Change Photo Date
Nothing is removed. Every date the camera wrote moves by the amount below. JPEG only.
Originals untouched. To make the clean copies smaller as well, Exact compresses photos on your device.
Change the date taken on a batch of photos
When a camera's clock was wrong for a whole trip, every photo is out by the same amount. Add the photos, say how far to move them, and download copies with the right dates.
The short answer
To change the date taken on several photos at once, add them to the tool above, choose Change dates only, and enter how far to move the time — for example +5 hours 30 minutes for a camera still on UTC in India. Every date the camera wrote (date taken, date digitised, date modified) moves by that amount and nothing else in the file changes, so the photos sort correctly in any photo app. It works on JPEG files, in your browser, with no upload.
Four steps to the right dates
Step 1: Add the photos
Drop in every photo from the camera whose clock was wrong. Each shows the date it currently carries.
Step 2: Work out the difference
Find one photo whose real time you know — a train ticket, a sunset — and compare it with the date shown.
Step 3: Enter the shift
Choose Change dates only and enter the days, hours and minutes to add or take away.
Step 4: Download the copies
The corrected photos come as a zip. The originals are untouched, so you can try again if it is not right.
What a photo says about you
None of this shows when you look at the picture. All of it travels with the file, and anyone you send it to can read it.
| Hidden field | Stored in | What it reveals |
|---|---|---|
| GPS latitude and longitude | EXIF, XMP | Where the photo was taken, usually to within a few metres — a home, a school, a workplace. |
| Date and time taken | EXIF | When you were there, and with a run of photos, your routine. |
| Camera make and model | EXIF | Which phone or camera you own. |
| Body and lens serial number | EXIF, maker notes | A number that ties every photo from that camera together, even across accounts. |
| Software | EXIF, XMP | Which editor touched the picture, and often its version. |
| Artist, copyright, caption, keywords | EXIF, IPTC, XMP | Your name, and anything a program or an agency wrote into the file. |
| Embedded thumbnail | EXIF | A small copy of the picture as first saved — which can show what was cropped out later. |
Remove everything deletes every row above. Location only deletes the first, and leaves the rest so your photos still sort by date.
Before you move the dates
A time-zone mistake is a round number
If the photos are out by exactly a few hours — or by 5 hours 30 minutes for India — the camera was on the wrong zone. A clock that was simply never set is usually out by years.
Only the camera's dates move
The date taken, date digitised and date modified inside the photo shift together. The file's own 'created' date on your disk is set by your computer when you save it, and photo apps ignore it.
Two cameras, one trip
Correct each camera's photos separately — they will be out by different amounts. Afterwards both sets sort into one timeline.
Keep the location if you want it
Changing dates leaves everything else alone, including the location. To remove that as well, choose Location only and enter the same shift.
Your photos never leave your device
Each photo is opened, read and rewritten by your own browser. There is no upload, because there is no server for it to go to — load the page, turn off Wi-Fi, and it still works. No map is embedded either: fetching map tiles would send a photo's coordinates to someone else before you had decided to.
- No upload, no account, no email
- Originals are never changed
- Picture copied byte for byte — no quality lost
- No map embedded, so coordinates go nowhere
- No ads inside the tool or near Download
Questions people ask
Anything we've missed?
How do I change the date taken on multiple photos?
Add all of them to the tool, choose Change dates only, enter how many days, hours and minutes to move the time by, and download the corrected copies. Every photo moves by the same amount, which is what a wrong camera clock needs.
Can I set a specific date instead of shifting?
Not yet. The tool moves every photo by the same amount, which keeps the gaps between photos true. To land one photo on an exact time, work out the difference from the date shown and enter that.
Does it work on HEIC or PNG?
Date shifting works on JPEG. PNG and WebP files rarely carry a camera date, and HEIC is not supported yet.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. Each file is opened, read and rewritten by your own browser, and the cleaned copy is handed straight back to you. There is no server the photos could be sent to — load the page, switch off Wi-Fi, and it still works.
Does removing metadata reduce the photo's quality?
No. The picture itself is copied byte for byte and only the hidden data around it is removed, so the cleaned photo is exactly as sharp as the original and usually a few kilobytes smaller. Tools that redraw the picture to strip it recompress it; this one does not.
Which files does it work with?
JPEG, PNG and WebP. HEIC photos from an iPhone and videos are not supported yet, and the page says so for each such file rather than guessing. On an iPhone, sharing a photo as "Most Compatible" or emailing it to yourself gives a JPEG.
Guides worth reading
- Photos
The camera clock was wrong: how to fix the date on a whole batch of photos
A camera on the wrong time zone puts every photo out by the same amount. How to work out the gap and shift the date taken on a batch, without uploading.
5 min read - Photos
How to put photos from two cameras or phones into one timeline
Photos from a camera and a phone, or from two guests, land out of order when their clocks disagree. How to find the offset for each and line them all up.
6 min read
