How Do I Open a .json File From Google Photos?
Google Takeout puts a .json file next to every photo. Here is what is inside one, how to read it, and why you should not open them one by one.
A .json file is just text. You can open one in Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on a Mac, or any code editor. Double-clicking may launch a browser or ask which app to use. Nothing is broken when that happens.
Inside you will find the photo's real date as a long number, the GPS coordinates, and sometimes a description. The long number is a Unix timestamp, which is seconds since 1970. That is why it looks like nonsense at a glance.
Reading one is easy. Reading ten thousand is not, and copying each date into each photo by hand is a month of work. Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer reads every .json in your export and writes the date and place straight into the photos. Free for your first 500.