I noticed I have a wrong Media Created date for video clips (Action 2). It is 9 hours past the actual creation date . I am in Japan, and no country leads Japan by 9 hours. This date has not happened yet (at time of writing).
Example for an actual video clip, from the Properties of a file:
Origin; Media Created: 2021/11/01; 01:13
File; Date created: 2021/10/31; 18:02 (date of import to PC)
File; Date modified: 2021/10/31; 16:13 (True creation date; Local time; Both my PC and smartphone have this time).


For comparison, with my DJI Pocket 2, Media Created matches Date modified.


Any comments? Thanks.



  

I think if you did this with your pocket 2, you might be better suited asking the question in the pocket 2 form and not the action 2 forum, unless you mistyped and you’re actually dealing with an action 2?

No mistake: I am dealing with an action 2. Pocket 2 is given as a comparison. No problem with the Pocket 2.
Thanks for the comment. I have edited the original to clarify.

Someone else had a date/time issue but as I understood the problem it was when copying the files to the PC. I think DJI is looking into this if I'm not mistaken

Hi Gramps50. I checked what you said.
I looked at the Media Created date when the file was still in the camera unit (using file manager and the unit as a USB mass storage), and it is +9 hours compared to true creation date.
So it looks like it is not related to the transfer process to PC.
  

Yaman-Python Posted at 10-31 03:50
No mistake: I am dealing with an action 2. Pocket 2 is given as a comparison. No problem with the Pocket 2.
Thanks for the comment. I have edited the original to clarify.

Yeah sorry, only mention I saw was to the pocket 2 so I misunderstood, sorry about that. I just got my action 2 today and I didn’t see any discrepancy in certain dates/times recorded on the camera internal memory or SD card through the front touchscreen module of the photos and videos I took today. I didn’t think to look to see if there was a way to check the current date/time the camera has. I’ll check mine here in just a little bit to see. Could be off somehow.
EDIT FOR UPDATE:

I did not see a way to even check date and time through either a menu option or through the Mimo app. My thinking was maybe the time/date was off on the camera somehow.

Thanks for the update JodyB. I think my time is correct. There are several timestamps recorded for pics and videos. Of interest here are:
- The Media Created time (in the Origin Tab of Metadata of the video file)
- The Date modified time (in the File Tab of Metadata of the video file; time when the file was actually created; should match Media created time; and it does in my Pocket 2).
Media Created date should be same as Date modified. In my case I have +9 hours for Date Created in Action 2, and no country is ahead of Japan by that amount, so it is not a local time problem I suppose, and anyway the modified time is correct.
File manager may show only Date modified, so the discrepancy may go unnoticed. The different times can be seen by looking at the file properties; details tab (Windows).
For pictures, I do not have the problem. It is only for videos.

Yes,  file properties->details was where I was looking on mine too.  At this point I’m not even sure as to where the action 2 gets the time/date for stamp purposes to even consider that as a possibility of time being off or a time zone issue but I wouldn’t think that would be the case as you’re saying the difference is between creation and modification of the file.  That is a perplexing issue to say the least.

I just noticed that Japan time is  (GMT+9). So the 9 most likely comes from that.
Also I checked again my Pocket 2, and I was misled, there too the Media created time is different, but not by 9 hours.... (no, not true; see Edit below)
So I searched internet for "video metadata creation date" and found a page saying that there is no standard for Media created time for videos, though there is for pictures... Then developers may decide what they want as that Media created time for videos. Probably a redundant useless information that nobody uses.

I saw the difference because for some reason, in my file manager, the "date" column shows that Media created time for action 2, whereas for any other cameras I own, the "date" column shows the same as the modified time. So there may still be a problem somewhere with the interaction with my PC... Anyway, I will add a column with modified date in my file manager to work around that.

Edit:
- In fact for Pocket 2, Media created time = modified time. In Windows file manager, there is a "Date created" which is very strange, because it is not the Media created time....
- When looking at the camera unit (action 2), file manager displays the column "Date modified". But after it is copied to PC, it displays "Date", which turns out to be the Media created time. And that only with Action 2. With my other cameras it the Date column is same as the Date modified.
- So the problem may be relatd to the copying of video files to PC, as suggested by Gramps50.
- And who knows? Maybe, DJI setting Media created time = modified time in Action 2 may solve the problem...

Yaman-Python Posted at 10-31 19:39
I just noticed that Japan time is  (GMT+9). So the 9 most likely comes from that.
Also I checked again my Pocket 2, and I was misled, there too the Media created time is different, but not by 9 hours.... (no, not true; see Edit below)
So I searched internet for "video metadata creation date" and found a page saying that there is no standard for Media created time for videos, though there is for pictures... Then developers may decide what they want as that Media created time for videos. Probably a redundant useless information that nobody uses.

Hello, there. Sorry for any inconvenience. We have confirmed with our designated teams. Briefly, for DJI Action2, it is within the PC strategy. Considering DJI Action2 as zero time zone, Windows will add time according to the local time zone when it shows Media Created Time. And Japan is GMT+9.

Hello. Thanks for looking into it.
The strange thing is that the result is that Media Created Time = Japan time +9 hours = GMT+18 (not GMT+9), which is not logical.

I mix pictures and clips from different cams in the same folder. As Date in file manager takes that Media Created Time, I now always have to add Modified Date as a new tab in the manager in order to sort by true time taken. Also had to modify the way I import the files from different cams so that it renames same-name files (pocket and Action uses the same naming). With Japan time + 9, some Action 2 files were imported in a different folder because that Media Created Time was often the day after, and then I would have to rename files to put same in the same folder.
So would still be nice if it could be fixed.

I have a new discovery that ruins even more my workflow with dates:
When you transfer files from internal memory to SD, the Modified Date is changed to the time of transfer.

Now, that Modified Date was the only one that was the correct date taken (for videos; pics are OK), since the date created is wrong (see above post). So in this case, I do not have a correct date to use as true date taken for videos anymore.
Using Date modified was already a workaround for me. Now if I transfer files, even that is gone, and I will have to find a way to modify the date created for videos by myself or go through a manual work to re-order them (I mix them with files from other cams and need them to be in correct order of time taken for my workflow).

simple solution from DJI, just a few characters in one line of code: Please fix Date Created for videos. Again, it works perfect for DJI Pocket 2, so why is it different for DJI Action 2?

Yaman-Python Posted at 2021-12-30 17:10
I have a new discovery that ruins even more my workflow with dates:
When you transfer files from internal memory to SD, the Modified Date is changed to the time of transfer.

The wrong media creation time is an especially vexing issue for an action camera, since we are likely to be mixing video from several different cameras when making videos.

It looks like this "Media Created date" problem was part of the "minor bugs" solved in Firmware v01.03.30.20.
Thanks!

Well, my Action2 is in fact still leading ~10 min... For both "Media created" and "Modified".

Having the same issue here.
The created and modified dates change to the date I transferred the files from camera internal memory to memory card.
No fix yet? This is really a big deal.

Another thing, The naming convention: every new session the files restart from 000.mp4.
Any chances I can make it sequential? The files gets all messed up and with the date problem described above, it's impossible to organize.
Thanks for any input.

i posted a similar question earlier, the file nameing sequence doesnt seem to stay consistent, and once you copy files, i resets to the copied date not the created date.  

i wish it had names like the DJI mic, where the date and file number is in the file name, so you dont rely on the copied dates

Andinho Posted at 7-26 17:39
Having the same issue here.
The created and modified dates change to the date I transferred the files from camera internal memory to memory card.
No fix yet? This is really a big deal.

I agree. This is hopeless when editing.
The media creation date is when you transfer from internal storage to SD card in power / cam module.

This cannot be used for editing at all.

I am trying to sync up with other cameras, and having the creation date all over the place for action2 really is hopeless.
Hope this can be fixed soon.

Best,
Pål

BigRedJ Posted at 7-28 05:34
i posted a similar question earlier, the file nameing sequence doesnt seem to stay consistent, and once you copy files, i resets to the copied date not the created date.  

i wish it had names like the DJI mic, where the date and file number is in the file name, so you dont rely on the copied dates

That would be an option. But for such a camera, file creation date should not be altered and alsi file sequence naming should be at least a counter that do not reset.
A bliss would be if we could set the name of camera in settings and get this in the file name before sequence numbers,

Hey! Even GoPro have gotten their file name sequence to work…

I have found what is happening with the in-camera time.
In fact, what is happening is that the in-camera time drifts over time.
However, if you connect your camera to mimo app, the in-camera time is reset to the true value. I rarely connect the camera to mimo app, only for firmware updates...

So it appears necessary to connect to mimo app from time to time to make sure we have the right time in our photos and videos. This is particularly important when we mix clips and photos with those taken with another camera and we want to have a clean global timeline. Unless there is a bug there that DJI can fix.

BTW, the same is true for Action3.

I noticed Action 3 has a menu where date/time can be adjusted in camera.
So if a firmware is on the way for Action2, please include that. It does not cost much time to you to do it.