How to Change the Date a Photo Was Taken on Android

20 August 2026 · guide · change photo date · exif date · date taken · android photos

You import photos from a camera, a friend’s phone or an old backup, and your gallery puts them in completely the wrong place. Holiday photos appear as “today”. A camera that was never set after a battery change claims everything was shot in 2015. Scanned prints are dated the day you scanned them.

The fix is to correct the date taken stored inside each photo. This guide explains which date your gallery reads, and how to change it on Android with ExifTool, for one photo or hundreds.

Which date does the gallery use?

A photo has several dates, and it helps to know which one you are fixing:

• Date/Time Original (EXIF): when the shutter was pressed. Gallery apps usually sort by this.
• Create Date and Modify Date (EXIF): when the image was digitised and when it was last edited.
• File date: maintained by the file system. It changes when you copy or download the file.

When Date/Time Original is missing, many galleries fall back to the file date. That is why photos sent through chat apps, which often strip metadata, suddenly appear as “today”.

Common reasons dates go wrong

1. Wrong camera clock, often after a battery change or travel across time zones.
2. Metadata stripped by a messaging app or social network.
3. Scanned or screenshotted images, which never had a capture date.
4. Copies and restores that reset file dates.

Before you start

• Back up the originals. Copy the folder somewhere safe before editing in bulk.
• Find a reference point. A photo whose real date you know, such as a birthday cake or a ticket, lets you work out how far off the camera clock was.
• Install ExifTool from Google Play. It is free and works offline.

Change the date of one photo

1. Open ExifTool and select the photo.
2. Find Date/Time Original in the EXIF group.
3. Edit it to the correct date and time.
4. Update Create Date to match, so every date tag tells the same story.
5. Save the change.
6. Open your gallery and check the photo’s new position. Some galleries take a moment, or a restart, to rescan.

Fix dates from file names

Phone cameras often put the capture time in the file name, such as IMG_20240612_153045.jpg or PXL_20240612_153045123.jpg. Even if the metadata was stripped, the name still holds the date.

ExifTool can repair capture dates using file names or existing tags:

1. Select the photos whose names contain dates.
2. Choose the option to fix dates.
3. Pick the file name as the source.
4. Review the result, then apply.

The same feature can copy a date from another tag in the file, which helps when one date tag is right and another is empty or wrong.

Fix a whole batch at once

When a camera clock was off by the same amount for an entire trip, fix the set together:

1. In ExifTool, select all affected photos. Batch editing applies a change to many files at once.
2. Set the date fields you want to change.
3. Apply and check a few photos against your reference point.

If you need to export the before and after values for a record, ExifTool can export metadata to CSV.

Dates in videos and other files

Videos also carry creation dates in their metadata. ExifTool reads metadata in MP4, MOV, MKV and other video formats, as well as audio files, and supports editing it for videos as well as photos. Tag support differs between formats, so open the file, check which date tags it has, then edit and save.

Check your work

After editing, open a couple of photos in ExifTool again and confirm that Date/Time Original and Create Date show the new values. Then scroll your gallery timeline: the photos should now sit next to others from the same day. If a gallery still shows the old order, clear its cache or wait for it to rescan the folder.

Things to watch out for

• Time zones. Many cameras store local time without a zone. If you travelled, decide whether you want local time at the destination and be consistent.
• Cloud copies. If the photo was already uploaded to a cloud gallery, that service may keep its own date. Some let you edit the date there, separately from the file.
• Converted files. When you convert HEIC to JPG with Total Media Converter, image metadata including dates is kept, so it does not matter whether you fix dates before or after converting.
• Location tags. While you are editing, check the GPS data too. You can add a missing location with the GeoTag editor, or remove it before sharing. See our GPS geotag editor guide.

A note on honesty

Editing a date is a legitimate way to fix your own photo library. It also shows why EXIF dates are not proof: anyone with an editor can change them. If you need a photo whose capture time others can trust, for work, rentals or insurance, use a verification camera. Our guide on how to prove when a photo was taken explains the difference.

Related guides

• What EXIF data is and how to remove it
• Best photo EXIF editor alternatives for Android
• Best EXIF viewer apps for Android

Summary

1. Back up the originals.
2. Fix Date/Time Original and Create Date in ExifTool, one photo at a time or in a batch.
3. Rebuild missing dates from file names when metadata was stripped.
4. Let the gallery rescan, then check the timeline.

Download ExifTool and put your photos back in the right order.

ExifTool

Quickly view, modify or remove EXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP data from photos, video and audio on Android. Free and offline-capable.

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