Platform: iOS iNaturalist app App version number, if a mobile app issue: 1.0.11 iPhone 15 pro on iOS 18.6.2 Browser, if a website issue: n/a URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: Screenshots of what you are seeing: [IMG_3417] [IMG_3418] [IMG_3416] [IMG_3419] D…

I think I remember having this problem months ago, but it is not happening now (same app version, iPhone14). On mine, a photo that is either grabbed from the photo library or one that is taken through the iNat app has date/time data attached. However, the photo taken through the iNat app and passe…

Unfortunately as mentioned this is only for my existing photos - I don’t use the iNaturalist camera. Even testing that flow it saves the photos fine to my photo album with location/ time and the entry fills out fine (since it uses current date/time). But I almost never do entries in situe

Had some another look too and I see iNaturalist uses private access setting, I’m not sure if relevant, whereas eg Seek uses full access. Also tested using current vs automatic format, no difference. And sharing from my photo library instead of accessing via the app. Nothing makes datetime load. I t…

Thank you for the detailed bug report. We’ve had some people report similar issues (neither iNat or iNat Classic apps read date/time with imported photos) but I’ve never been able to determine what causes this issue. I’ve asked people to try different formats (like jpeg), change date display, etc. …

Hi, Have sent through the log (with the latest timestamps from today doing the new observation + photo upload flow with 3 different photo types). Unfortunately, I do 99.9% of my obs through the app since that’s where most of my photos live! I have some various older ios devices I could try out and…

Thanks. I’ve made an issue for our engineers.

Hi, thanks - good news - I’ve found the cause: 12h time format isn’t being parsed Other things I excluded: I tested on old 6s with iOS 15.8.5 Access says ‘apps with one off photo selection’ (no way to change) and the datetime works fine 11 pro on 18.6.2 (same as my 15 pro with the issue)- privat…

Genius! Yes, I can replicate if I change my phone’s region to one that uses 24h clock as default (I’ve tried UK and France) and then change my clock to 12 hour display. For whatever reason, if my region is the US (which is my default), 12h or 24h doesn’t seem to matter. I’ll add this to my bug repor…

Ah interesting! I also tested changing my region to USA and going through all the date formats too and it wasn’t behaving on 12h, but perhaps there’s some other region default somewhere at play. Thanks :-)

Date/time metadata not automatically entered

Bug Reports

miltreynolds March 19, 2026, 12:55am 11

Quick fix that works for me (iOS 26.3.1);

Settings, General, Date & Time, 24-Hour Time: ON

This setting allows iNaturalist to capture the date/time data saved by my phone’s camera app.

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Date/time metadata not automatically entered

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