How to Change the Date Taken in Google Photos (and Why It Does Not Stick)

Quick answer: Google Photos lets you edit a photo's date through the photo's info panel (three-dot menu, then Edit date & time), but this only changes the date inside Google Photos, not the EXIF date embedded in the file. When you download or export the photo, the old date can come back. To change the real date in the file so it stays correct everywhere, use a free browser EXIF date editor that writes DateTimeOriginal directly. It runs in your browser, with no upload and no app to install.

Google Photos shows a tidy timeline sorted by date, so editing a date there feels like it fixes the photo. It does not. Here is how the in-app edit works, why it does not stick, and how to fix the file itself.

Change the date in Google Photos (web and mobile)

On the web at photos.google.com:

1. Open the photo.
2. Click the info button (the small "i") or the three-dot menu.
3. Choose Edit date & time.
4. Set the new date and time, then click Save.

On the Android or iPhone app:

1. Open the photo and swipe up, or tap the three-dot menu.
2. Tap Edit date & time.
3. Set the new date and time, then tap Save.

You can also select several photos, open the menu, and apply Edit date & time to all of them at once, which is handy for a batch of scans with the wrong date.

The catch: it only changes Google's own database

Here is what most people miss. The edit above updates the date in Google's database for your account. It does not rewrite the EXIF DateTimeOriginal stored inside the file.

The result:

• The photo sorts to the new date inside Google Photos, and that is all.
• The file's real EXIF capture date is unchanged.
• When you download that photo, or pull it out through Google Takeout, the date can revert to the original because the file never carried your edit.

So the in-app edit is fine for tidying your own timeline. It is the wrong tool when the date needs to be correct in the file itself, for evidence, for sharing, or for sorting in any other app. To understand the two different dates at play, see date taken vs date created vs date modified.

Fix the real date with a browser EXIF date editor

To make the date stick everywhere the photo goes, you have to write it into the file:

1. Open the EXIF date editor in any browser, on desktop or phone.
2. Upload the JPEG (or HEIC, or PNG).
3. Type the correct date and time.
4. Apply and download the new file.

This writes DateTimeOriginal directly into the photo. Because the date now lives in the file, it survives downloads, AirDrop, email, a transfer to a new phone, and even a future Google Takeout export. The whole thing runs in your browser, so the photo never uploads to a server and there is nothing to install.

If you want to confirm the change, open the new file in the EXIF viewer and check that DateTimeOriginal now shows the date you set.

Bonus: what Google Takeout actually exports

This trips up a lot of people. When you export your library with Google Takeout, the JPEG files carry their original EXIF date, not the date you edited inside Google Photos.

Google does include a separate .json sidecar file next to each photo that records the edited "photo taken time," but that is metadata Google keeps on the side. The image file's EXIF still holds the original timestamp. So if you import a Takeout archive into another app, or open the raw JPEGs, you will often see the old dates return, and the edits you carefully made in Google Photos appear to be gone.

The fix is the same: if the date matters in the file, edit the EXIF directly with the EXIF date editor before or after the export. That way the JPEG itself is correct and no sidecar file is required to keep your dates straight.

The short version

Google Photos Edit date & time changes the date in Google's database only. The EXIF date in the file does not move, and a download or a Takeout export can bring the old date back. To change the date for real, write DateTimeOriginal into the file with a browser EXIF date editor, then verify with the EXIF viewer. If you are still not sure why a date looks wrong in the first place, see why is my photo date wrong and how to change the date on a photo.