Tag updates to images shouldn't overwrite CreateDate of image about damselfly HOT 1 CLOSED

Sorry, but that's not correct. It doesn't work that way at all. In fact, adding the ability to update exif data for images is not something I've implemented yet.

So you're either misunderstanding what happened, or something else is going on.

If the AI object recognition was enabled and tagged photos with recognised objects then the last modified date of the file will be changed, but that's something entirely different to the Date Taken exif field, which won't be altered.

The last modified date of the file would be changed with any update to the file, by any image management or editing app, potentially including renaming the file or coping it to another drive, so you shouldn't rely on it for the photo metadata. If the exif data for the "date taken" field isn't set on the photos, you can very easily write a script to copy the last-modified timestamp into the date take (create date) exif field, to ensure you don't lose that data in future.

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=9568.0

from damselfly.