# How to Change the Date on a Video (iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac)

> Change a video's recorded date on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac: the Photos app date editor, the Media created field, and free ExifTool commands.

*Published: 2026-08-07* · *7 min read*

Canonical URL: https://timestampcamera.net/photo-guides/how-to-change-the-date-on-a-video


**Quick answer:** It depends on which date you mean. The date your phone's gallery shows is easiest: on iPhone, open the video in Photos, swipe up, and tap Adjust next to the date; on Android, use the date editor in Google Photos. The **Media created** date embedded inside the file cannot be edited in Windows Explorer at all; the free ExifTool utility rewrites it in seconds without re-encoding the video. And the Date created / Date modified you see in a folder are file system dates that reset on every copy, so changing those rarely achieves anything. Below is the right method for each case, plus the one thing to know before you rely on an edited date.

There are plenty of honest reasons to fix a video's date: a camera whose clock was set wrong, a phone that recorded a trip in the wrong timezone, old footage digitized years after it was shot, or files that arrived with the import date instead of the recording date. Whatever the reason, the fix depends on where the date actually lives, so start there.

## Which date are you actually changing?

A video carries up to three different dates, and people usually try to edit the wrong one first:

- **The gallery date.** What Photos or Google Photos displays. It usually comes from the embedded metadata, but once the video is in your library, the app keeps its own record that you can edit in place.
- **The embedded date (Media created).** Stored inside the MP4 or MOV container, written when recording finished. This is what Windows shows under Properties, what most tools read, and what survives when the file moves between devices. It is stored in UTC, which trips people up; more on that in [how to tell when a video was taken](/photo-guides/how-to-tell-when-a-video-was-taken).
- **The file system dates.** Date created and Date modified in your folder describe the file's life on that disk, not the recording. Copying or downloading the file rewrites them.

Match the method below to the date you actually need to change.

## iPhone: change the date in Photos

1. Open the video in the Photos app.
2. Swipe up on it, or tap the info button.
3. Tap **Adjust** next to the date, set the correct date, time, and timezone, and confirm.

The edit is non-destructive: Photos keeps the original underneath, and the adjusted date is what you see in your library and what goes out when you share the video normally. If you export with "Unmodified Original", the file keeps its original internal date. You can select several videos and adjust them together, which is the fastest fix for a whole trip recorded in the wrong timezone.

## Android: change the date in Google Photos

1. Open the video in Google Photos.
2. Tap the three-dot menu.
3. Tap the date, edit it, and save.

Google Photos updates its own record immediately. Depending on the Android version and where the file lives, the original file's embedded metadata may or may not be rewritten, so if the file itself matters (not just how your library sorts it), verify with a metadata viewer afterwards and use the computer method below if needed.

## Windows: Explorer cannot edit Media created, ExifTool can

Right-clicking a video, opening Properties, and hitting the Details tab lets you edit a title or rating, but the **Media created** field is read-only there. This is the dead end that fills the forums. The standard fix is [ExifTool](https://exiftool.org), the free command-line utility that reads and writes practically every metadata field that exists:

```
exiftool -api QuickTimeUTC=1 "-CreateDate=2026:05:14 09:30:00" clip.mp4
```

That one line rewrites the container's creation date. Three details worth knowing:

- **The `-api QuickTimeUTC=1` switch matters.** MP4/MOV dates are defined in UTC. With this switch, ExifTool treats the time you type as your local time and converts it correctly, so Windows and your phone display what you intended.
- **Nothing is re-encoded.** ExifTool rewrites metadata only; the video and audio streams are untouched, so there is zero quality loss. Your original is kept as a backup file ending in `_original`.
- **iPhone videos carry a second date.** MOV files from an iPhone also store a local-time creation date in a QuickTime key. To keep both in agreement, add: `"-Keys:CreationDate=2026:05:14 09:30:00+02:00"` with your own UTC offset.

## Mac: Photos app or the same ExifTool

If the video lives in the Photos app, select it and use the menu item to adjust date and time, exactly like on iPhone. For a standalone file, ExifTool works the same as on Windows. Finder's Get Info only exposes file system dates, so it cannot fix the embedded date.

## Fixing many videos at once

ExifTool shines here. To shift every clip in a folder forward by 3 hours (the classic wrong-timezone repair) without touching anything else:

```
exiftool -api QuickTimeUTC=1 "-CreateDate+=0:0:0 3:0:0" *.mp4
```

Shifting preserves the real order and spacing of your footage, which is usually what you want when the clock was consistently wrong rather than randomly wrong.

## Before you rely on an edited date

Be aware of what an edited date can and cannot do. Metadata is just data: anyone can change it, which is exactly why a video's internal date is a hint rather than proof, as we covered in [can EXIF data be faked](/photo-guides/can-exif-data-be-faked). An edited file often carries tells (per-track dates that no longer agree, file dates newer than the claimed recording, a writer signature from an editing tool), and anyone who checks carefully can [verify the claimed date](/photo-guides/how-to-verify-when-a-photo-was-taken) against them. Fixing a wrong clock is what these tools are for; manufacturing evidence is not, and it does not survive scrutiny.

The flip side: if your future videos need a date that nobody can question or strip, metadata is the wrong place for it. Our Timestamp Camera iOS app burns the date, time, and GPS location visibly into the frame while recording, so the when and where survive every export, every messenger, and every re-encode, because they are pixels rather than tags.

## What about photos?

Photos are the easy case: our free [EXIF Date Editor](/edit-photo-date) changes or shifts the capture date of one or hundreds of photos in the browser, with nothing uploaded. The same wrong-timezone and scanned-photo problems, fixed in a drag and drop. Windows users coming from the Properties dead end will find the photo-side walkthrough in [how to change a photo's date on Windows](/photo-guides/how-to-change-photo-date-on-windows).

## FAQ

### Does re-exporting a video change its date?

Yes. Trimming, converting, or exporting a video writes a brand-new file whose creation date is the moment of export. That is the blunt way to reset all [metadata a video carries](/photo-guides/does-video-have-metadata), and the reason edited footage so often shows the wrong day.

### Can I change a video's date without re-encoding it?

Yes. Metadata editors like ExifTool rewrite the date fields in place and never touch the video stream, so quality is identical and the operation takes a second even on huge files.

### Why does the video still show the wrong time after I changed it?

Almost always the UTC trap: MP4/MOV dates are stored in UTC, and some tools display that raw value without converting to your timezone. Set the date with `-api QuickTimeUTC=1` and check it in a viewer that converts, as explained in [how to tell when a video was taken](/photo-guides/how-to-tell-when-a-video-was-taken).

### Does changing the date in Photos change the original file?

On iPhone, the adjustment is non-destructive: your library and normal shares show the new date, while "Export Unmodified Original" still produces the file with the original internal date. To change the file itself, use ExifTool on a computer.

### How do I change the date on many videos at once?

Select multiple videos in Photos and adjust them together, or point ExifTool at a folder with a wildcard. Use the shift syntax when the clock was consistently off, so the relative order of your clips stays intact.

## Bottom line

Change the gallery date on your phone with the built-in Adjust option, change the embedded Media created date with one free ExifTool command (with the UTC switch), and ignore the file system dates, which reset on every copy anyway. Fix wrong clocks and timezones freely, but treat any editable date as a label rather than proof. For photos, the same fix is a drag and drop in our [EXIF Date Editor](/edit-photo-date), and for footage whose date must hold up on its own, record it with the timestamp visible in the frame from the start.