PDR pairs each exported photo with its sidecar to recover the real capture date.
Fix Google Takeout & iCloud Photo Dates
The dates in a Google Takeout or iCloud export are almost never what you expect. Export the right way, keep the sidecar files, and Photo Date Rescue can rebuild your true timeline on your own PC.
Why exported dates are usually wrong
When you download your library from Google Photos or Apple iCloud, the files land on your PC with fresh timestamps — the moment of download, not the moment of capture. Worse, some export routes compress images and strip metadata entirely. The good news is that the original capture date is usually not gone. Where it survives depends on the export: a Google Takeout export stores it in a companion file alongside each photo, while an Apple export keeps it embedded inside the image file itself.
The JSON sidecar is the key
Google Takeout gives every photo a small .json file that records the original date, GPS and other metadata, and Photo Date Rescue reads those records directly. Takeout is the only export whose own metadata records PDR parses — there is no Apple, Facebook, Flickr or Amazon Photos equivalent, and for those exports the date is read from inside the image files instead. Which is why, for a Takeout export, one rule matters more than any other:
.json sidecar. Keep them together in the same folder so PDR can pair them and recover the true date.
Getting the export right in the first place
The full export procedure for every service — Google Photos, Apple iCloud, OneDrive and Dropbox, with a decision table for which route to use — lives in the cloud export guide, and that page is the one to follow. Only two of its rules change what happens to your dates, and both are easy to get wrong:
- Use Google Takeout, not the plain “Download” button. Takeout is the only route that ships the
.jsonsidecars, and without them there is no original date to recover. - On Apple, export the unmodified original. The plain “Export” option can rewrite metadata; “Export Unmodified Original” preserves HEIC, MOV, Live Photo pairs and the EXIF timestamp.
Rebuilding the timeline with PDR
Add the ZIP files to Photo Date Rescue exactly as Takeout produced them — one part at a time, until every numbered part has been added. There is no need to unzip anything: PDR opens the archives itself. It pairs each image with its sidecar, reads the original capture date, and writes a correctly dated copy into a new output folder. Your export stays untouched, duplicates are skipped, and you end up with a clean library you can trust. The mechanics of the confidence scoring are covered in how to fix wrong photo dates.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Unpacking and merging the ZIPs by hand. PDR opens the archives itself and keeps the date records from every part together, so a photo in part seven still finds its sidecar from part eight. Extracting is wasted effort, and merging folders by hand is where sidecars usually get separated from their images.
- Converting HEIC to JPEG first. That conversion often drops the original capture time. Let PDR read the originals.
- Deleting the
.jsonfiles to “tidy up”. Those sidecars are exactly what recovers your dates. - Downloading only some of the export chunks. Missing a ZIP means missing photos. Grab them all.
See the sidecar pairing in action
The free web demo accepts a small ZIP so you can watch PDR pair images with their sidecars and recover the real dates — before installing anything. The Windows desktop app then handles your full export.
Try the free web demo Get the desktop appFrequently asked questions
Do I need the JSON files, or just the photos?
Keep the JSON sidecars. In a Google Takeout export they hold the original capture date, GPS and other metadata that PDR uses to rebuild your timeline. An Apple Photos export has no JSON sidecars, so PDR rebuilds those dates from the files themselves.
Can PDR handle HEIC and Live Photos from iCloud?
Yes for the files: export unmodified originals and PDR reads HEIC images and MOV videos without any conversion. One honest caveat about Live Photos — PDR copies both halves but nothing links them, and each is renamed from its own date, so the shared filename that defines the pair is lost. What does not come across.
What if my export has duplicates?
PDR detects and skips duplicates as it writes the corrected copies, so the output library stays clean.
Does anything get uploaded during the process?
No. The repair runs entirely on your Windows PC. Your export is read locally and corrected copies are written locally.