How to Change the Date of a Photo on Android
Change a photo's date on an Android phone in Google Photos or Samsung Gallery, why the change often stays inside one app, and how to fix the date in the file itself.
To change the date of a photo on Android, open it in Google Photos, tap the three dots, then Edit date & time. On a Samsung phone, open it in Gallery, swipe up or tap the three dots, then Details and Edit. Both work one photo at a time, and the Google Photos change is stored in Google Photos only, not in the file. To change the date inside the file, or for many photos at once, use a computer.
Two dates, and which one the gallery shows
Every photo on a phone can carry two dates:
- Date taken. Written inside the photo by the camera, in its EXIF data. It travels with the file wherever it goes.
- File date. Kept by the phone's storage, outside the photo. Any copy, download or restore can reset it to the day of the copy.
The gallery shows the date taken when the photo has one. When it does not, the gallery falls back to the file date. That is why screenshots, chat images and photos copied from a computer so often land on the wrong day: they have no date taken, and their file date is the day they arrived. The longer story is in date taken vs date modified.
Change the date in Google Photos
- Open the photo in Google Photos.
- Tap the three dots at the top, or swipe up.
- Tap Edit date & time (next to the date shown above the photo info).
- Pick the new date and time and tap Save.
You can select several photos and change them together. Google Photos then shifts them all by the same amount, so their order stays the same.
What it does not do: change the file. The new date lives in your Google Photos library. Another gallery app, a computer, or a download from Google later still sees the old date. That is fine if you only ever look at your photos in Google Photos. It is not fine if you move them anywhere else.
Change the date in Samsung Gallery
- Open the photo in Gallery.
- Swipe up, or tap the three dots and choose Details.
- Tap Edit next to the date.
- Set the date and time and tap Save.
The menu names differ a little between One UI versions. Older versions do not offer date editing at all; then you need a separate app or a computer.
Other phones
Xiaomi, vivo, OPPO and OnePlus galleries usually do not let you change the date. Google Photos is installed on almost every Android phone, so the steps above work there too, with the same limit: the change stays in Google Photos.
Free apps from the Play Store such as "Photo Exif Editor" can write the date into the file. They work photo by photo and are fine for a handful.
Many photos, or the date inside the file
For more than a few photos it is faster on a computer, in two steps:
- Copy the photos to the computer and write the right date into each file's EXIF. On Windows, File Explorer can do this for JPEG files: Properties, Details, Date taken. For HEIC, PNG, videos and large batches, use exiftool or an app. See how to change date taken on photos in Windows 11.
- Copy them back to the phone in a way that keeps the dates. A normal "File transfer" copy keeps the date taken, but resets the file date. For photos without a date taken, that matters. See copy photos to Android without changing the date.
Doing it with the app
Photo Date & Metadata Fixer changes dates on many photos at once, on Windows, Linux and Mac. In the Selected Photos tab you pick photos, set or shift their date, and the app writes it into the file (date taken) and onto the file (creation and modification date).
On Windows, the Android Phone tab (Windows only) works on the phone directly: it sends photos with their real dates and can fix wrong file dates of photos already on the phone. Your photos never leave your computer and phone.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Google Photos show a different date than my phone's gallery?
You probably edited the date in Google Photos. That edit stays in Google Photos. The gallery app reads the file, which still has the old date.
Can I change the date of a video on Android?
Google Photos lets you edit the date of a video the same way. Samsung Gallery may not. Inside the file, a video stores its date differently from a photo, so most EXIF editor apps do not handle videos. A computer with exiftool or the app does.
Will changing the date upload the photo again?
No. Google Photos treats a date edit as a change to the existing item.
I changed the date, but the photo is still in the wrong place. Why?
Some galleries cache their sorting. Close the gallery, wait a minute, open it again. If it still sits on the wrong day, the gallery is reading the file date. Fix the file date as described in fixing photo file dates on Android with adb.