How do I sort photos by date taken?

Last reviewed: October 5, 2026 · Markdown version

A photo carries more than one date, and only one of them is the moment you pressed the shutter. The capture date is stored inside the picture by the camera; the file around it has its own timestamps, which change when the file is copied, downloaded or moved. When old pictures turn up as if they were taken today, ask which of those dates the app is ordering by. Below is what each vendor documents about the dates, and where each lets you correct one.

The three dates Android keeps for every picture

Android's media index, MediaStore, keeps three separate date columns for a picture. DATE_TAKEN is the "Indexed value of MediaMetadataRetriever.METADATA_KEY_DATE or ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME_ORIGINAL extracted from this media item" — the capture time recorded in the photo's EXIF data. DATE_MODIFIED is the "Indexed value of File.lastModified() extracted from this media item". DATE_ADDED is "The time the media item was first added". The same reference adds a caution about the first one: "images must define both ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME_ORIGINAL and ExifInterface#TAG_OFFSET_TIME_ORIGINAL to reliably determine this value in relation to the epoch" (MediaStore.MediaColumns, Android Developers, read 5 October 2026).

That page defines the columns; it does not say what a gallery should show when a picture has no capture date written into it at all. Which column a given app sorts by is up to that app, so the useful question for any gallery is which of the three it is using.

Why copied and downloaded photos jump to the wrong day

Samsung states the case plainly on its Gallery help page: "In the case of downloaded media files, the displayed date and time are based on the time of download" (How to check the date and time in the Samsung Gallery app, Samsung UK, read 5 October 2026). So a holiday album saved from a chat or a cloud link last night is filed under last night. Google Photos warns of the reverse problem — a date you corrected may not leave the app: "If you share the photo to other apps or download it, the photo may show the original date and time saved by your camera" (Edit your photos, Google Photos Help, read 5 October 2026). A fix made inside one app is a label in that app, not a change every other app will see.

Correcting a date in Google Photos

Google Photos does let you change the date. On a phone it is one picture at a time from the photo's details, and the same page sets a limit: "You can only change the date and timestamps in the Photos app for backed up photos." For many at once, the computer version offers Shift dates & times, which lets you "specify a date and time for the first item and automatically adjust the dates and times for the other items as relative to that", and Set one date & time (Edit your photos — Computer, Google Photos Help, read 5 October 2026). Shift is the one to use when a camera's clock was simply set wrong for a whole trip, because it keeps the gaps between shots. The tap-by-tap route is on our Google Photos order page.

Samsung Gallery: two Samsung pages, two answers

Samsung's support article says that in the Pictures tab "your photos are sorted by date in the order that they were most recently taken", and that swiping up on an open picture shows "The exact date and time information for the picture". On editing, it is blunt: "It is not available to change the date and time of the media and to stamp the date and time." That article reads "Updated : 16th June, 2021" (the How to check the date and time in the Samsung Gallery app page above).

Samsung's later One UI 4 feature list says the opposite for Gallery: "Change or remove the date, time, and location of your pictures and videos to correct it or keep it private. You can also select several pictures and edit their information at once" (One UI 4 Key Features, Samsung, read 5 October 2026). Neither of these two Samsung pages gives the steps for that edit, and neither lists which sort options Gallery offers. The support article does say "Device screenshots and menus may vary depending on the device model and software version". Our reading: on a phone running One UI 4 or later, the swipe-up details view of a picture is where to look for an edit option; if it is not there, your version does not have it.

Files by Google: "Date" is a file date

A folder view is a different tool from a gallery. Files by Google can order a list "by File name, Date, or Size" (View your files, Files by Google Help, read 5 October 2026), and its file-details screen shows "details such as modified time and location of the file" (View file information, Files by Google Help, read 5 October 2026). Neither page says which timestamp the Date order uses, and neither mentions a date taken. The only date either page names is the modified time, so a folder sorted by Date is not a reliable way to see shots in the order they were taken. For that, use the gallery. Ordering by date versus filing by type is a separate decision.

Adinand Auto File Sorter and photo dates

It does not read or sort by any date. It files by extension: a .jpg sitting directly in a watched folder (Downloads by default) is moved to Downloads › Sorted Files, under Images, and the camera folder is never one of its preset watched folders. The file's name stays the same unless a different file of that name is already there, in which case it gets a (1)-style suffix.