Why does iPhone image library show recently created images as over six months old?

Discuss Pixelmator for iOS and mobile image editing.
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2021-09-09 03:04:50

When I'm in the image Library section of Photos on my iPhone, I've found that images that I've recently created/saved are all bunched together around mid-December 2020.

However, under the Albums > Recent part of Photos, they show in the order they were created, amongst other images and photos created/taken around the same (correct) dates.

Why is this happening? Is it perhaps because some layers within certain images are being reused, and those parts of images were maybe created around mid-December 2020?
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2021-10-10 02:47:56

Anyone?
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2021-10-11 09:41:50

Hey ferrous. It depends on how you create and save images. If you open an image from the Photos library, make changes to it, and then modify the original (choose "Save to Photos" from the Share menu) — the image metadata won't change. It will keep its original creation date and won't change its place in the Photos timeline. However, if you choose "Send a Copy" or "Copy to Photos" instead, a new copy of an image with the current time and date will be created. Alternatively, you can create an empty new document in Pixelmator and insert your image to make edits. This workflow also won't keep the original image metadata.
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2021-10-12 04:43:15

Whenever I save images, I always choose 'Send a Copy', yet all of the recent images I've saved are in the iPhone image libary around mid-December 2020.

In the Albums tab, under 'Recent' it appears there right at the time it was saved, but still has the December 2020 date. Under the Libarary tab, it's sorted as way back in December.

So as far as I understand, I'm doing it in the way that you've stated ('Send a Copy') will give it a new date, but that's not happening.

I have a number of layers that stay within the images I'm creating (mostly I'm creating thumbnails for YouTube and social media, so the text layers stay put and I simply change the text in them), so could these layers be making it keep the older date?
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2021-10-15 14:41:08

I have a number of layers that stay within the images I'm creating (mostly I'm creating thumbnails for YouTube and social media, so the text layers stay put and I simply change the text in them), so could these layers be making it keep the older date?
Yes, if you used an image from your library as a base for your projects, they will keep the date of the original image. Also, my bad regarding the 'Send a Copy' feature — it does keep the original image date. I only looked at the Albums tab before. Still, the method of creating projects from a blank canvas preset should work.

Also, to export existing projects with a new date without recreating them from scratch, you can choose "Copy Image" from the Share menu, then go create a new image from presets and choose your image from the Clipboard. Then, send a copy to Photos as per usual.
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2021-10-16 01:24:29

Excellent. Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated. 🙂
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2021-10-20 13:10:33

by ferrous 2021-10-15 22:24:29 Excellent. Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated. 🙂
:pray: