Photos Not in Chronological Order? Here's the Fix

Because some photos carry the wrong date inside the file. Apple Photos sorts your library by that capture date. Camera photos get it right; photos that were scanned, saved from messages, downloaded or AirDropped often carry the day they arrived, so they land on the wrong day.

Fixing the order means correcting those dates: one by one in Photos, or in bulk with the Timeline Scan iPhone app.

Fix the dates, not the order. Google Photos already sorts the main timeline chronologically, by the capture date inside each file. Photos in the wrong place carry wrong dates, which is standard for scans: they carry scan day.

You can select photos and use Edit date & time by hand, but that edit lives only in Google's database. Writing the corrected date into each file is the fix that holds: the full Google Photos guide.

Because the scan date is the only date inside the file: a scanner creates a brand-new file at the moment of scanning. Photo apps sort by that date, so a 1974 print files itself next to last week's pictures.

The photo is fine; the metadata is wrong. Writing each real date back into the file restores the order, which is the job Timeline Scan automates.

Photo apps already do: the main timeline sorts by date taken, and only some album and folder views sort by date added. On a computer, sort by the Date taken column (Windows Explorer) or use an app that reads EXIF, not by file dates, which change with every copy.

Still wrong when sorted by date taken? Then the capture dates inside the files are wrong, and correcting them is the real fix.

Yes. Timeline Scan estimates each photo's date from handwriting on the backs, printed lab dates and visual clues, writes the corrected date into every file, and hands the collection back in chronological order.

Know the dates already? The free Timeline Tagger app for Mac and Windows makes typing them quick: type the year, press Return, and it writes the date into the file itself, about ten seconds a scan.

Sorting a mixed pile, digital and scanned together? See how to sort thousands of photos.