How to Change the Date of a Photo on iPhone (One Photo or a Whole Album)

Quick answer: In the Photos app, open the photo, tap the info button (or swipe up), tap Adjust Info, then Adjust Date & Time. Pick the date and time and tap Adjust. To fix a batch, tap Select in the grid first, choose the photos, and do the same. That corrects where the photos sit in your library. It is not the same as changing the date stored inside the file, and if the photo is going to leave your phone, that difference matters. For the file itself, use an EXIF editor like ExifHub on the phone, or our free browser date editor for JPEGs.

Wrong dates on an iPhone rarely come from the iPhone's own camera, which normally takes its time from the network. They come from everything else that ends up in your library. A box of old prints you scanned last weekend now claims to be from last weekend. Photos saved out of WhatsApp show the day you saved them, because a picture sent as a normal WhatsApp photo loses its original date on the way. A compact camera whose clock was never set puts a whole holiday in 2019. So the fix you need depends on where the photo came from and where it is going next.

Method 1: The Photos app (built in, and reversible)

Apple has had this built into Photos for a few versions now. In iOS 27 the steps are:

1. Open the Photos app and tap the photo.
2. Tap the info button, or swipe up on the photo, then tap Adjust Info.
3. Tap Adjust Date & Time.
4. Use the calendar and the clock to set the right moment, then tap Adjust.

To change a group of photos, go back to the grid, tap Select, tap each thumbnail you want to fix, and follow the same steps. Apple does not describe how a single adjustment is spread across a batch, so glance at the timeline afterwards to check the photos are still in the order you expect. Changed your mind? Go through the same menu and tap Revert, and the photo goes back to its original date.

That Revert button tells you something useful about how this works. Photos keeps the original date and stores your correction alongside it, so the photo moves to the right place in your timeline and in Memories without anything being lost. For tidying up your own library, this is all most people need.

Where it gets less clear is what happens after the photo leaves Photos. Apple's guide explains how to adjust the date, but not what date a shared or exported copy carries. If the date has to be right for someone else, on another computer, in a court bundle, in an insurance claim, don't assume. Check the copy that actually leaves your phone (there is a quick way to do that below).

Method 2: An EXIF editor app, when the date has to live in the file

A photo carries its capture date inside the file, in EXIF fields such as DateTimeOriginal. That is what Windows, Google Photos, Lightroom, and almost every upload form read. To change that date on the phone, you need an app that rewrites those fields.

We built ExifHub for exactly this job, so treat this section as a recommendation from the people who make it. What it does, in plain terms:

• It writes the new date into the photo's embedded EXIF and TIFF fields (and the QuickTime fields for videos), plus the file's own timestamps.
• It works on JPEG and HEIC photos and MOV and MP4 videos, from your photo library or from Files.
• Every edit makes a new copy. The original file is never modified, so a mistake costs you nothing.
• Everything happens on the phone. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account.

Because every edit creates a copy, you will end up with two versions of each photo in your library. Once you have checked the new one, delete the old one so your timeline does not show both. Single edits are free to try; editing many files in one go is part of the Pro upgrade.

One thing to know before you batch anything in any app: setting one date on a set of photos gives every photo the same timestamp. That is exactly right for a scanned album where all you know is the year. It is wrong for a holiday where the camera clock was simply three hours off, because every shot would collapse onto one moment and lose its order. For that case you want to shift each photo by the same amount instead, which our batch date guide walks through.

Method 3: The free browser date editor (JPEG files)

If the photos are already on a computer, or you would rather not install anything, our EXIF date editor runs in any browser, including Safari on iPhone. It writes DateTimeOriginal into the file, handles several files at once, and has a shift mode that moves every photo by the same number of minutes, hours, or days, which is the clean fix for the wrong-camera-clock problem above. Nothing is uploaded; the photos are processed on your device.

It only takes JPEG. iPhone photos are usually HEIC, so run them through the HEIC to JPG converter first. That conversion is fine for most uses, but it is an extra step and it drops HEIC-only extras like depth data, which is why the app route is the smoother one for photos that live on the phone.

How to check the date actually changed

This takes thirty seconds and saves arguments later. Send yourself the photo the way you will really send it (AirDrop to a Mac, save to Files, attach it to an email), then drop that copy into the EXIF viewer. Look for DateTimeOriginal. If it shows the new date, you are done. If it still shows the old one, the change only lived in your library.

While you are there, you may notice the viewer lists more than one date. That is normal: a file has a capture date, a digitized date, and file-system dates that change whenever the file is copied. Date taken vs date created vs date modified explains which is which.

Common situations

Scanned photos all dated today. Select the whole scan batch and give it the right year and an approximate day. Nobody will know the exact hour, and a consistent guess keeps them together in your timeline.

Photos saved from WhatsApp or other chat apps. The original date is usually gone from the file, not just hidden. If you know when the photo was taken, set it by hand. If you do not, the sender's original is the only place that date still exists.

A trip shot on a camera with the wrong clock. Work out the offset from one photo whose real time you know (a sunset, a ticket, a message you sent), then shift the whole set by that amount.

Travel photos a few hours off. That is usually a time zone mix-up rather than a wrong date. Why is my photo date wrong covers the causes before you start changing things.

FAQ

Does changing the date in Photos change the original file?

Not the original itself. Photos keeps the original date, which is why you can tap Revert and get it back. Your library shows the corrected date; copies that leave the library are worth checking in an EXIF viewer before you rely on them.

Can I change the date of many photos at once on iPhone?

Yes. In Photos, tap Select, choose the photos, then Adjust Info and Adjust Date & Time. Apple's guide does not spell out how one adjustment spreads across a batch, so scroll through afterwards and make sure the order still looks right. ExifHub applies one date to a whole set of photos or videos, and the browser editor can shift a batch by a fixed amount.

Can I change the date on a video too?

Yes, the same Photos menu works for videos, and ExifHub writes the date into the QuickTime fields of MOV and MP4 files. Video dates have a few quirks of their own, covered in how to change the date on a video.

Why does my computer still show the old date?

Most likely the computer is reading the date stored in the file, and the change you made only exists in your Photos library. Write the date into the file with an EXIF editor, then check it again.

Bottom line

For your own library, the Photos app does the job in a few taps and you can always undo it. When the date has to be right for someone else, write it into the file: ExifHub does that on the phone without touching your original, and the browser editor does it for JPEGs anywhere. Whichever you use, check one exported copy before you send a hundred.