Why your Google Takeout photos show the wrong date, and how to fix it

By David Jackson · Last checked 7 October 2026

I'm David, and I'm building MergeMyLibrary, a tool that moves Google Photos into OneDrive. When I tested it on my own library, it wrote the date back into 1,681 of the 3,856 photos and videos it copied. Here's why dates go wrong, how to check yours, and how to fix them.

Moved your photos some other way? This page is about Google Takeout, but the ten-minute check below still tells you whether your dates are wrong.

Why do my Google Takeout photos show the wrong date?

Most photos carry their date inside the file. Your phone's camera writes it there when you take the picture.

But not every picture has it. Pictures saved from messages or websites often don't carry a camera date at all. In my own OneDrive, about 59,000 images have no "date taken". Google Photos still shows a date for pictures like these, because Google keeps it in its own records.

When you download your photos with Takeout, Google hands over those records as separate small files, one beside each photo. OneDrive doesn't read them (Microsoft Q&A). So when a photo has no date inside it, OneDrive falls back on the date of the file itself: the day you copied it. That's why hundreds of photos can suddenly look as if you took them all today.

What are the .json files in my Google Takeout?

They're Google's notes. Each one is a small text file with the same name as a photo, plus ".json" on the end. In newer downloads the name is longer, with a few extra words before the ".json".

Inside each note: the date and time the photo was taken, the place (if Google knew it), and a few other details, such as any description you added.

Can I delete the .json files? Not yet. For some of your photos, the note is the only place the right date still exists. Keep them until your dates are fixed and checked.

How do I check whether my dates are really wrong?

This takes about ten minutes.

1. Pick five photos you can date from memory, from different years.
2. Find them in OneDrive. Open each one and look at the date it shows.
3. Compare with Google Photos. If OneDrive shows the day you copied them, you have this problem.
4. If a date looks wrong, check that photo on your computer before you fix anything. Now and then OneDrive's website doesn't show a date that really is in the file (Microsoft Q&A). On Windows, download the photo, right-click it, choose Properties, then Details, and look at "Date taken". If it's wrong there too, the date really is missing.

Why don't some notes match their photos?

Every tool that fixes dates has to pair each photo with its note. Google's download makes that harder in four ways (explainer):

• Long names are cut short. Google cuts the note's name at 46 characters, so it no longer matches the photo's name exactly.
• Numbered copies. A photo called photo(1).jpg has a note called photo.jpg(1).json, with the number in a different place.
• Edited copies. Photos you edited in Google Photos come out as a second file with "-edited" in the name. In my download, these didn't have a note with a matching name: they share the original photo's note.
• Album repeats. The same photo appears again in each album folder, with its own note.

Check how any tool you use deals with all four, then check the results yourself.

How can I fix the dates for free?

There are free tools, but they ask you to type commands. Paid apps are easier. Here's what's out there.

My photos are already in OneDrive with the wrong dates. What now?

You have two choices:

1. Fix the copies on your computer. If your OneDrive folder is on your computer, a date-fixing tool from the table can work on it, as long as you still have Google's download with its notes. Make a copy of the folder first.
2. Start again for the wrong ones. If Google Photos still has the photos, ask Google for a fresh copy, fix the dates, and swap those photos in for the wrong-dated ones in OneDrive.

To be honest about my own tool: MergeMyLibrary puts the dates on the photos it copies into OneDrive. It doesn't change the dates of photos that are already there.

How do I check the fix worked?

1. Spot-check 10 photos from different years, including one edited photo and one from an album. Compare each date with Google Photos.
2. Check videos separately. Some tools treat videos differently. Open five and check their dates.
3. Check a few places on photos that had one in Google Photos. OneDrive can be slow to show places, and often doesn't show them on videos at all.
4. Look for a pile of photos dated today. Sort by date. Those are the ones that didn't find their note.
5. Keep Google's copy for a few weeks. Don't delete anything from Google Photos until you're happy.

Last checked 7 October 2026 by David Jackson. Spotted something out of date? Email dave@mergemylibrary.com.