How to fix incorrect time, date, and year in Photos app on your Apple devices
Learn how to fix wrong timestamps or capture dates and times for images and videos in the Photos app on your Apple devices.
Apple’s built-in Photos app displays capture date when scrolling through the library, with timestamps revealed upon clicking the info button ⓘ for an individual item or the Window > Info menu option.
Sometimes your favorite camera app may save the wrong date and time in the metadata. Or perhaps you’ve changed metadata manually. Other potential causes include software glitches in the Photos app and general bugs in macOS
The good news is, you have options to fix incorrect capture dates for photos and videos, so be sure to follow our troubleshooting tips right ahead.
Force quit and reopen the Photos app
Try force quitting the Photos app and reopen it after a few seconds. Choose Force Quit in the Apple menu, then select Photos in the list and click the Force Quit button. Next, relaunch Photos and browse through your photo library to see if incorrect timestamps have been fixed.
Restart your Mac
If force quitting didn’t help, shut down your Mac and start it up again. If system glitches were the culprit, restarting should fix the problem.
Adjust the timestamp manually
Timestamps set in the past or future could be a result of incorrect metadata saved by the device that originally snapped the picture. To manually adjust capture date and time, open the Photos app on your Mac and select Library in the sidebar, then choose one or more images or videos on the right and click the Image > Adjust Date and Time menu.
Correct the capture time, day, month, and year in the “Adjusted” section, then hit the Adjust button.
This will update the timestamp for all selected items, with the changes instantly reflected in your library. You can also select an individual picture and press the Command + I keys to view this information.
If you use iCloud Photos, adjust timestamp on another device
With iCloud Photos turned on, any edits made in Photos including metadata changes automatically sync to your other devices. This mens you can try fixing an incorrect timestamp by adjusting a photo’s date and time on your iPhone, with the changes automatically syncing to your Mac. Hit the Select button at the top of the Photos app on your iPhone and pick any items with incorrect timestamps.
Hold the selection and choose Adjust Date & Time from the menu, then provide the correct capture time, day, month, and year. Hit Adjust to save the changes.
Update to the latest macOS version
If nothing helps and capture dates and times still reverse, even after being changed manually, this could be because of bugs in the macOS. Go to System Settings > General > Software Update to download the latest stable version of the macOS operating system.
Check you date and time settings
Always check if the date and time on your capture device (iPhone, Android phone, DSLR camera, etc.). If the system date and time are incorrect, go to device settings to fix them. Some digital cameras may reset their date and time when you remove the battery, so keep this in mind.
Also, check out:
- How to use referenced library mode in Mac Photos app to save storage space
- 41 tips to make the most of the Photos app on your iPhone
- How to download your entire iCloud Photos library at once
Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/06/20/fix-incorrect-date-time-in-mac-photos-app/
Leave a Reply