Using takenBefore and takenAfter via the searchRandom api endpoint returns results out of that date range.

[damongolding]

The bug

When using takenBefore and takenAfter via the searchRandom api endpoint, it returns results out of that date range.

My hypothesis is that the API is matching against "createdBefore" and "createdAfter" instead of the EXIF meta data.

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Debian 12

Version of Immich Server

v1.124.2

Version of Immich Mobile App

v1.124.0

Platform with the issue

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

Your docker-compose.yml content

name: immich
services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    extends:
      file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
      service: vaapi # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - ${EXTERNAL_PATH}:/usr/src/app/external
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - 2283:2283
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false
  immich-machine-learning:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning
    # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, openvino] to the image tag.
    # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
    #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, openvino, openvino-wsl] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
    volumes:
      - model-cache:/cache
    env_file:
      - .env
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false
  redis:
    container_name: immich_redis
    image: docker.io/redis:6.2-alpine@sha256:2ba50e1ac3a0ea17b736ce9db2b0a9f6f8b85d4c27d5f5accc6a416d8f42c6d5
    healthcheck:
      test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
    restart: always
  database:
    container_name: immich_postgres
    image: docker.io/tensorchord/pgvecto-rs:pg14-v0.2.0@sha256:90724186f0a3517cf6914295b5ab410db9ce23190a2d9d0b9dd6463e3fa298f0
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: --data-checksums
    volumes:
      - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: pg_isready --dbname='${DB_DATABASE_NAME}' --username='${DB_USERNAME}' ||
        exit 1; Chksum="$$(psql --dbname='${DB_DATABASE_NAME}'
        --username='${DB_USERNAME}' --tuples-only --no-align --command='SELECT
        COALESCE(SUM(checksum_failures), 0) FROM pg_stat_database')"; echo
        "checksum failure count is $$Chksum"; [ "$$Chksum" = '0' ] || exit 1
      interval: 5m
      start_interval: 30s
      start_period: 5m
    command:
      - postgres
      - -c
      - shared_preload_libraries=vectors.so
      - -c
      - search_path="$$user", public, vectors
      - -c
      - logging_collector=on
      - -c
      - max_wal_size=2GB
      - -c
      - shared_buffers=512MB
      - -c
      - wal_compression=on
    restart: always
volumes:
  model-cache: null
networks: {}

Your .env content

# You can find documentation for all the supported env variables at https://immich.app/docs/install/environment-variables

# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/multimedia/immich
#UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/multimedia/photos
#THUMB_LOCATION=./library
#ENCODED_VIDEO_LOCATION=/mnt/multimedia/immich/encoded_videos

DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres

# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v1.71.0"
IMMICH_VERSION=release

# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
DB_PASSWORD=XXX

# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_HOSTNAME=immich_postgres
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich

REDIS_HOSTNAME=immich_redis

EXTERNAL_PATH=/mnt/multimedia/photos

IMMICH_AUTO_CREATE_ALBUM=true

Reproduction steps

1. Curl api endpoint

curl --request POST \
  --url http://URL:2283/api/search/random \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: API_KEY \
  --data '{
  "type": "IMAGE",
	"takenBefore":"2025-01-15T23:59:59.999Z",
	"takenAfter": "2022-11-23T00:00:00.000Z",
	"withArchived": false,
	"withPeople": true,
	"withExif": true,
	"isVisible": true,
	"page": 1,
	"size": 1000
}'

2. Review returned assets createdDate and EXIF dateTimeOriginal values
   ...

Relevant log output

No response

Additional information

This may be relevant to #15151

[bo0tzz]

I think technically this is a dupe of #15151 ;)

Your hypothesis seems correct, I believe it's filtering on the filesystem change time:

immich/server/src/entities/asset.entity.ts

Lines 369 to 370 in 43b3181

	.$if(!!options.takenBefore, (qb) => qb.where('assets.fileCreatedAt', '<=', options.takenBefore!))
	.$if(!!options.takenAfter, (qb) => qb.where('assets.fileCreatedAt', '>=', options.takenAfter!))

[damongolding]

I thought I would raise the issue as #15151 relates to the searchMetatdata endpoint.

[etnoy]

I think technically this is a dupe of #15151 ;)

Your hypothesis seems correct, I believe it's filtering on the filesystem change time:

immich/server/src/entities/asset.entity.ts

Lines 369 to 370 in 43b3181

	.$if(!!options.takenBefore, (qb) => qb.where('assets.fileCreatedAt', '<=', options.takenBefore!))
	.$if(!!options.takenAfter, (qb) => qb.where('assets.fileCreatedAt', '>=', options.takenAfter!))

This would probably be solved by using assets.exifInfo.dateTimeOriginal instead of fileCreatedAt

[mertalev]

assets.fileCreatedAt is not actually the file creation date. It has a very misleading name. It starts out as the file modification date and is later set to the preferred EXIF metadata field during metadata extraction.