guardian · andrew-nowak · Jun 10, 2025 · Apr 23, 2025 · Apr 23, 2025 · Apr 23, 2025
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ object ImageMetadataConverter extends GridLogging {
 
   // keep positive years (ie AD) with a couple of days spare room to avoid accidentally flipping over into BC
   val earliestSensibleDate: DateTime = DateTime.parse("0001-01-03T00:00:00.000Z")
+  // offset hours representing possible range of + timezones ahead of UTC
+  private val utcHoursOffset: Int = 14
 
   private def extractSubjects(fileMetadata: FileMetadata): Option[List[String]] = {
     val supplementalCategories = fileMetadata.iptc
@@ -54,10 +56,19 @@ object ImageMetadataConverter extends GridLogging {
 
   def fromFileMetadata(fileMetadata: FileMetadata, latestAllowedDateTime: Option[DateTime] = None, earliestAllowedDateTime: Option[DateTime] = Some(earliestSensibleDate)): ImageMetadata = {
     def parseDate(dateString: String): Option[DateTime] = parseRandomDate(dateString, maxDate = latestAllowedDateTime, minDate = earliestAllowedDateTime)
+
+    // setting of taken date
+    val exifTaken: Option[String] = fileMetadata.exifSub.get("Date/Time Original Composite")
+    val iptcTaken: Option[String] = fileMetadata.iptc.get("Date Time Created Composite")
+    val xmpTaken: Option[String] = fileMetadata.readXmpHeadStringProp("photoshop:DateCreated")
+    val iptcDate: Option[String] = fileMetadata.iptc.get("Date Created")
+    val dateTaken: Option[DateTime] = exifTaken.flatMap(parseDate) orElse
+                                      iptcTaken.flatMap(parseDate) orElse
+                                      xmpTaken.flatMap(parseDate) orElse
+                                      iptcDate.flatMap(parseDate)
+
     ImageMetadata(
-      dateTaken           = (fileMetadata.exifSub.get("Date/Time Original Composite") flatMap parseDate) orElse
-                            (fileMetadata.iptc.get("Date Time Created Composite") flatMap parseDate) orElse
-                            (fileMetadata.readXmpHeadStringProp("photoshop:DateCreated") flatMap parseDate),
+      dateTaken           = dateTaken,
       description         = fileMetadata.readXmpHeadStringProp("dc:description") orElse
                             fileMetadata.iptc.get("Caption/Abstract") orElse
                             fileMetadata.exif.get("Image Description"),
@@ -138,21 +149,25 @@ object ImageMetadataConverter extends GridLogging {
     DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyyddMM"),
     DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyy"),
     DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyy-MM"),
+    DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyy:MM:dd"),
+    DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyy-MM-dd"),
 
     // 2014-12-16 - Maybe it's just a date
     // no timezone provided so force UTC rather than use the machine's timezone
     ISODateTimeFormat.date.withZoneUTC
   )
 
   private[metadata] def parseRandomDate(str: String, maxDate: Option[DateTime] = None, minDate: Option[DateTime] = None): Option[DateTime] = {
+    // account for images sent with local timezone info being interpreted as UTC
+    val feasibleMaxDate: Option[DateTime] = maxDate.map(_.plusHours(utcHoursOffset))
     dateTimeFormatters.foldLeft[Option[DateTime]](None){
       case (successfulDate@Some(_), _) => successfulDate
       // NB We refuse parse results which result in future dates, if a max date is provided.
       // eg If we get a pic today (22nd January 2021) with a date string of 20211201 we can be pretty sure
       // that it should be parsed as (eg) US (12th Jan 2021), not EU (1st Dec 2021).
       // So we refuse the (apparently successful) EU parse result.
       case (None, formatter) => safeParsing(formatter.parseDateTime(str))
-        .filter(d => maxDate.forall(d.isBefore) && minDate.forall(d.isAfter))
+        .filter(d => feasibleMaxDate.forall(d.isBefore) && minDate.forall(d.isAfter))
     }.map(_.withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC))
   }