Supported formats and metadata

Applies to: Photo Date Rescue for Windows, version 3.0.4. Last verified: 30 July 2026. Every statement on this page was checked against the shipping 3.0.4 build. If you are on an older or newer version, the behavior may differ — check What’s new for changes.

Two questions bring most people to this page. Will PDR handle the files I actually have? And when PDR changes a date or adds a caption, what does it change — the photo, or its own records? The lists below are the ones the shipping build uses, and the answer to the second question is different depending on which part of PDR you are in, so it is worth reading before you start.

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At a glance

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Photo file types PDR recognizes

PDR treats a file as a photo if it has one of these extensions. Anything with a different extension is ignored during a scan — it is not copied, not dated and not indexed.

Everyday formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .png, .gif, .bmp, .tiff, .tif, .webp, .heic, .heif, .avif, .jp2, .j2k

RAW formats: .raw, .cr2, .cr3, .nef, .arw, .dng, .orf, .rw2, .pef, .sr2, .srf, .raf, .3fr, .rwl, .x3f, .dcr, .kdc, .mrw, .erf

Other: .ico, .svg, .psd

Limitations

• The list is fixed. There is no setting for adding an extension of your own. A RAW format from a camera that is not on the list above will be skipped entirely.
• Being recognized is not the same as being previewable. PDR will copy and date a file type it recognizes even when it cannot show you a thumbnail for it. RAW, .psd and .svg are the usual cases.
• The extension decides, not the contents. A JPEG saved with the wrong extension is treated as whatever the extension says.
• Sidecar files are not photos. An .xmp or .json file sitting next to a photo is not itself copied as a photo.

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Video file types PDR recognizes

Videos are scanned, dated, copied and indexed alongside your photos:

.mp4, .mov, .avi, .mkv, .wmv, .flv, .webm, .m4v, .3gp, .3g2, .mts, .m2ts, .ts, .vob, .mpg, .mpeg, .asf, .divx, .ogv, .rm, .rmvb, .swf

Limitations

• Videos are copied, never converted. The output format options apply to photos only.
• Not every recognized video will play in PDR’s viewer. Windows itself cannot play some of these directly, so PDR prepares a temporary playable version for those; that takes time and disk space the first time you open one.
• Audio-only files are not media. There is no .mp3 or .wav in the list.

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Export archives

You can add a ZIP or RAR archive as a source, which is how most people bring in a Google Takeout export. PDR unpacks it to a working folder first and then treats the contents like any other source.

Limitations

• ZIP and RAR only. Other archive formats are not accepted as sources.
• The unpacked copy is kept. It is not deleted when you quit, which is deliberate but does use a lot of disk space — see temporary extraction folders.
• Encrypted or password-protected archives are not handled.

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Converting photos as PDR copies them

A Fix has an output format choice: keep the original format, or write everything as JPG or as PNG. Conversion happens on the copy PDR writes to your destination. The file you pointed PDR at is never converted.

Conversion is available for .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .bmp, .tiff, .tif, .webp, .heic, .heif, .gif and .avif. Anything else — every RAW format, .jp2, .j2k, .ico, .svg and .psd — is copied across in its original format regardless of what you chose.

If you keep the original format, PDR still tidies two extensions as it copies: .jpeg is written as .jpg and .tiff as .tif. The file itself is unchanged; only the extension is made consistent.

Limitations

• RAW files are never converted to JPG or PNG. This is the one people are most often surprised by. If you set the output to JPG and your source is full of .cr2 or .nef files, you get .cr2 and .nef files at the destination.
• Videos are not converted. The setting is for photos.
• Converting to PNG makes files much larger. PNG does not throw anything away, so a folder of photos converted to PNG can be several times the size of the originals.
• There is no quality slider. You choose the format, not the compression level.

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What PDR reads out of your files

When a photo is indexed, PDR pulls out what the file already knows about itself and keeps a copy in its library so you can search on it. That includes the camera make and model, the lens, the image dimensions and megapixels, ISO, shutter speed, aperture and focal length, whether the flash fired, the exposure program, white balance, scene type, the orientation, and the GPS position if there is one. It also reads the three date fields a camera writes and uses the first one that is present.

If a photo has GPS coordinates, PDR turns them into a place name using a place database that is installed with the app. Nothing is looked up online.

Limitations

• Reading has a time limit per file. A file that takes more than a few seconds to read is given up on and indexed without its details. Very large RAW files on a slow external drive are the common cause.
• Metadata that is not in the file cannot be recovered. If a photo was stripped by a messaging app or a social network before you saved it, there is nothing left in it for PDR to read.
• Dates written by a scanner are treated with suspicion. Where PDR can tell a date came from scanning software rather than a camera, it downgrades its confidence rather than trusting it.
• Place names are as good as the bundled database. It resolves to a nearby known place, which for a remote location may be some distance away.

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Dates written during a Fix

Into the copy, never into your original. When a Fix works out a better date for a photo, PDR writes that date into the new file at your destination. It writes three fields — the date the photo was taken, the date it was created and the date it was last modified — so that other software agrees with PDR about when the photo happened. The source file you pointed PDR at is read and closed. It is not edited.

How much gets written is up to you. In Settings there is a master switch for writing dates into files at all, and then a switch for each confidence level: Confirmed, Recovered and Marked. By default PDR writes dates for Confirmed and Recovered photos and leaves Marked ones alone, because a Marked date is PDR’s weakest guess.

Limitations

• Only photos get a date written. Video files are copied with their dates untouched. There is no video metadata writing in 3.0.4.
• Impossible dates are refused. PDR will not write a date before 1971 or more than a day into the future, so a genuinely old scan cannot be stamped with its real year through this route.
• A failed write does not fail the copy. If the date cannot be written into a particular file, the copy still lands at your destination with the correct name and folder, and PDR’s own record of the date is still right. The file itself is left with its old metadata.
• There is no undo for the write itself. The new copy has been written. Your original is untouched, which is the safety net.

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Dates you set by hand in Needs dates

This one works differently, and it surprises people. When you set a date yourself in Needs dates, PDR updates its own library and nothing else. It does not write the date into the photo’s metadata, and it does not rename the file. Open that photo in another program afterwards and it will still show the old date, or no date at all.

What you do get is a photo that now sits correctly in Memories, in searches and in date order inside PDR, marked as Recovered with its date recorded as one you set. It also leaves the Needs dates list. If you change your mind, the undo puts the previous date back and returns the photo to Needs dates.

Limitations

• Nothing is written into the file. Not the date, not a rename, not a touched file timestamp. This is a library change only.
• Copying the photo elsewhere loses the date. Because the date lives in PDR’s database, a photo you email, upload or copy to another machine takes none of your correction with it.
• A rebuilt library keeps it only if the library survives. This is one more reason the library database is worth backing up — see backing up your library.
• There is no way to make it write. 3.0.4 offers no option on this screen to push the date into the file.

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Captions

You can write a caption on a photo from its tile or from the viewer. The caption is always saved in PDR’s library, where it is searchable. From the viewer, PDR also writes it into the photo file itself, into the two description fields other photo software reads.

Limitations

• Captions are written into the library copy. This is the file in your destination folder, the one PDR made. Whatever source you originally built the library from is not involved.
• Videos never get a caption written into them. The caption is saved in PDR’s library and the video file is left alone.
• Clearing a caption does not clear it from the file. Removing the caption in PDR removes it from the library. A description already written into the photo stays in the photo.
• A failed write is quiet. If the description cannot be written — a read-only file, or one your antivirus has locked — the caption is still saved in PDR and you are not told the file part did not happen.

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Videos and metadata

PDR does not write metadata into video files. Videos are scanned, dated, copied, renamed, filed into folders, indexed and searchable exactly like photos, and PDR’s record of a video’s date is used everywhere in the app. But nothing is written inside the video file itself — no date, no caption, no location.

Limitations

• A corrected video date lives in PDR only. Copy the video somewhere else and the corrected date does not travel with it. The filename and the folder it was filed into do carry the date, and for most people that is what matters.
• This is not a setting. There is no option to turn video metadata writing on.

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Known gaps in 3.0.4

The things this page says no to, collected together:

1. Dates set by hand are not written into photos. Needs dates changes PDR’s library only. The Fix pipeline is the only route by which a date ends up inside a file.
2. RAW files are never converted. They are copied in their original format whatever output format you pick.
3. No metadata is written into video files. Not dates, not captions, not locations.
4. No location can be added or corrected by hand. PDR reads the GPS already in a photo and uses it to tell you where the photo was taken, but 3.0.4 gives you no way to add a location to a photo that does not have one, or to fix one that is wrong.
5. Metadata written into a file cannot be rolled back by PDR. There is no history of file writes and no restore-previous-metadata command. Rebuilding the library database does not undo a write.

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How to check this page is still true

Every claim here describes behavior you can observe in the shipping build. If something on this page does not match what PDR does on your machine, that is a defect in one of the two, and we want to know: contact support. Tell us the anchor — for example /help/formats-metadata#summary — and we will either correct the software or correct the page.