exiftool vs Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer for Google Takeout
exiftool is free and scriptable and will fix a Takeout export if you write the matching yourself. A row-by-row comparison with the desktop app, and who should pick which.
If you are comfortable in a terminal, exiftool will fix your Google Takeout export and you should keep your money. That is the short version. The rest of this page is for working out whether that is you, and what you are trading either way.
What each one is
exiftool describes itself as "a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files." It is free software, released "under the same terms as Perl itself." It runs on Windows (a zip with an executable), macOS (a .pkg installer) and anywhere Perl runs. It reads and writes hundreds of formats, from JPEG and HEIC to camera RAW and video containers.
What exiftool does not have is any idea what a Google Takeout export is. It gives you the building blocks: -tagsfromfile to copy tags from one file into another, -r to walk folders, -ext to filter by type, -overwrite_original to skip the backup copies. You assemble those into a command that says "for each photo, find the sidecar with this name pattern and copy these fields." Our honest exiftool guide has that command and what happens on the files it misses.
Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer is a desktop app for exactly one job. It reads every JSON sidecar in a Takeout export, writes the date, time and location back into the photo, and sorts the result into folders you choose. The first 1000 photos are free. Premium is USD 19.99 once. It is on the Mac App Store, the Microsoft Store, and as a direct Windows installer and Linux .deb and .rpm.
Side by side
| exiftool | Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | First 1000 photos free; Premium USD 19.99 once |
| Install | Windows zip (rename exiftool(-k).exe), macOS .pkg, Linux package or Perl | Mac App Store, Microsoft Store, Windows installer with no admin rights, .deb / .rpm |
| Needs the command line | Yes | No |
| Runs offline, photos stay on your computer | Yes | Yes, nothing uploaded, no account |
Truncated sidecar names and (1) duplicates | Not by itself; you write the matching rules | Built in |
| Edited copies with no sidecar of their own | A second pass you write yourself | Built in |
| HEIC to JPG with metadata kept | No, exiftool does not convert images | Yes |
| Renames with the place | Possible: exiftool has built-in reverse geocoding, but you write the rename expression | Yes, for example 2023-06-17-1306_London.jpg |
| Folders by place | Possible with a -Directory expression you write | Yes: year/month, year, or by place |
| Sets date and place by hand | Yes, per file, as a command | Yes, per photo or folder, in the window |
| Languages | English command line; -lang translates tag descriptions | English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified) |
| Windows / Mac / Linux | All three | All three |
Where exiftool wins
It is free, and it is honest about what it does. Every tag it writes is one you named. There is no wizard deciding for you.
It is scriptable. If you want the fix to run every night on a NAS, or as one step in a bigger pipeline, exiftool is the right shape. A desktop app is not.
It covers more formats. exiftool writes into camera RAW files, TIFF, PDF and hundreds of others. Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer writes into JPG, HEIC, PNG and videos, which is what a Google Photos export contains, but if your Takeout has a folder of NEF or CR2 files you will need exiftool for those.
It gives you exact control. If you want the time in DateTimeOriginal but not in CreateDate, or you want to shift every photo by three hours because your camera clock was wrong, exiftool does it in one flag.
Where the app wins
The hard cases are built in. Google cuts long sidecar names off, so a photo called PXL_20230812_193044123.RAW-01.COVER.jpg gets a sidecar whose name does not match any pattern you would think to write. Duplicate uploads move the bracket from IMG_1234(1).jpg to IMG_1234.jpg(1).json. Edited copies have no sidecar at all. The timestamps are UTC, so an evening photo can land on the wrong day. exiftool can handle every one of these, but each is a separate rule you find out about after the first run leaves files behind. The app handles them in the same pass.
Conversion and sorting happen in the same run. HEIC to JPG with the metadata kept, Live Photo pairs kept together, old AVI and MOV to MP4, place names resolved from GPS, and the whole library sorted into year/month or by place. With exiftool, each of those is a different tool or a different script.
You can fix a photo by hand without learning syntax. Scanned photos, screenshots, anything with no JSON: pick it, set the date and place, done.
Nothing is silent. exiftool prints counts of files updated and skipped, and the skipped ones are your evening. The app was built so those files are the exception, not the leftover.
Which one for you
Pick exiftool if you already use a terminal, you want to automate the fix, or your export has RAW files that need writing too. It is free and it is the reference tool. Our exiftool guide covers the command and the traps.
Pick Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer if you want the dates, GPS, renaming, folders and HEIC conversion done in one run without writing anything, or if you are on a Mac or Linux machine and do not want to live in the terminal for an afternoon. The first 1000 photos are free, so you can run it on a sample and check the result in your photo app before deciding.
Some people do both: the app for the library, exiftool for the twenty RAW files at the end. That is a fine answer too.
For the wider picture, including GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper, immich-go and MetadataFixer.com, see Google Takeout metadata tools compared. If you want a gentler route in, an easier way than exiftool covers the same ground with less table.
Checked on 18 September 2026: exiftool's claims are from exiftool.org (the home page, the licence section, the geolocation feature page and the application documentation, version 13.59). Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer's claims are from our own listing copy for version 1.5.1.