Change Photo Date Taken Online — Edit EXIF Date and Timestamp

Why Edit Photo Metadata?

Incorrect photo dates disrupt the most fundamental way people organize their memories — chronologically. When you open Apple Photos or Google Photos, images are sorted by their EXIF date. A vacation photo with the wrong timestamp appears in the wrong month or year, separated from the rest of the trip. Scanned family photos from the 1990s show up as being from 2024 because that is when the scanner created the digital file. These misplaced images make your photo library confusing and unreliable. Fixing dates at the EXIF level is the correct solution because it works universally. Changing the file's system date (modified date) in your operating system is fragile — it resets every time you copy, move, or sync the file. EXIF dates, by contrast, are embedded inside the file and persist through copying, cloud syncing, and backup operations. When you change the EXIF date, the correction is permanent and recognized by every photo application. Batch date shifting is particularly valuable after timezone mistakes. If you took 200 photos on a trip and your camera was set to the wrong timezone, every single image is off by the same number of hours. Our tool lets you shift all timestamps by a fixed offset, correcting the entire set in one operation rather than editing each photo individually. Zero quality loss is guaranteed by the binary editing approach. Conventional photo editors that modify dates often re-save the JPEG, introducing generation loss. Our tool never touches the image data — only the EXIF metadata bytes are modified. Your photos remain pixel-perfect after date correction.

How It Works

Select the date and time you want to apply to your photos. You can enter an exact date and time, or specify an offset (e.g., "+5 hours" or "-1 day") to shift existing timestamps while preserving the relative timing between photos. The offset mode is especially useful for correcting timezone errors across a batch of images. Upload your JPEG files by dragging them onto the page or browsing. The tool reads each file as a binary buffer and parses the EXIF structure using piexifjs. It locates the DateTime, DateTimeOriginal, and DateTimeDigitized fields and updates them with your specified values. The modified EXIF data is serialized and written back into the JPEG file, replacing the original metadata segment. The image data remains completely untouched — no decompression or re-encoding occurs. Download your corrected files and import them into your photo library. The updated dates will be recognized immediately by Apple Photos, Google Photos, Lightroom, and any other EXIF-aware application.

More Editing Options

This page is optimized for change photo date taken online. Our full EXIF editor supports custom field editing, 5 preset templates, and batch processing across multiple JPEG files — all with zero quality loss.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which date fields are changed?

The tool updates three EXIF date fields: DateTime (IFD0), DateTimeOriginal (Exif IFD, when the photo was taken), and DateTimeDigitized (Exif IFD, when the image was digitized). These are the fields used by photo management software to sort images chronologically.

Does changing the date affect the photo itself?

No. Only the EXIF metadata is modified through binary segment editing. The image data — pixels, compression, colors — is never decoded or re-encoded. Your photo is visually identical after the date change, with zero quality loss.

Can I shift all photos by a time offset?

Yes. Instead of setting an absolute date, you can apply an offset like "+3 hours" or "-1 day" to shift all timestamps by the same amount. This preserves the relative timing between photos — useful for correcting timezone errors across an entire batch.

Will Google Photos and Apple Photos recognize the new date?

Yes. Both Google Photos and Apple Photos read the DateTimeOriginal EXIF field to determine when a photo was taken. After changing this field with our tool, re-importing or syncing the photo will place it at the correct position in your timeline.

Can I fix the date on scanned photos?

Yes. Scanned photos have their EXIF date set to the scan date. Use this tool to change it to the actual date the original photo was taken. This places the scanned image correctly in your photo library timeline alongside other photos from that era.

Is this free to use?

Anonymous users get 5 free uses per day, registered users get 10 per day, and Pro subscribers ($10/month) get unlimited daily usage. No credit card is required for free access.