Change EXIF Date Online — No Upload Required
A JPEG photograph can store dates inside three EXIF fields: DateTimeOriginal (when the shutter fired), DateTimeDigitized(when the image was digitised), and DateTime (last modification time). This tool lets you rewrite all three fields directly in your browser — the image pixels are never touched and your file never leaves your device.
Why would you need to change an EXIF date?
- Wrong timezone during travel. Your camera clock was set to home time, so every photo from a trip abroad shows the wrong local time. Use Shift by Hours to add or subtract the hour difference in one click.
- Camera clock not set. A new camera or a factory reset often defaults to 2000-01-01. Use Set New Date to correct the timestamp before you organise your library.
- Scanned film or slide photographs. Scans have no shutter date — the scanner sets the digitisation date, not the year the photo was taken. Correcting this lets photo apps sort scans by the actual era.
- Privacy. Sharing an accurate date can reveal a location visit or daily routine. Changing the date before sharing adds a layer of anonymity.
DateTimeOriginal vs DateTime — what is the difference?
DateTimeOriginal is the moment the shutter fired and is considered the “canonical” capture date. DateTimeDigitized was added for film scanners to record when a physical negative was digitised (for digital cameras both fields are identical). DateTime (also called ModifyDate by some tools) may be updated by editing software. This tool writes the same target date to all three fields. The filesystem creation and modification dates shown by your operating system are separate.
Example: correct a camera clock by two hours
If the recorded capture time is 09:30 and the intended time is 11:30 on the same day, choose Shift by Hours and enter +2. The reference date is DateTimeOriginal when present, otherwise the digitized or modification date. The shifted reference is written to all three fields; different original field values are not shifted independently.
If no date is recorded, choose Set New Date explicitly. Reopen the downloaded JPEG in the metadata viewer to check the result. Changing these tags does not guarantee that every photo application or file manager will display the same timestamp. Existing EXIF timezone-offset tags are preserved, but this tool does not add or change them. Choose an offset-aware editor if you need to change the recorded timezone as well as the clock time.
Follow the photo date-correction guide for downloadable before/after JPEGs, a midnight rollover example, and the difference between correcting the recorded clock and changing a timezone.
How it works — no re-encoding
The tool reads the JPEG’s APP1 EXIF segment, updates the three date fields using the piexifjs library, and re-inserts the segment without touching the compressed image data at all. Image quality is preserved, while the file size can change when the EXIF segment is rewritten. This tool supports JPEG input; convert or use another editor for a different source format.
Related tools
- EXIF Metadata Viewer — inspect date fields before and after editing.
- Remove GPS from Photo — remove supported location tags.
- EXIF Compare — compare source and edited metadata.