Retaining dates (modified,created) when syncing from Onedrive to Google Photos

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I am trying to setup a remote copy of photos from OneDrive to Google Photos. I have successfully copied 3 pictures across as a test to Google Photo but unfortunely it sees the images as taken on this day and not the original date. I have confirmed in Onedrive that the image file does have a modified and created date in the past. However when I check Google Photos it shows under deatils that the JPG is created today. I tried with and without the -M tag but both show the same issue.

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone v1.63.1

  • os/version: ubuntu 23.04 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 6.2.0-25-generic (x86_64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.20.6
  • go/linking: static
  • go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Onedrive and Google Photo

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

rclone copy OneDrive:Pictures GDrive:upload --max-depth 1 -vv -M

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

[OneDrive]
type = onedrive
token = {"access_token":"
drive_type = personal

[GDrive]
type = google photos
token = {"access_token":"","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"","expiry":"2023-07-24T13:18:43.802459734+10:00"}

A log from the command with the -vv flag

No log errors as the photos copy across no problems. I have included the output anway.

2023/07/24 13:02:57 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.63.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "copy" "OneDrive:Pictures" "GDrive:upload" "--max-depth" "1" "-vv" "-M"]
2023/07/24 13:02:57 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "OneDrive:Pictures"
2023/07/24 13:02:57 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/orry/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2023/07/24 13:02:58 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "GDrive:upload"
2023/07/24 13:02:58 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": List: dir=""
2023/07/24 13:02:58 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": >List: err=directory not found
2023/07/24 13:02:59 DEBUG : 20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg: Need to transfer - File not found at Destination
2023/07/24 13:02:59 DEBUG : 99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg: Need to transfer - File not found at Destination
2023/07/24 13:02:59 DEBUG : CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg: Need to transfer - File not found at Destination
2023/07/24 13:02:59 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": Waiting for checks to finish
2023/07/24 13:02:59 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": Waiting for transfers to finish
2023/07/24 13:03:00 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": Put: src=20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg
2023/07/24 13:03:00 DEBUG : 20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg: Update: src=20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg
2023/07/24 13:03:00 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": Put: src=99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg
2023/07/24 13:03:00 DEBUG : 99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg: Update: src=99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg
2023/07/24 13:03:00 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": Put: src=CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg
2023/07/24 13:03:00 DEBUG : CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg: Update: src=CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg
2023/07/24 13:03:04 DEBUG : 20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg: >Update: err=<nil>
2023/07/24 13:03:04 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": >Put: 
2023/07/24 13:03:04 DEBUG : 20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg: Size: 
2023/07/24 13:03:04 DEBUG : 20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg: >Size: 
2023/07/24 13:03:04 INFO  : 20961_301715177330_5347910_n.jpg: Copied (new)
2023/07/24 13:03:09 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 1/10 (error Quota exceeded for quota 'concurrent write request' of service 'photoslibrary.googleapis.com' for consumer 'project:202264815644'. (429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED))
2023/07/24 13:03:09 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 1.815559057s
2023/07/24 13:03:10 DEBUG : pacer: Reducing sleep to 0s
2023/07/24 13:03:10 DEBUG : CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg: >Update: err=<nil>
2023/07/24 13:03:10 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": >Put: 
2023/07/24 13:03:10 DEBUG : CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg: Size: 
2023/07/24 13:03:10 DEBUG : CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg: >Size: 
2023/07/24 13:03:10 INFO  : CharlieSchoolPhoto2023.jpg: Copied (new)
2023/07/24 13:03:12 DEBUG : 99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg: >Update: err=<nil>
2023/07/24 13:03:12 DEBUG : Google Photos path "upload": >Put: 
2023/07/24 13:03:12 DEBUG : 99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg: Size: 
2023/07/24 13:03:12 DEBUG : 99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg: >Size: 
2023/07/24 13:03:12 INFO  : 99RBL9TJ-5700800.jpg: Copied (new)
2023/07/24 13:03:12 INFO  : 
Transferred:   	    2.152 MiB / 2.152 MiB, 100%, 183.607 KiB/s, ETA 0s
Transferred:            3 / 3, 100%
Elapsed time:        14.4s

That is a limitation of Google Photos, as per docs:

The date shown of media in Google Photos is the creation date as determined by the EXIF information, or the upload date if that is not known.

This is not changeable by rclone and is not the modification date of the media on local disk. This means that rclone cannot use the dates from Google Photos for syncing purposes.

(Google Photos )

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