timezone_get();
            $dt->setTime(12, 0); we give a fixed time because there is no time information in the file
            $dt->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone($tz));

            return $dt;
        } catch (\Exception) {
            // If the file name is wrong, return to normal EXIF
        }
    }

    // Try with normal EXIF date
    try {
        $date = self::parseExifDate($exif);
        if ($date->getTimestamp() === -2082844800) {
            throw new \Exception("Blacklisted date, fallback to mtime");
        }
        return $date;
    } catch (\Exception) {
    } catch (\ValueError) {
    }

    // If the date is still not found, use the time the file was modified
    $dt = new \DateTime('@'.$file->getMtime());
    $tz = getenv('TZ') ?: date_default_timezone_get();

    try {
        $dt->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone($tz));
    } catch (\Exception) {
        throw new \Error("FATAL: system timezone is invalid (TZ): {$tz}");
    }

    return $dt;
}