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Move Photos to a New Android Phone and Keep the Dates

Photos show today's date on a new phone when the date is not inside the file. Write it into each photo's EXIF first, then any copy method keeps the order.

To keep the dates when you move photos to a new Android phone, make sure each photo has its capture date inside the file, in its EXIF data, before you copy it. The phone's gallery reads that date first. Only when it is missing does the gallery use the file date, and a copy usually resets the file date to today. So fix the EXIF on the computer, then copy by any method.

You copied ten years of photos onto a new Android phone. Open the gallery and they all sit at the top as if taken today. Google Photos on the phone shows the same thing, or it shows the right dates for some and today for others. This page explains why, and how to make the dates stick.

How Android decides a photo's date

Android keeps a database of media files called MediaStore. When a new file appears in DCIM or Pictures, a scanner reads it and records a date. It tries the EXIF DateTimeOriginal first. If that is missing it uses the file's modified time. Gallery apps sort by what MediaStore recorded.

So a photo with good EXIF sorts correctly no matter how it got there. A photo with no EXIF date, or with a bad one, sorts by the file date, and the file date after a transfer is almost always the transfer time.

Google Photos on the phone behaves the same way for local files. A photo without EXIF shows the file date until you edit it by hand.

Why photos show today's date after a transfer

Plugging an Android phone into a computer and choosing File transfer uses MTP. MTP is not a disk. It is a protocol that sends files one at a time to the phone's storage, and the phone writes them.

MTP has no way to carry a creation date. Whether the modified date survives depends on the phone, the computer and the tool. Windows Explorer sometimes keeps it. macOS through Android File Transfer usually does not. Linux through GVFS varies by version. You cannot rely on it.

That is why so many people see everything dated today after a transfer. The gallery is not the problem. The file dates were lost in the copy. Why the phone gallery shows the wrong dates has the short version.

Which photos lose their dates

Photos straight from a phone camera usually carry an EXIF date, so they survive any copy. The ones that go wrong are the files with no date inside:

Fix the EXIF, not the copy

Looking for a copy method that keeps file dates is the wrong fight. Put the date inside each photo, and any copy method works. The best way to edit photo metadata covers setting the date taken for one photo or for thousands.

Check a sample first. On the computer, exiftool -DateTimeOriginal photo.jpg shows whether the date is there. On Windows, right-click, open Properties, and look for "Date taken". If most photos have it, only the exceptions need fixing.

For photos where the file date is right but EXIF is missing, copy it in before transferring:

exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal<FileModifyDate" -if 'not $DateTimeOriginal' -r .

Do this on the computer, before the copy, while the file dates are still correct. EXIF date taken vs file modified explains the two dates.

Which transfer method keeps the dates?

None of them reliably, which is why the EXIF date matters. Some are better than others:

  • USB cable, File transfer (MTP): the modified date may or may not survive.
  • SD card: an SD card is a real filesystem, so modified dates survive the copy. The phone still reads EXIF first.
  • Wi-Fi transfer apps and cloud drives: these usually give each file a new date.
  • A sync app such as Syncthing: tends to keep modified dates better than MTP.

Photos with an EXIF date sort correctly after all of these.

What about videos?

Videos have no EXIF. Their date lives inside the MP4 or MOV container, and Android's scanner reads it from there. A video without that date sorts by the file date, like a photo. Takeout videos with the wrong date shows how to set it.

Where to put the files on the phone

DCIM/Camera is where the phone's own camera writes, and gallery apps treat it as the main roll. Files there show up in the main view. Other folders under DCIM or Pictures show as albums in most galleries.

Keep the folder tree shallow and the names simple. Some galleries ignore folders more than a couple of levels deep. Dated filenames help too: they keep the order right in file managers and on TVs later. Rename photos by date taken has the scheme.

After copying, the gallery may take a while to rescan. Rebooting the phone forces it.

Will Google Photos upload them again?

If Google Photos backup is on for the camera folder, everything you copy into DCIM/Camera is uploaded to your Google account again. Turn off backup before copying if you are leaving Google. If you are moving the library to a new Google account, this can be what you want. Google Photos export to a new Android phone covers the full route from a Takeout export.

Moving to an iPhone instead?

The same rule applies: the date must be inside the file. The route is different, through Apple Photos or iCloud on a computer. See how to get Google Photos onto a new iPhone.

Doing it with the app

Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer exports directly to an Android phone that is plugged in and shows up in your file manager.

Select the phone as the destination. The app writes the real date into each photo's EXIF first, from a Takeout sidecar, from existing EXIF or from the file date in that order, so MediaStore reads a correct date no matter what MTP does to the file timestamps. GPS goes in the same way, so the phone can group by place. Files land in DCIM with date-first names, and HEIC can be converted to JPG for phones that cannot show it.

Old videos can be converted to MP4 so they play in the gallery. Live Photos stay as pairs, or can be merged into a single Motion Photo file in the Google and Samsung format, which the phone then plays as one item.

On Windows the phone is used as Explorer mounts it. On macOS a phone mounted through Android File Transfer or a similar tool works the same way. Phone export is a Premium feature. The app is free for 500 photos, and unlimited is $19.99 once, on macOS and Windows.

Frequently asked questions

The gallery still shows the wrong order after copying. What now?

Force a rescan. Reboot the phone, or clear the gallery app's cache. If a photo is still wrong, check its EXIF on the computer. If EXIF is missing, the phone had nothing to go on.

Why does Google Photos on the phone show the right date but the gallery does not?

Google Photos reads EXIF itself and may also have the date from your account. The gallery reads MediaStore. If MediaStore scanned the file before EXIF was fixed, it remembers the old date until it rescans.

Can I fix the dates on the phone itself?

For a few photos, yes: Google Photos lets you edit a date by hand. For thousands, no. Fix them on the computer before the copy.

Is copying to an SD card and putting it in the phone better?

Often, yes. The modified dates survive the copy. The phone scans the card the same way, so EXIF still matters for photos that lack it.

I am merging photos from two old phones. Does the same apply?

Yes. Fix the dates first, then combine the folders. Merge photos from two phones covers the filename clashes.

Can I move iPhone photos to Android this way?

Yes. Export from the iPhone or from Apple Photos with metadata included, convert HEIC to JPG, and copy. The app handles the conversion and keeps the dates and GPS.

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