Get All Your Photos in One Place (Phones, Scans, Backups)

Pick one photo library (Google Photos, Apple Photos, Immich or a plain folder tree), move every source into it, and fix the metadata on the files that lack it. Phone photos already carry a capture date and sort themselves. Scans carry only the scan date, so they need the real date written in first.

Any library that reads the metadata inside each file: Google Photos, Apple Photos, Immich if you host your own, or dated files in a folder tree with no app at all. With correct dates inside, a collection can move between these apps later without re-sorting.

For scanned family photos, Family Library hosts one shared timeline for $39 a year or a small monthly fee, where invited relatives can help add names, dates, places and notes.

Because a scanner stamps each new file with the scan date, and photo apps sort by the capture date inside the file. A print from 1975 files itself under the day it was scanned. Write the real date into the file's metadata and it drops into its proper spot, right next to the phone photos.

Point both phones at one shared library: partner sharing in Google Photos, iCloud Shared Photo Library in Apple Photos, or partner accounts in Immich. Both camera rolls then land in one timeline, and older scans join it once their dates are fixed.

For scanned photos, Family Library gives your relatives one hosted timeline to browse and help organize, for $39 a year or a small monthly fee.

Three fields, and the first matters most. The capture date (EXIF DateTimeOriginal) decides where the photo lands on every timeline; set it on everything. The description carries the story, often already handwritten on the back of the print, and becomes searchable. GPS location puts the photo on the map. Add descriptions and locations where you know them.

No, not if the metadata is written inside the files. Dates, descriptions and locations in standard EXIF/XMP fields travel with the photos into any app. Edits made only inside one app (like a date typed into Google Photos) stay behind in that app, so fixing the files is the version you only do once.