Takeout Date Restorer
Put missing dates back into JPEG photos exported from Google Photos.
If your exported JPEGs have no embedded date, a photo app may show the download date instead. Google Takeout can put a photo's date and location in a separate JSON file beside the photo. Takeout Date Restorer reads that information and writes it into copies of your JPEGs, so photo apps can read it from the photos themselves.
Your photos stay on your computer. Open the downloaded tool in desktop Chrome or Edge, select your unzipped Takeout folder, and see which files it can fix before it writes copies. You do not need a command line or an app installation.
What you get
Takeout Date Restorer v0.1.2: a ZIP containing takeout_restorer.html, a getting-started guide and its licence notice. The tool shows a scan summary, writes copies to a folder you choose, and lists files it left unchanged.
- Dates and GPS locations written into JPEGs that lack a date, when it finds the information in a matching Takeout JSON file.
- Support for classic and
.supplemental-metadata.jsonsidecar names, duplicate and edited-copy names, and shortened sidecar names. - A date fallback for filenames such as
IMG_20231015_083042.jpg, when no usable sidecar date is found.
Check these limits before buying
- JPEG photos only. PNG, HEIC and video files are copied unchanged. Their dates and locations are not restored in this version.
- JPEGs with an existing date are copied unchanged, even if the date is wrong. No GPS is added to those files.
- When it writes a date, it replaces the photo's EXIF metadata block. Camera make, model and rotation are kept, but other EXIF information, such as exposure and lens details, is not kept. Existing GPS is replaced by the JSON location, or removed if the JSON has no usable location.
- Dates from Google are written in UTC, marked +00:00. Photo apps that ignore that marker may show a different time from the camera's local time.
- If it cannot find a date in a matching JSON file or the filename, it copies the photo without adding a date. A match does not guarantee that Google's data is correct.
- Use desktop Chrome or Edge. Firefox, Safari and mobile browsers are not supported. Browser checks so far used Chromium on Linux; Edge, Windows, macOS, native folder dialogs and multi-GB exports have not been tested.
How to use it
- Unzip the tool download. Unzip every part of your Google Takeout export into one folder too; keep the exported folder structure and the JSON files beside the photos. The tool cannot open Takeout ZIP files.
- Open
takeout_restorer.htmlin desktop Chrome or Edge. - Click Select your Takeout folder and choose the folder containing your exported photos and JSON files. Your browser will ask for permission to read it.
- Read the scan summary to see how many dates can be written and which files will stay unchanged.
- If there are dates to restore, click Select output folder and fix and choose a new, empty output folder outside your Takeout folder. Allow the browser to write the copies there.
- Check a few output photos in your photo app before using the whole output library. Keep your original Takeout export as a backup.
If the scan says “Nothing to fix”, no output is created. The tool leaves your originals untouched. A folder inside your Takeout folder cannot be used for output.
There is a free alternative
GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper_Neo is free and runs from the command line. With ExifTool, it can also write dates into HEIC, PNG and video files. Takeout Date Restorer is for people who prefer selecting folders in a browser and only need to restore JPEG dates.
How it was tested
AI agents ran the tool in Chromium on Linux on sample Google Takeout files published by the immich-go project. In one sample, 10 JPEGs had no embedded date and used the newer .supplemental-metadata.json names: the tool wrote each the date from its JSON file and left the image data unchanged. In the others, the photos already had dates and the tool left them unchanged. Edited-copy, duplicate and shortened names were checked on files constructed around a real photo.
Support and licence
Questions or a file that did not get its date back? Email [email protected]. Describe the problem and filenames first; please do not send your photos or unredacted JSON files. Refund information is on our refunds page.
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