[GNC] How can I make GnuCash store all dates in only 1 format?

[Mark Debian]

I have a script I use to massage data from GnuCash via the sqlite backend.

It looks like the format that dates are stored in the database backend has changed over time and this is causing me problems.  When I look at the transactions table I have dates in the following formats:YYYYmmddHHMMSSYYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS
Unfortunately, the sqlite date, datetime, strftime functions will not recognise the first format.
I was going to manually change all dates to one format using sqlite to directly update the backend.  However, I can see that other tables interact / depend on the format.  In particular the slots table: timespec_val.
How can I make GnuCash store all dates in only 1 format?  Is there an option via the gui somewhere?  I don't believe I told GnuCash to change the format it stores dates in, so why did it change its format?
Thanks for any help / suggestions.