Scanned Photos: Set the Real Date and Place in Bulk
Scanners stamp old prints with today's date. How to give a folder of scans one real date and place so they sort into the right year everywhere.
You spent a weekend scanning a shoebox of prints from the 1980s. Now every scan says it was taken last Saturday. Import them into any photo app and your childhood sits at the top of the timeline, after last week's lunch.
Why scans get today's date
A scanner is a camera pointed at a piece of paper. It writes the date it made the file, because that is the only date it knows. Some scanner software puts that date into EXIF too, which makes it worse: now the wrong date is inside the file, not just on it.
The print itself might have a date. A stamp on the back, a handwritten note, a date burned into the corner by the camera. None of that reaches the scan as data. It is pixels.
What you actually know
Usually you know roughly when and where. "Summer 1987, the lake house." "Christmas 1992, Grandma's." You rarely know the day, and you never know the time. That is fine. A date in the right month puts the scan among its neighbours. The time can be noon.
So the job is: pick a date and a place per batch, and write them into the files. Once they are in EXIF, every app sorts them correctly, and they stay correct when the files move.
Scan in batches that share a date
This is the one thing to get right before touching software. Scan one event, or one envelope of prints, into one folder. Name the folder for what it is. Then set the date per folder, not per photo.
If you scanned everything into one big folder, split it now. Drag scans into folders by event while the prints are still in piles on the table. It is much harder from thumbnails a month later.
Setting the date by hand
exiftool writes a date into every JPEG in a folder in one command:
exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1987:07:15 12:00:00" -overwrite_original .To add a place, use coordinates. Find them on any map site by right-clicking the spot:
exiftool -GPSLatitude=46.8182 -GPSLatitudeRef=N -GPSLongitude=8.2275 -GPSLongitudeRef=E -overwrite_original .Then copy the date onto the file timestamps too, so Finder and Explorer agree:
exiftool "-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" .Repeat for each folder. It takes a minute per batch. -overwrite_original skips the backup copies exiftool would otherwise leave behind, so make your own backup first.
digiKam does the same from a graphical interface. Select the scans, open the metadata editor, type a date and apply to all. Its geolocation editor lets you drop a pin on a map. XnView MP can batch-set dates as well.
A note on TIFF and PNG
Many scanners produce TIFF. TIFF carries EXIF and exiftool writes to it fine. PNG scans are a problem: PNG has no standard EXIF date field that photo apps agree on. If your scanner saved PNG, convert to JPEG or TIFF before dating, or expect some apps to ignore the date.
Doing it with the app
Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer has a folder date setting made for this exact case: a folder with no useful dates where you want to set one date and one place for everything in it.
Open the folder of scans. Turn on the fixed date and place, pick the date, and type either a city name or coordinates. The app writes them into each scan's EXIF and sets the file timestamps to match. It can rename the files to start with the date, so scan0041.jpg becomes 1987-07-15-1200_Lake_House.jpg, and file them into Year/Month folders next to your digital photos.
If the scans are mixed with photos that do have good dates, that is fine. The fixed date only applies to files that have no date of their own from a sidecar or EXIF.
It works in place with an optional "Originals (before organizing)" folder, and there is a dry run so you can see the names and folders before anything is written. Offline on macOS, Windows and Linux. Free for 500 photos, $9.99 one-time for unlimited.
Frequently asked questions
Which date should I pick if I only know the year?
The first of July is a reasonable middle. Some people use the first of January so it is obvious the date is approximate. Either is better than today.
Does setting a fake time hurt anything?
No. Time is only used for ordering within a day. Noon is the usual choice. If you have several scans from the same day and know the order, you can give them times a minute apart, but it is rarely worth it.
Should I type a place if I am not sure?
Type the town, not the street. A town-level location is right often enough to be useful and wrong in a way that does not mislead. Leave it blank if you have no idea.
Will Apple Photos or Google Photos use the date I set?
Yes. Both read EXIF DateTimeOriginal on import and put the scan at that point in the timeline. Google Photos also reads the GPS and shows the place. Immich and PhotoPrism do the same.