How can I put photos with the correct date?

I have some photos out of order by date and would like to have them in the proper order by date.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 26, 2023 9:45 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 26, 2023 10:42 AM

You may need to adjust the date and time and the timezone for the photos, that are not sorted correctly.

  • Have the photos that are out of line been taken with a different camera? Then check the clock of the camera, if it set correctly. And select all photos taken with this camera and then use the command "Adjust Date & Time" to shift the date and time by the amount the camera clock has been set incorrectly.
  • Or have some photos with GPS locations assigned and others are not tagged with GPS? In that case Photos may have assigned different timezones to the photos with GPS tags than to the photos without.

See the paragraph "Change a photos Date & Time" in the user guide: Add titles, captions and more to photos using Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

You can change the date and time associated with a photo — for example, if you travel to another time zone, and your camera assigns dates and times that are correct for your home but not the place you visited.

  1. In the Photos app  on your Mac, select the photos you want to change.
  2. Choose Image > Adjust Date and Time.
  3. Tip: You can also double-click the date that appears in the Info window to change the date. To show a photo’s Info window, double-click the photo, then click the Info button in the toolbar. 
  4. Enter the date and time you want in the Adjusted field.
  5. Click a time zone on the map and choose the closest town/city, if necessary.
  6. Click Adjust.


To separate the photos by camera model or photos with or without GPS tags, you can use smart albums.

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 26, 2023 10:42 AM in response to debbyann53

You may need to adjust the date and time and the timezone for the photos, that are not sorted correctly.

  • Have the photos that are out of line been taken with a different camera? Then check the clock of the camera, if it set correctly. And select all photos taken with this camera and then use the command "Adjust Date & Time" to shift the date and time by the amount the camera clock has been set incorrectly.
  • Or have some photos with GPS locations assigned and others are not tagged with GPS? In that case Photos may have assigned different timezones to the photos with GPS tags than to the photos without.

See the paragraph "Change a photos Date & Time" in the user guide: Add titles, captions and more to photos using Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

You can change the date and time associated with a photo — for example, if you travel to another time zone, and your camera assigns dates and times that are correct for your home but not the place you visited.

  1. In the Photos app  on your Mac, select the photos you want to change.
  2. Choose Image > Adjust Date and Time.
  3. Tip: You can also double-click the date that appears in the Info window to change the date. To show a photo’s Info window, double-click the photo, then click the Info button in the toolbar. 
  4. Enter the date and time you want in the Adjusted field.
  5. Click a time zone on the map and choose the closest town/city, if necessary.
  6. Click Adjust.


To separate the photos by camera model or photos with or without GPS tags, you can use smart albums.

Apr 26, 2023 10:29 AM in response to debbyann53

You can adjust the date and time for a picture using the menu choice "Image>Adjust Date and Time" like this:

If you select several pictures that are, say, 10 minutes apart, then their new dates and times will still be 10 minutes apart-- it adjusts by the same difference to all the selected pictures.


In an album, you can move pictures around to be in any order you like by clicking and dragging them to into a new position.


I have lots of scanned images where the scanned date has little to do with the date the picture was taken. So, rather than changing date and time on them all, I put them in the order I want, and then I give them titles like, maybe "05 06 06 - 027 - Wallaby," and then I sort them by title. I use the app Photos Workbench ($30) to index lots of titles at once.


I've been guessing at what you may actually want to do. If you need some different solution, let us know, and give us examples.

How can I put photos with the correct date?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.