[m2guy]

Hi,
I've installed the trial versions of Downloader Pro 1.8.1 and Browser Pro 1.4.1 at the recommendation of a few of my friends.

My goal is to organize my existing collection of photos using new folder names, rename my files, and avoid duplication of files. As such I have been inserting my photo CDs and downloading my photos. I am launching DLPro from within BBPro. I have these preferences configured:

Directory = My Documents\My Pictures\%Y-%m-%D
Filenames = IMG%Y-%m-%D-%L4

All of this seems to be working as intended. However, I've run into a problem half way through this exercise. I am unable to download some of the images, I get "Time Different" in the DLPro Status column and I'm stuck here.

I also tried to turn on "Use image capture time for file timestamp" and this has not solved the download problem.

I have investigated a sample image the generates the error, and yes the image has a "CREATED ON" time that is EXACTLY one hour prior to the "DATE PICTURE TAKEN" time. Seems some kind of daylight savings time error, maybe. The camera that took the photo is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel. I have several with this problem.

How do I move forward?
Do I have to fix this time issue on each photo that generates the error? How? Can I batch it?

I know I could just copy the images over using file manager and then view them with BBPro, but this defeats my organization goals and file duplication protection scheme.

Should I go about this another way?

Thanks - Greg

[GuyScharf]

Greg,

I have used the %l token only for testing and have not seen what you are describing. Here are some thoughts in case they are helpful to you.

"Time different" means that when DLPro determined how the files being downloaded were to be renamed, it found that one of the files had the same name as a file in the destination directory, and that the two files had different time stamps.

Are you sure that the two images, "exactly one hour apart," are the same image? I recommend you look at each image with a viewer and see if the images are the same. If not the same image, that confirms you have a simple name collision problem. If the images are the same, are you sure that both photo CD's (the one already downloaded and the new one you are downloading) are not by some chance duplicates with a one-hour difference in times?

I can think of several ways a name collision could happen with the file naming you have chosen. If you downloaded from one photo CD, then downloaded from a different CD which had some photos with the same date as on the previous CD, conflicts would occur.

That's because %L4 only creates uniquess within the set of files you are downloading from. It does not look at what is already in the directory you are downloading to.

Here's what the DLPro 1.8 help file says about %L:


Please Note: Downloader Pro only compares the download filenames with the other files on the source drive. It does not check the names of files already in the download directory because this would make it impossible for Downloader Pro to keep track of which files have already been downloaded.

Hope something in here helps.

Guy

[Chris Breeze]

It's difficult to know what's causing this without being able to reproduce it using the same conditions. It might be caused by something obscure to do with DST e.g. the files being shot outside DST, the CD created in DST and then downloaded outside DST.
It's possible you can safely ignore this error if the files appear to be downloaded correctly. You only get the "Time different" message if there is a downloaded file of the same name and file size as a file on the source drive.

[almost_nico]

I'm getting the exact same error messages. I'm running XPsp2, and I'm getting the pictures straight from my PowerShot S2 IS. Any time I download a big batch, I get a few of the time different errors, they're exactly one hour off on the actual files, and despite the errors, the files in question are there.

What is most strange is that if I re-do the download, either deleting the results from the first time or using a different folder, I will certainly get several time different errors, but for different files. Super weird.

[Chris Breeze]

What settings are you using? If the preference setting for the filenames is not sufficiently unique you will may up with several images having the same filenames or filenames that are the same as images previously downloaded. Try including the image number (%r) in the filename and setting your camera to continuous numbering.

[almost_nico]

My files are set to go to the directory "D:\Nick\Images\%Y\%J" with the filename of "%J %n3", so uniqueness shouldn't be the issue. I'll see if using %r instead of %n makes a difference next time I have a batch to work on.

[almost_nico]

I just did another batch using %r instead of %n. Same problem.

[Chris Breeze]

I can't really help without more detailed information. If you get a "Time different" status it means that a file with the same download path already exists on your hard disk with a different timestamp. This is either the same as the file on the memory card but with a different timestamp for some reason or it is a different file which was already on the hard disk but has the same filename. Please can you check whether it is the same file or a different one. If it is the same file does it have the same file size or has it been modified and how does the timestamp compare with the image on the memory card?

[almost_nico]

It's never that I'm losing any files. DP downloads every file, and for a few random files, it switches the time by exactly one hour. Then those files report time different status.

I always download batches to brand new folders. If I repeat a batch that had errors to a different brand new folder, I get errors but on *different* files. The error happens at random and for seemingly no reason, and it's always a timestamp difference of exactly one hour.

[DavidB]

When you say 'DL Pro switches the time', I assume you are referring just to the file timestamp. Do you have the option set to make the file timestamp the same as the image capture time? If you do, are the file times of the 'bad' images the same as the EXIF capture times, one hour off, or otherwise different? (If the EXIF times are OK, you can of course fix the filestamp in BB Pro.)

Of course it's not just DL Pro we are dealing with; there is also the Windows filesystem to consider. I find it interesting that you get the errors with large downloads; is there any particular threshold where the problem kicks in? And do you get these errors throughout the year, or only at time when Windows 'knows' that there is (or is not) daylight saving time in your location?

As you say, weird.

[Aerostation]

I have an additional piece of information for this. It seems that when WinXP (SP2) shifted to DST (Mar 11, 2007), Windows Explorer shifted the time on all files by DST (forward 1 hour). This includes pictures I downloaded with Downloader Pro in Feb which is never in DST (even after this years extension of DST).

I can verify this by going into the Windows Clock dialog and clearing the check mark for "Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes". The file times return to the original value (EXIF capture times).

Since I have left several pictures on the camera memory card after download, Downloader Pro now shows their status as "Time Different" instead of "Downloaded" even though the files are exactly the same.

Another data point, using the "ls" command in the Cygwin package did not show a shifted time for the same Feb pictures (update DOS dir command also shows the correct unshifted time). The time shift problem in Windows Explorer (and Downloader Pro) must be related to the particular system calls used to return the file status.

[Chris Breeze]

It is somewhat confusing. Windows stores the timestamp as the number of since a reference time in UTC and displays the time in applications like Windows Explorer after applying the local time zone offset including DST where applicable. This has the somewhat surprising result that the timestamp displayed for a file viewed before DST (e.g. on March 10) will show one time and the same file viewed during DST (e.g. on March 11) will differ by one hour.
The problem for Downloader Pro is the date and time stored in the EXIF data doesn't contain any time zone information and so DLPro has to assume the camera is set to local time. This is only a problem if you try to download the same images before and after DST comes into effect because the local time as far as the computer is concerned has changed by one hour. Normally this isn't an issue because the EXIF data contains the date and time the picture was taken and the camera is usually set to the local time and you don't often try to download the same images twice and hardly ever do this straddling DST changes.