Hi.

i noticed that all photos i take on my DJI mini 3 pro show the wrong date — one day early — in their EXIF data, when I import them into Lightroom. Initially, I thought I must have the wrong date on the drone (and I was surprised it wouldn't get it from GPS?), but just checked, the date/time in Settings is correct, and shows March 5, 11:30 am right now, which is correct. Yet the pictures I took an hour ago all read March 4 (and the right time).

Any ideas?

I've had this happen before when flying the Mini 3 Pro with the RC.  I have found that if I turn on the wifi on my mobile device hot spot and connect to RC before taking the Mini 3 Pro off the date and time are correct on photos and videos taken during that flight.  If I don't have wifi before takeoff the date shows day prior but the time remains accurate.  No idea what causes this but have seen it reported on two other forums.

As you know the Fly App turns off wifi at drone lift off so my fix has to be done before props are spinning and drone takes off.  Would be nice if they can fix this.

This issue has been reported in a couple of threads... Looks like there is some issue to be fixed on the DJI RC or Mini 3 Pro (or combination of both?)

DowntownRDB Posted at 3-5 14:46
I've had this happen before when flying the Mini 3 Pro with the RC.  I have found that if I turn on the wifi on my mobile device hot spot and connect to RC before taking the Mini 3 Pro off the date and time are correct on photos and videos taken during that flight.  If I don't have wifi before takeoff the date shows day prior but the time remains accurate.  No idea what causes this but have seen it reported on two other forums.

As you know the Fly App turns off wifi at drone lift off so my fix has to be done before props are spinning and drone takes off.  Would be nice if they can fix this.

Thanx! i'll try that fix.

i *did* (happen to) reconnect to my local wifi before checking the date when I posted yesterday, so maybe that's why it showed the correct date on screen, when I checked. I'll have closer lookout when I fly next time, and try the wifi trick.

Yeah, I do hope a firmware update can/will fix this

dwarfland Posted at 3-6 04:29
Thanx! i'll try that fix.

i *did* (happen to) reconnect to my local wifi before checking the date when I posted yesterday, so maybe that's why it showed the correct date on screen, when I checked. I'll have closer lookout when I fly next time, and try the wifi trick.

It would certainly be nice to have a fix in the next firmware update.

Hi, dwarfland. Thank you for reaching out. The timestamp of the video/pictures captured by the aircraft is from the App, which relies on the time settings of the mobile device/RC. If the App displays the correct time while the PC display inconsistently, we position it as a computer issue, please change to another PC to double-check, or mainly refer to the time displayed in the App. Thank you for your kind understanding.

DJI Gamora Posted at 3-6 05:41
Hi, dwarfland. Thank you for reaching out. The timestamp of the video/pictures captured by the aircraft is from the App, which relies on the time settings of the mobile device/RC. If the App displays the correct time while the PC display inconsistently, we position it as a computer issue; please change to another PC to double-check, or mainly refer to the time displayed in the App. Thank you for your kind understanding.

> The timestamp of the video/pictures captured by the aircraft is from the App, which relies on the time settings of the mobile device/RC. If the App displays the correct time while the PC display inconsistently, we position it as a computer issue;

I don't understand what you mean by this

dwarfland Posted at 3-6 05:47
> The timestamp of the video/pictures captured by the aircraft is from the App, which relies on the time settings of the mobile device/RC. If the App displays the correct time while the PC display inconsistently, we position it as a computer issue;

I don't understand what you mean by this

Hi, dwarfland. Sorry for the confusion. It could be a problem with the software on the computer or the computer itself. The timestamp of the file will come from the mobile phone/RC. if the mobile phone/RC has the correct time and date but the file has an incorrect timestamp, please try to use another software or computer for checking.

DJI Gamora, I think you are wrong. I did a shoot today using Mavic 3 with RC1 controller and Osmo Mobile 6 with iPhone14 Pro. All video files created by both devices had the wrong date 4/9/23 instead of 5/9/23. The date is correct on the iPhone. Are your apps using date in China?

DJI Gamora Posted at 3-9 01:10
Hi, dwarfland. Sorry for the confusion. It could be a problem with the software on the computer or the computer itself. The timestamp of the file will come from the mobile phone/RC. if the mobile phone/RC has the correct time and date but the file has an incorrect timestamp, please try to use another software or computer for checking.

DJI Gamora, I think you are wrong. I did a shoot today using Mavic 3 with RC1 controller and Osmo Mobile 6 with iPhone14 Pro. All video files created by both devices had the wrong date 4/9/23 instead of 5/9/23 but still images created in the same flight with the Mavic 3 had the correct date. The date is correct on the iPhone. Are your apps using date in China for video files?

I have also had a problem with the time stamps on my mini 3 pro today for the first time ever. I flew seven time through the day and the last two flights suddenly produced time stamps on the images which were an hour in the past. The date remained correct. Its a pain because the flights were commercial which may not be happy with incorrect times on images. The job requires images to be taken at specific time slots. Unfortunately I didnt realise until I returned home so feeling quite let down by this. I connected the RC to my home wifi to upload the flight logs so of course the time is now correct. The flight logs also have incorrect times recorded. Definitely a bug that needs sorting. I will connect to my phone hotspot before every flight from now on which is a pain because the RC disconnects before each flight and needs to be manually reconnected every time after the flight.

Same issue here with a Mini 3 Pro and DJI RC.
There are two deterministic, time-related flaws/bugs that should be analyzed by the DJI developers and fixed asap in upcoming Firmware releases!
Both issues concern the timestamps stored within pictures and videos that are taken by DJI drones.

Issue #1: Observed with a Mini3 Pro for the last two flights: Time offset. When importing the DJI files (DNG, JGP) from the microSD card into Lightroom, there is a huge time offset of all pictures and videos. I've no access to the last pictures right now, can check in the evening - iirc it was an  offset of about 18-20 hours. Therefore, all pictures and videos were imported to the day before they were actually taken. As a side-note: Lightroom is THE reference wrt. picture post-processing. They have (imho) highly accurate implementations of the time and tag-handling and I never encountered a similar bug with many, many cameras and about 150K pictures in my archives so far  (old cameras and new ones, all major vendors). I'm 100% convinced that this is a DJI Firmware bug (can dive into more detail and follow-up after analyzing the IPTC tags if needed - may be faulty time or faulty timezone).

Issue #2:  This issue is for debate, may be Lightroom's fault When importing videos and pictures from DJI drones (Mini2, Mini3 Pro media exhibit identical behavior), Lightroom assigns to videos the UTC timestamp (without considering the timezone offset), whereas Pictures include the correct timezone offset. Therefore, videos captured in Central Europe show up in the timeline 2 hours (summer time) or 1 hour (winter time) BEFORE the time when the video was actually taken. Need to check, though, how Lightroom treats videos taken by other cameras (rarely take videos with cameras).

In any case, DJI should have a look into issue #1 asap. The need for manually moving all DJI videos and photos after import is quite annoying.
Follow-up (unfortunately can't post this as reply to the last message): it's impossible for me to reproduce the perfectly accurate time when the drone pictures were taken. But bracketing them with camera photos taken before and after the drone flight results in an IPTC timestamp offset of -18 hours relative to CEST for the DJI Mini3 Pro drone photos (perhaps plus/minus some minutes, the camera clock may deviate by some seconds). The drone photos have an IPTC date/time value of 16.09.2023, 19:20 whereas the true capture time (camera time) was 17.09.2023, 13:20 (CEST).  The potentially integral hour offset made me speculate on faulty timezone settings, but -14 < UTC < 14 being the allowed time zone range I can't imagine any mapping yielding a timezone offset of -18 for CEST (=UTC+2).

Happy to provide more details on request if needed.

nogooo Posted at 9-18 23:46
Same issue here with a Mini 3 Pro and DJI RC.
There are two deterministic, time-related flaws/bugs that should be analyzed by the DJI developers and fixed asap in upcoming Firmware releases!
Both issues concern the timestamps stored within pictures and videos that are taken by DJI drones.

Follow-up: it's impossible for me to reproduce the exact time when the drone pictures were taken. But bracketing them with camera photos taken before and after the drone flight results in an IPTC timestamp offset of accurately -18 hours relative to CEST for the drone photos (perhaps plus/minus some minutes, the camera clock may deviate by some seconds). Happy to provide more requests if needed.

I have a Mavic 3 cine and was having the same problem with files coming from SSD and SD onboard card on my controller with the wrong time/date stamp. Go into Settings (outside of DJIFly app / System / Date & Time/- Turn off by touching green button if on. "Use network provided time" Set date and time if not correct, touch the date and a calendar will pop up,. If time is wrong set that also. Then turn that back on.  Go down the list to the next item"Use network-provided time zone".  Uncheck off. Mine was set for China time zone. Touch "Time zone" Change to your time zone. Turn back on. You should be set now.

Hi.

Since the problem is not solve for many of us. I will add comments.

I use Canon cameras. And it works flawless with Davinci Resolve or Lightroom Classic.

I still have the issue with DJI Mini 3 Pro. It keeps embedded UTC time into MP4 files.

Then imported movies that were shot late afternoon are separated from the pictures of the DJI and pictures/videos of the Canon. It goes into the next day. If I shoot on 20 April the files become 21 April.
It is very confusing then do photoshoot on the consequent days. As some footage that can be used for event are not available for the editor. But he is getting instead unrelated files from the previous day.

Can the issue be solved by firmware or in some DJI app? I will write a script that strips metadata from video files before using Lightroom. Or maybe I am like many don't understand advantage of UTC time for video files. UTC with no timezone.

As a workaround. I can also set in settings on the remote: timezone UTC, disable automatic time update and set local time. But it is just wrong way of doing it.

This issue still persists for me too, I though I had not taken any pictures today, but instead the Mini 3 Pro saved them as "20.04." instead of the 24.04. so they are gladly still there, just tagged with the wrong date.  
The system was just using GPS to sync time, but apparently it's somewhat broken and got a 4 day's off date, while the time was right on the second.

Thank you, Bill, this was the solution for me!

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=286261&pid=3152622

Time and date on my DJI Mini 3 Pro were so far off that the timestamp on my pictures was 'tomorrow'.

[more in next post, can't fix the pictures via edit]

How to fix it:

1) Turn on the controller

2) Swipe down with your finger, starting at the top of the display.  



3) There is a small darker stripe at the top of the display now. Swipe that down *



4) In the top right corner, click on the 'Settings' icon Bill has marked in his screenshot.

5) System -> Date & Time -> deactivate "Use network-provided time" and "Use network-provided time zone".

6) Click on Date and Time to set the correct values, after each click OK in the bottom right corner.


* apparently this is obvious to Android users

PS - DJI support had told me some months ago that there was no way to change the wrong timestamp.

I have the DJI RC2 controller.  Nearly every time I turn it on, it just picks a random date and time.  I have it set to manual time, latest firmware.  Very annoying because I make Youtube videos with 3 different cameras, lining up the time and date in the editor is crucial.

I am using goggles 3 and an O3 air unit (no DJI controller). The saved files on SD card from goggles have a correct date and time, but the files on SD card from the air unit have wrong time and the date is 10 days ago.
From which source is the date/time in O3 air synchronized? Is it the PC, when the unit connected to it? And if so, for how long the unit remembers the date and time?

My brand new NEO is doing this. Showing yesterdays date on video and pics. Grrr! Great little drone btw. Handles wind a lot better than I expected for such a tiny craft. Stabilises the video superbly.