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I have found that if I have a WhatsApp image that I want to copy into a different folder on my Android device, keeping the original in place, then the date and time changes for the image.

So if I go into the phones gallery the date and time of both the images show the time of when I have copied the file. Why does copying break the original image? And lose important data on when the images were originally taken.

If I delete the second copied image, so only the original is the there, then the date and time reverts back to the original date and time when viewed in the gallery. It looks like the gallery when displaying the file date and time.is looking at the wrong version of the file??

I have tested this on multiple devices now and the same happens. I copy the file by connecting to the computer.

Using the native copy to in the photo gallery works on devices pre android 10, but has the same affect on android 10.

BeginnerDBADan
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  • Apps behavior is never consistent. Simply use cp -p to retain timestamps. See manpage – Irfan Latif Aug 06 '20 at 12:23
  • Usually you don't lose the data when the picture has been taken because it is saved as EXIF meta-data inside the picture data structure (invisible). – Robert Aug 06 '20 at 13:05
  • you can preserve timestamp with adb pull -a /sdcard/DCIM/Camera – alecxs Aug 06 '20 at 15:40
  • I guess I'd just like to understand why when I copy a WhatsApp image from one folder to another folder on the device, so I have now 2, the original and copied. When I go to the native gallery both images are there in the album's but both with todays date. Why has the original file changed and showing today's date when that has had nothing done to it. – BeginnerDBADan Aug 06 '20 at 15:49
  • could be a bug in gallery app, maybe related to cache or thumbs – alecxs Aug 07 '20 at 01:34

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