Fix the Wrong Date in Google Photos (Even 1,000+ Scans)

Google Photos sorts by the capture date stored inside each photo file's metadata. A scanner creates a brand-new file at the moment of scanning, so the only date inside that file is the scan date, or no date at all, in which case Google Photos falls back to timestamps like the day the file was uploaded[2]. Either way, a photo from 1975 files itself under the day you scanned or uploaded it. The photo isn't wrong; the metadata inside the file is.

January 1, 1970 is the zero point computers count time from (the Unix epoch). When a photo file's date field is empty or zeroed out, apps that read it as a number get zero, which displays as January 1, 1970. The fix is the same as for any wrong date: write a real capture date into the file's metadata, or edit the date inside Google Photos.

On photos.google.com, select the photo, click More (the three-dot menu), choose Edit date & time, and enter the correct date[1]. In the mobile apps, open the photo, tap More (the three-dot menu), then About, and tap Edit next to the date. Note Google's own caveat: the edit changes what Google Photos displays, but if you download or share the file it may still show the original date and time saved by your camera or scanner[1].

Partly. On the web, select multiple photos and choose Edit date & time; Google Photos then offers Shift dates & times (keep the spacing between photos, move them all together) or Set one date & time (the same date for every selected photo)[1]. You still have to know each group's real date and repeat the process group by group. To fix an entire archive in one pass (including working out what the dates should be) the dates have to be written into the files themselves, which is what ExifTool (manually) or Timeline Scan (automatically) does.

No. Google's help page states that “the edited date and time displays in Google Photos. But if you share the photo to other apps or download it, the photo may show the original date and time saved by your camera.”[1] The fix lives in Google's database, not in your files: download the photos, switch photo apps, or restore from a backup, and the wrong dates come back. Correcting the metadata inside the files is the only fix that travels with your photos.

Write the real capture date into each file's EXIF metadata before you upload. If you already know the dates, the free command-line tool ExifTool can stamp a folder at a time. If you don't know the dates (the usual case for a shoebox of prints) Timeline Scan estimates each photo's date from handwriting on the backs, lab-printed dates, and visual clues, writes the date into every file's standard EXIF/XMP fields, and can then add the photos to your Google Photos library already in date order.

It can. Google Photos recognizes duplicates only when a file is an exact copy; once you correct a file's metadata, the file is no longer byte-identical, so it uploads as a new photo alongside the misdated one. Delete the misdated uploads before re-uploading corrected files. If you use Timeline Scan's Google Photos export, upload your raw scans to Timeline Scan first and let the export be the photos' first arrival in Google Photos: then there's nothing to clean up.