Changing observation date

[bluebird38]

I see my observations are not being added to my projects.
The problem seems to be that the observation date is taken from my camera- Jan 1 2022- which is wrong. This is outside of the dates used for the projects so my observations are not being added to the project listings. I made the observations June 11 2022. How do I change it?

[fffffffff]

Click on “Edit” blue button on the top right corner of observation page and there choose the date and time that are correct, if you only want to add one date to many observations (without time), you can go https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/Bluebird38 and there choose batch edit. But if you know that dates are incorrect it’s better to upload them with correct date from the start, in uploader you also can just write another date.

[bluebird38]

Marina,
I did the batch editing. It changes the date (June 11, 2022) for when I submitted my downloads, but it does not change the date that I made the observation. That date appears to come from my camera. The date on my camera was wrong (January 1, 2022). In order to include my observations in the project I need to change the date observed to the correct date when I took the photos (June 11, 2022). I don’t see a way to do that. (I don’t have a smart phone. I use my camera for the observations and download everything from my camera later.)

[fffffffff]

It should change the date, you choose on that page “batch edit” and click on observations made at one date

Then choose “Edit selected”

Choose the correct date at this yellow area and click “apply this”, then click “Save” at the bottom.
But if it’s hard for you to navigate batch edit, you can try editing observations individually, it will take more time, but is easier. EXIF coming from your camera doesn’t affect it now, but yes, you should change your camera settings, so new photos you make have correct date.

[bluebird38]

Batch editing doesn’t work for changing the observation dates-yes all the dates are changed

but when I click on the picture in my observations it still comes up: date observed January 1, 2022.

I can delete and download all of my observations again. That allows me to change the date they were observed. That works, but it is disappointing to have to download all of them again. I’m especially disappointed to see that none of the observations that I thought were submitted for my other two projects were never included in the projects because the observation date did not change when I batch edited them- although the batch editing seem to indicate that it had. (like in the top picture)

sorry for the deleted posts - learning my way around the forums

[fffffffff]

I just went and try batch editing for myself, it changed dates and saved them, I’m not sure what is going on with your observations, but you can just edit dates manually on each observation, please don’t reupload them, you will delete spent iders’ time: click “edit”, change date and click on “save observation”.
@tiwane

[bluebird38]

If the observation date is wrong you cannot edit the observation date once a photo has been downloaded because it takes the date of the observation from the date on the camera. I tried changing the date. Editing only changes the dates on your dashboard, (first picture in my above post) but not overall (second picture in my above post).
You can change the date it was observed when you download the picture, but once it is downloaded with the wrong date you can’t.
When I go to my observations and click on a picture it brings that picture up so I can edit it. Clicking edit opens a window with a small version of my photo and the date it was observed. There is no way to edit that date. By clicking view under the picture and scrolling down it lists information about my camera which I’ve shown in part below:

Digital Camera FinePix S9800 S9850 S9750 Ver1.00
Date time 2022-01-01 02:35:41 -0800
Ycb cr positioning 2
Copyright
Exposure time 1/110
F number 27/5
Exposure program 2
Iso speed ratings 800
Date time original 2022-01-01 02:35:41 -0800
Date time digitized 2022-01-01 02:35:41 -0800
Compressed bits per pixel 2/1
Shutter speed value 1/111

As you can see it lists the date as January 1, 2022. This is the date inaturalist uses for when the observation was made. (as seen in the second picture above) I can find no way to change this date if it is wrong.
I did change a couple of dates on my observations by deleting them then downloading them again because I am able to make the changes when downloading them, but not after. Yet as mentioned, if I delete them I am going to lose all the IDers added data. So I guess the dates will just have to stay the way they are (wrong dates). I won’t be able to get them added to my project because the date is wrong. The good folks at inaturalist might want to consider a way to change the observation date from my camera. Makes me sad to think most of my data was never added to any of my projects.

[fffffffff]

You absolutely can change date of observation, it won’t change date on EXIF, but it doesn’t matter for projects or anywhere on iNat, no, iNat doesn’t use info on (i), no, date of observation is one on the main page, nowhere else, this is just a page with info about photo, just to prove how easy to change date is:

If your observation doesn’t appear in a project there’re many other reasons to, please link the project in question and one of observations where you did change the date.

[bluebird38]

Marina
Thank you for your patience. You are right. I was finally able to change the observation date. The problem was that it showed the proper date when I went to edit it so why change it?

Apparently inaturalist didn’t like that date and wouldn’t record it. Instead it recorded the date from the camera.

When I changed it to just the date (without the time ) then it worked.

Thank you so very much for your time. Sorry I was being such a knucklehead.

[fffffffff]

Maybe it’s because time, it should be only hour/minutes+p.m./a.m. if you use 12 hour cycle, if you choose the time range system likely thinks that it’s incorrect and doesn’t show that.