OneDrive and Photo Backup

Perhaps this is just news to me, but I was trying to edit the date taken on a photo scanned on my phone, and discovered several issues.

The first is that Photos app cannot save any changes to heic files, which seems to be a new issue as I know I have done it before. Perhaps it has to do with the new licensing terms for that codec. Oh well, I can edit it on the phone.

The second issue came up as a result of searching how to change the date taken for photos in OneDrive. Apparently, the OneDrive mobile apps seem to change the Date Taken field in EXIF data, replacing it with the date and time the file is uploaded. The fix is to disable photo backup via the mobile apps and import the photos to a PC in a folder backed up to OneDrive. This will maintain the EXIF data.

A quick check through photos taken this past summer shows that in my case it is worse. For example:

• Name = 20250711_185702415.heic
• Date created = 7/29/2025 11:28AM
• Date modified = 7/12/2025 4:41AM
• Date taken and all other EXIF data is blank

Modified before it was created. Not only do they have AI, they have a time machine. I guess it is time to pony up for iCloud storage, and turn off photo backup in the OneDrive mobile app and upload photos to the PC.