# How to Tell When a Video Was Taken (Check the Real Recording Date) > Find the exact date and time a video was recorded from its metadata, on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac, and learn why the timestamp is often shown in UTC. *Published: 2026-08-05* ยท *7 min read* Canonical URL: https://timestampcamera.net/photo-guides/how-to-tell-when-a-video-was-taken **Quick answer:** A video stores its recording date inside the file's metadata, not in the file system timestamp you see in a folder. On iPhone, open the video in Photos and swipe up. On Android, tap Details in Google Photos. On Windows, right-click the file, open Properties, then Details, and read Media created. For the full picture, the free MediaInfo app shows every embedded date. One big caveat: MP4 and MOV files usually store the date in UTC, so the time can look several hours off from when you actually pressed record. And if the video arrived through WhatsApp or social media, the original metadata is usually gone. People check a video's real date for the same reasons they check a photo's: a clip someone sent that "was taken yesterday," an old family video with no context, an insurance or dispute situation where the timeline matters. With photos, the answer lives in EXIF and is easy to read with an [EXIF viewer](/exif-viewer). Video works differently, and it has a few traps of its own. Here is the complete map. ## Where a video actually stores its date A photo has one main home for its capture date: the EXIF field DateTimeOriginal. A video file (MP4 from most phones and cameras, MOV from iPhone) is a container, and the date can live in several places at once: - **Container creation time.** The MP4/MOV "movie header" stores a creation time written when recording finished. Most tools that show a video date are reading this field. It is almost always stored in **UTC**, not your local time. - **QuickTime keys (iPhone).** iPhones also write com.apple.quicktime.creationdate, which includes the **local time and timezone offset**, plus the device make and model, and often GPS coordinates. This is the most trustworthy date an iPhone video carries. - **File system dates.** "Date created" and "Date modified" in your folder describe the file on that disk, not the recording. They reset every time the video is copied, downloaded, or synced. Never use them as evidence of when a video was shot. ## How to check on each device ### iPhone 1. Open the video in the Photos app. 2. Swipe up on it, or tap the (i) info button. 3. The recorded date, time, and often the location appear in the info panel. Photos reads the QuickTime creation date, so the time shown is your local time at the moment of recording. This is the same flow as [checking when a photo was taken](/photo-guides/how-to-see-when-a-photo-was-taken). ### Android 1. Open the video in Google Photos. 2. Swipe up, or tap the three-dot menu and choose Details. 3. The recorded date and time are shown, sometimes with the device name. If the video was recorded on that phone, this date comes from the camera app's metadata. If the video arrived from elsewhere, Google Photos may show the date the file landed on the device instead, so treat it with care. ### Windows 1. Right-click the video file and choose Properties. 2. Open the Details tab. 3. Look for **Media created** under the Origin section. Media created is the embedded recording date. If it is empty, the file has been stripped, re-encoded, or exported by an app that discarded the original metadata. The Created and Modified dates above it are file system dates, which are not what you want. ### Mac Finder's Get Info (Command-I) mostly shows file system dates. For the embedded date, open the video in QuickTime Player and press Command-I for the inspector, or use the MediaInfo app described next. ### The full picture: MediaInfo The free, open-source MediaInfo app (Windows, Mac, Linux) shows everything a video carries: Encoded date, Tagged date, per-track creation times, the iPhone's QuickTime keys, device model, GPS, codecs, and more. If a date exists anywhere in the file, MediaInfo will surface it. It is the video equivalent of dropping a photo into an EXIF viewer. ## The UTC trap: why the time looks wrong The single most common confusion with video dates: the time is off by exactly your timezone offset. That is because the standard MP4/MOV creation time is defined in UTC. A clip recorded at 9:00 PM in New York (UTC-4 in summer) will show 1:00 AM the next day in tools that read the raw container date. The date can even appear to be the wrong day. So before concluding a video's timestamp was faked or is wrong, subtract or add your timezone. iPhone videos are kinder here: the QuickTime creation date includes the offset, and the Photos app displays local time correctly. ## When the metadata is simply gone Expect no original metadata when the video arrived via: - **WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger:** videos are re-encoded on send, and the recording date is discarded. - **Instagram, TikTok, YouTube downloads:** the platform's export date replaces the original. - **Screen recordings:** they carry the date of the recording session, not of whatever is playing on screen. - **Edited exports:** cutting or converting a video usually writes a fresh creation time, the moment of export. This is the same story as photos on social platforms, and the reasoning in [which platforms strip EXIF data](/photo-guides/which-social-media-platforms-strip-exif-data) applies to video too. If a clip came through a messaging app, its internal date tells you about the send, not the shot. ## Can a video's date be trusted at all? The embedded date is written by the recording device and can be edited afterwards with the right software, exactly like photo EXIF. Treat it as a strong hint, not proof. Cross-check it the way you would [verify when a photo was taken](/photo-guides/how-to-verify-when-a-photo-was-taken): does the content match the claimed season and time of day, do shadows and weather agree, does the device model in the metadata match the sender's phone? For your own future recordings there is a more robust route: record with a visible timestamp burned into the frame. Our Timestamp Camera iOS app stamps the date, time, and GPS location onto the video as it records. A burned-in stamp survives WhatsApp, re-encoding, and every export, because it is part of the picture itself, not a metadata field that can be stripped. ## FAQ ### How do I find out when a video was recorded if it was sent to me? Usually you cannot, from the file alone. Messaging apps re-encode videos and discard the original recording date. Check the message timestamp for when it was sent, ask the sender for the original file (sent as a document or file attachment, which sometimes preserves metadata), or look for context inside the footage itself. ### Why does my video show a time that is hours off? The standard MP4/MOV creation time is stored in UTC. A tool reading the raw field shows UTC unless it converts to your timezone. Add or subtract your offset and the time usually lines up with reality. ### Do videos have EXIF data like photos? Not EXIF in the strict sense; EXIF is a photo standard. Videos store equivalent information (date, device, sometimes GPS) in the MP4/MOV container and, on iPhone, in QuickTime metadata keys. Tools like MediaInfo read all of it. ### Can I change the recording date of a video? The embedded date can be edited with desktop tools, and simply re-exporting a video rewrites it. That is exactly why a video's internal date is a hint rather than proof, and why a visible burned-in timestamp is stronger when the date matters. ### Does the video's "Date modified" tell me when it was filmed? No. Date modified and Date created in your file manager describe the file's life on that disk. Copying, downloading, or syncing rewrites them. Only the embedded metadata speaks about the recording itself. ## Bottom line The real recording date of a video lives in its container metadata: swipe up in Photos on iPhone, Details in Google Photos on Android, Media created on Windows, MediaInfo for everything. Remember the UTC offset before declaring a timestamp wrong, and assume messaging apps have stripped the original date entirely. For photos, the same check takes ten seconds in our [free EXIF viewer](/exif-viewer), and for footage where the date must be beyond doubt, record it with the timestamp visible in the frame from the start.