A Done-for-You Organizing Service
Send us your photo files. We work out the date each one was taken (even old scans with no dates) and hand them back in tidy folders: 1962, 1963, 1964… ready to browse on your own computer.
To organize photos by date taken into folders, go by the capture date stored inside each file. Phone and camera photos carry the right one, so any sorting tool can file them. Scanned photos carry the day they were scanned. Timeline Scan works out each photo's real date, then hands everything back in folders by year.
Sound familiar?
Not the day they were taken. Why scans defeat auto-sorters.
Open each photo, pick a year, drag it. Most people never finish.
Your computer can't tell 1962 from 1987.
Doing it yourself? Read our guide on how to organize scanned photos.
What you get back
We automatically sort photos into folders by date: one for every year, with months inside if you like.
Open a folder and you're standing in that year.
Tap an option above to preview it.
When you download, you can also pick:
Re-download in another layout any time, free. Every layout is on the file download page.
Want them online? We deliver to Google Photos too, or keep them in Family Library ($39 a year or a small monthly fee) for the whole family to browse.
How to organize 30 years of photos
From a folder, a USB stick or an old backup
Even old scans. You can adjust any date.
Plain folders any computer can open
Why photos stay unsorted
Any computer can sort photos by date taken. The hard part is the date, and Timeline Scan works it out from clues like these.
You review every date. See how we fix scanned photo dates, everything the AI looks at, or learn how to date old photos yourself.
If you can attach a photo to an email, you can use it.
Same pixels, same quality. Only the date inside each file changes.
Plain folders that open today or twenty years from now. No subscription.
Common questions
No. Timeline Scan runs in your web browser. You upload your photo files and download them back as ordinary folders and files, with nothing to install and no new program to learn.
From the date inside the file, or from clues when there is none. Phone and camera photos usually carry their date. For old scans, Timeline Scan reads handwriting and printed dates, and weighs clothing, cars and nearby photos to estimate the year. You review the dates before you download.
Yes. Pick folders by year and month when you download. The other layouts: by year, one folder oldest to newest, one folder per person, or the folders you uploaded. You can download again in a different layout at no extra cost; all of them are on the file download page.
No. The pictures are never edited or recompressed: same pixels, same quality. Only the date inside each file changes, in the standard place photo apps read, so the photos also sort correctly in Google Photos, Apple Photos and similar apps.
Yes, once they are scanned. Timeline Scan organizes digital photo files, and files from any scanning service, photo shop or home scanner work. Near Lehi, Utah? We scan prints, film and slides too. Then we sort them into year folders for you.
Free to start, then priced per photo dated. You can try it with no credit card, and see your own photos dated and sorted before paying anything. Current rates are on the pricing page.
Start with free photos, no credit card required. See your own photos sorted into years before you decide anything.
Try Photos Free