Time on saved video and photo files incorrect.
4010 4 2020-8-3
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Carlos56
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Flight distance : 91844 ft
Canada
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The video and photo files are being saved to the SD card with the wrong time. The file timestamp is one hour ahead of the time the video and photos were actually taken on the Mavic Mini.

After some investigation, the EXIF data on the photos is correct, but the file timestamp on both videos abd photos is not. It states that it is using the UTC date and time, but the time is out (ahead) by one hour. It seems very clear to me that this UTC time was not taken from the phone system, or from GPS satellites, since it would not be wrong. It appears that DJI must take the system time from the phone and them make a conversion to UTC, using this as the "UTC" time on the saved files.

I am in Eastern Time Zone, and typically UTC is defined as Eastern Standard Time + 5 hours (UTC = EST + 5). The problem is we are in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) right now (clocks one hour forward), and UTC = EDT + 4. It seems very clear to me that DJI has added 5 hours to the system time (EDT) and called it UTC, using this to tag the data files saved to the SD card. So when my system converts this "UTC" time back to ET, the files are stamped one hour later than actual.

This is the only explanation that makes sense to me - the only way the EXIF data could be correct (based directly on system info), and the file timestamp ("UTC" data) incorrect.

Does anyone else have this issue?



2020-8-3
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K6CCC
Second Officer
Flight distance : 651683 ft
United States
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Yep.  Kind of annoying until I figured out what was happening.  Not really a big deal most of the time.
2020-8-3
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DJI Paladin
Administrator
Flight distance : 318 ft

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Hi. Thank you for reaching out to DJI Forum. With regards to this concern. May I know that model of the mobile device you are using please? Kindly please try a different recommended mobile device with the correct time to isolate the issue. Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.
2020-8-5
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K6CCC
Second Officer
Flight distance : 651683 ft
United States
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Carlos56's explanation makes sense.
I have the DJI Fly app on both a Motorola G7 power and an @#$%& iPhone 8 (both now 1.1.6).  For all practical purposes, I exclusively use the Android.  I see exactly the same time issue on all my photos.  I had never checked the EXIF data, but just like Carlos, that is correct - only Windows shows the time ahead by an hour.  We are also currently in Daylight Saving Time.
I did a test with the @#$%& iPhone 8 where I did not even fly, but I did take three photos and one short video that were recorded to the uSD card.  When I used the @#$%& iPhone, the times were correct.
Since I massively prefer to use the Android, I will just deal with the time error when using that phone.  It will be interesting to see if it changes when we go back to Standard time in a few months.  And no, I can't go back and look at old photos that were taken earlier this year before we switched to DST - I have not had a drone that long  
2020-8-5
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Carlos56
lvl.1
Flight distance : 91844 ft
Canada
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I use a Huawei P20 Pro. I don't have any other phone I can try.

Based on K6CCC's response it appears the problem is with (some?) Android phones. If DJI is using the time from the phone, and has problems reading it accurately with certain manufacturers, why would you not take the time from the GPS signal, where it encoded and based on atomic clocks. The incorrect UTC time is placed on photo and video files saved by the drone directly onto the SD card. The phone doesn't need to be involved in that operation. What do you do with Smart controllers that don't have a mobile device attached? Wouldn't it take the phone out of the equation if you used the GPS time data?
2020-8-5
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