PDR Guides
Goal-led help for your whole photo library — from first import to a protected, shareable Master Library on Windows.
What do you want to do?
Choose a goal below and its guides open right here — one at a time, so you only see what matters now.
Bring photos together
Get every photo out of its silo and into one place PDR can work with. Originals stay untouched — PDR only ever writes safe copies.
Cloud services
Export Google Photos, iCloud, OneDrive and Dropbox cleanly — and let PDR rebuild dates even when camera-roll folders are scattered.
Social & messaging apps
Pull photos and clips out of WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat and TikTok — PDR rebuilds dates when EXIF is stripped.
Phones, cameras & drives
Copy DCIM folders, old-device backups and external drives directly — ideal for consolidating decades of scattered device history.
Scans & legacy media
Bring digitized prints, film and bulk-scan projects into an approximate, sensible order alongside your modern photos.
Restore and organize
Review PDR’s date evidence, apply fixes as safe copies, then arrange a clean, correctly ordered library.
Restore your library in three safe stages
See how PDR brings in messy sources, shows the evidence and confidence behind each date, and applies fixes as safe copies before you organize.
Albums, Memories, Viewer & Needs Dates
Explore how to arrange, review and enjoy your restored library once the dates are right — including items that still need a date.
How to fix wrong photo dates
What makes photo dates go wrong, where PDR reads the real date from, and how to repair a whole library as safe copies.
Fix Google Takeout & iCloud dates
Export Google Photos and Apple Photos the right way, keep Takeout's JSON sidecars, and rebuild a correct timeline with PDR.
Organize a photo library
Turn a folder of files into a library you can navigate: Memories, Albums, the People Manager and Search & Discover.
Store and protect
Choose the right home for your Master Library, then protect it with a real 3-2-1 backup plan.
Choosing a library drive
Pick a permanent home for your photos — NVMe, SSD, external or NAS — and see why the Windows system drive is the one place your library should not live.
Tools & recommendations
Honest, unpaid picks for storage drives, backups, scanning and print services to keep a restored library tidy for the long term.
PDR 3-2-1 Library Protection Map
Three copies, two kinds of media, one off-site — with plain-English tiers and the traps to avoid: a NAS in your house isn’t off-site, and RAID isn’t a backup.
Create and share
Turn a restored library into something you can enjoy and pass on.
Collages, carousels, Screen Recording & sharing
Build collages and carousels, record tutorials and demos, and share to phone, print or PDF — all from your restored library.
Photo collages & carousels
Turn your own photos into layered collages and multi-page carousels sized for social, printed gifts and posts.
Make social media posts
Design at the right size from the start — every Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, X, LinkedIn and Pinterest format as a named preset.
Getting photos out of PDR
Drag tiles straight into another app, send up to 200 files to your phone with a QR code over your own Wi-Fi, or hand over a whole dated set as ordinary folders.
Build a family tree from photos
Connect faces across generations using your own library — a focus-person tree with real relationships, never guesses.
Screen capture for tutorials
Record clean tutorials and demos with webcam bubbles, on-device backdrops, click-zoom and content-protected blur regions.
How the storage behind your photos works
Impartial writing on drives, cloud services, file formats and backup — no product pitch, and useful whether or not you ever use PDR.
Most libraries are a mix of sources. Start with wherever your photos live now, restore the dates with Photo Date Rescue, then plan storage and backups to keep your restored library safe.