[bug]: Importing images into the board generates new images with new timestamps disregarding original file timestamps

[alexwyattdev]

Is there an existing issue for this problem?

• [x] I have searched the existing issues

Install method

Invoke's Launcher

Operating system

Windows

GPU vendor

Nvidia (CUDA)

GPU model

RTX 4060

GPU VRAM

8GB

Version number

v6.9.0

Browser

No response

System Information

{ "version": "6.9.0", "dependencies": { "absl-py" : "2.3.1", "accelerate" : "1.11.0", "annotated-types" : "0.7.0", "anyio" : "4.11.0", "attrs" : "25.4.0", "bidict" : "0.23.1", "bitsandbytes" : "0.48.2", "blake3" : "1.0.8", "certifi" : "2022.12.7", "cffi" : "2.0.0", "charset-normalizer" : "2.1.1", "click" : "8.3.0", "colorama" : "0.4.6", "coloredlogs" : "15.0.1", "compel" : "2.1.1", "contourpy" : "1.3.3", "CUDA" : "12.8", "cycler" : "0.12.1", "Deprecated" : "1.3.0", "diffusers" : "0.33.0", "dnspython" : "2.8.0", "dynamicprompts" : "0.31.0", "einops" : "0.8.1", "fastapi" : "0.118.3", "fastapi-events" : "0.12.2", "filelock" : "3.19.1", "flatbuffers" : "25.9.23", "fonttools" : "4.60.1", "fsspec" : "2025.9.0", "gguf" : "0.17.1", "h11" : "0.16.0", "httptools" : "0.7.1", "huggingface-hub" : "0.36.0", "humanfriendly" : "10.0", "idna" : "3.4", "importlib_metadata" : "7.1.0", "InvokeAI" : "6.9.0", "jax" : "0.7.1", "jaxlib" : "0.7.1", "Jinja2" : "3.1.6", "kiwisolver" : "1.4.9", "MarkupSafe" : "2.1.5", "matplotlib" : "3.10.7", "mediapipe" : "0.10.14", "ml_dtypes" : "0.5.3", "mpmath" : "1.3.0", "networkx" : "3.5", "numpy" : "1.26.3", "onnx" : "1.16.1", "onnxruntime" : "1.19.2", "opencv-contrib-python": "4.11.0.86", "opt_einsum" : "3.4.0", "packaging" : "24.1", "picklescan" : "0.0.31", "pillow" : "11.3.0", "prompt_toolkit" : "3.0.52", "protobuf" : "4.25.8", "psutil" : "7.1.2", "pycparser" : "2.23", "pydantic" : "2.12.3", "pydantic-settings" : "2.11.0", "pydantic_core" : "2.41.4", "pyparsing" : "3.2.5", "PyPatchMatch" : "1.0.2", "pyreadline3" : "3.5.4", "python-dateutil" : "2.9.0.post0", "python-dotenv" : "1.2.1", "python-engineio" : "4.12.3", "python-multipart" : "0.0.20", "python-socketio" : "5.14.3", "PyWavelets" : "1.9.0", "PyYAML" : "6.0.3", "regex" : "2025.10.23", "requests" : "2.28.1", "safetensors" : "0.6.2", "scipy" : "1.16.3", "semver" : "3.0.4", "sentencepiece" : "0.2.0", "setuptools" : "70.2.0", "simple-websocket" : "1.1.0", "six" : "1.17.0", "sniffio" : "1.3.1", "sounddevice" : "0.5.3", "spandrel" : "0.4.1", "starlette" : "0.48.0", "sympy" : "1.14.0", "tokenizers" : "0.22.1", "torch" : "2.7.1+cu128", "torchsde" : "0.2.6", "torchvision" : "0.22.1+cu128", "tqdm" : "4.66.5", "trampoline" : "0.1.2", "transformers" : "4.57.1", "typing-inspection" : "0.4.2", "typing_extensions" : "4.15.0", "urllib3" : "1.26.13", "uvicorn" : "0.38.0", "watchfiles" : "1.1.1", "wcwidth" : "0.2.14", "websockets" : "15.0.1", "wrapt" : "2.0.0", "wsproto" : "1.2.0", "zipp" : "3.19.2" }, "config": { "schema_version": "4.0.2", "legacy_models_yaml_path": null, "host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 9090, "allow_origins": [], "allow_credentials": true, "allow_methods": [""], "allow_headers": [""], "ssl_certfile": null, "ssl_keyfile": null, "log_tokenization": false, "patchmatch": true, "models_dir": "models", "convert_cache_dir": "models\.convert_cache", "download_cache_dir": "models\.download_cache", "legacy_conf_dir": "configs", "db_dir": "databases", "outputs_dir": "outputs", "custom_nodes_dir": "nodes", "style_presets_dir": "style_presets", "workflow_thumbnails_dir": "workflow_thumbnails", "log_handlers": ["console"], "log_format": "color", "log_level": "info", "log_sql": false, "log_level_network": "warning", "use_memory_db": false, "dev_reload": false, "profile_graphs": false, "profile_prefix": null, "profiles_dir": "profiles", "max_cache_ram_gb": null, "max_cache_vram_gb": null, "log_memory_usage": false, "device_working_mem_gb": 3, "enable_partial_loading": true, "keep_ram_copy_of_weights": true, "ram": null, "vram": null, "lazy_offload": true, "pytorch_cuda_alloc_conf": null, "device": "auto", "precision": "auto", "sequential_guidance": false, "attention_type": "auto", "attention_slice_size": "auto", "force_tiled_decode": false, "pil_compress_level": 1, "max_queue_size": 10000, "clear_queue_on_startup": false, "allow_nodes": null, "deny_nodes": null, "node_cache_size": 512, "hashing_algorithm": "blake3_single", "remote_api_tokens": null, "scan_models_on_startup": false, "unsafe_disable_picklescan": false, "allow_unknown_models": true }, "set_config_fields": ["host", "enable_partial_loading", "legacy_models_yaml_path"] }

What happened

Tried importing previously generated invokeai images after a complete reinstall, the app started generating new images with timestamps set to the generation moment rather than just copying or linking original images with their original timestamp.

What you expected to happen

Not losing the creation dates from previously generated images when importing them back.

How to reproduce the problem

Generate some images (preferably on a different day). Back them up. Completely uninstall InvokeAI. Install InvokeAI again. Import backed up images.

Additional context

No response

Discord username

No response

[DustyShoe]

This is an intended behavior. Though it can be improved.

Imported images are added as assets. Invoke copies them into Outputs directory an creates proper data in DB, that is associated with given image. It also retrieves any available metadata image might have. It is best to add these images from separate folder and delete it afterwards.

After that you can run simple python script that modifies .db file to move imported images from assets to proper "Images" category. One of those i have proposed on discord: https://discord.com/channels/1020123559063990373/1149513695567810630/1389298885712806018 This tool also can help with restoring DB entries without needing to import images: https://github.com/Pfannkuchensack/sqlite_invokeai_db_tool/releases/tag/1.2.0

It is advised to back up your outputs directory and invokeai.db in Databases folder before complete reinstalling.