How to Edit Photo Metadata: Complete Guide (2026)

What is photo metadata, and what can you edit?

Photo metadata is the data your photos carry about themselves. The most important block is called EXIF - Exchangeable Image File Format - and it records things like the camera model, lens, shutter speed, ISO, and the exact date, time, and GPS coordinates of the shot. On top of EXIF, photos can also carry IPTC data (captions, titles, keywords) and XMP data (edit history and custom fields).

Not all metadata is equally editable. Some fields are safe to change, some are technically editable but risk breaking your library if you are not careful, and some are effectively read-only because the device wrote them at capture time and nothing sensibly overwrites them.

Why you would want to edit photo metadata

For most people, metadata editing falls into four clear categories:

• Fixing scanned photos. When you scan a printed photograph, the scanner writes "today" as the capture date. All of a sudden your 1987 vacation photos are sitting at the top of your timeline next to yesterday's coffee shot. Fixing the date puts them back where they belong.
• Correcting camera clocks. Every camera without GPS eventually drifts, and time-zone mistakes are almost universal after international travel. A whole trip to Tokyo might be stored 9 hours off.
• Adding missing GPS data. Older cameras, dedicated mirrorless bodies, and photos you received from friends rarely have GPS baked in. Adding location manually makes them appear on your map view and groups them by trip.
• Privacy cleanup. The opposite problem - stripping or editing GPS on photos you intend to share, so you do not accidentally broadcast your home address. (This is closer to removal than editing; see our guide to removing EXIF data for the full process.)

How to edit photo metadata on iPhone

Since iOS 15, the Photos app has a real metadata editor built in. Here is the step-by-step process for fixing a wrong date or missing location:

1. Open the Photos app and tap the photo you want to edit.
2. Swipe up on the photo, or tap the info button (the small "i" in a circle).
3. Tap Adjust next to the date and time to fix when the photo was taken. You can change the date, time, and time zone.
4. To add or change location, tap Adjust Location, search for a place, and select it from the map. To remove the location entirely, tap No Location.
5. Tap Done. The Photos app writes the changes locally and syncs them to iCloud.

One thing to watch out for: the iPhone Photos app hides the underlying EXIF. It presents the date and location as if they are native fields, but what happens under the hood is Photos writes a local database entry that overrides the EXIF. If you later export the original file, you may find the embedded EXIF still has the old value. To guarantee the edit is baked into the exported file, use the share sheet and choose Export Unmodified Original off and the current format on.

How to edit photo metadata on Mac

On macOS you have two good options: the Photos app and Preview.

Using the Photos app

Photos on Mac mirrors the iOS behavior. Select one or more photos, choose Image -> Adjust Date and Time or Image -> Location -> Assign Location. For batch edits, select all the photos from a trip, adjust the date and time with the same offset, and Photos shifts every photo accordingly.

Using Preview

For photos stored outside the Photos library (a Finder folder of old scans, for example), Preview is faster:

1. Open the photo in Preview.
2. Choose Tools -> Show Inspector (or press Command-I).
3. Click the GPS tab to see location data and the EXIF tab to see the rest. Some fields are editable directly in this view.

Preview's metadata editing is intentionally limited. For serious bulk work on files outside the Photos library, use ExifTool (covered below).

How to edit photo metadata on Windows

Windows has had basic metadata editing in File Explorer since Windows 7, and it still works the same way in Windows 11:

1. Open File Explorer and right-click the photo. Choose Properties.
2. Switch to the Details tab. You will see a long list of fields including Date taken, Title, Subject, Tags, Comments, and GPS Latitude/Longitude.
3. Click any editable field and type a new value. Click Apply.
4. For batch editing, select multiple photos, right-click, and open Properties. Changes apply to the whole selection.

Windows File Explorer is fine for quick fixes, but it does not let you edit GPS coordinates by clicking a map, and it is fussy about date formats. For real map-based location editing on Windows, the most common choice is the free open-source GeoSetter (which itself uses ExifTool under the hood).

How to edit photo metadata on Android

Android is the most fragmented platform for metadata editing. Google Photos does let you edit metadata, but the functionality depends on your device and the version of the app.

1. Open Google Photos and tap the photo you want to edit.
2. Swipe up on the photo or tap the three-dot menu and choose Details. You will see the date, time, and location if available.
3. Tap Edit date & time to fix the timestamp. Tap Edit location to add or change GPS. Search for a place or pick one from the map.
4. Save. Google Photos writes the change to your library and syncs to your account.

A Google Photos caveat worth knowing: edits in Google Photos do not always rewrite the original file. If you later download the original through Google Takeout, your edits may live only in a sidecar JSON file, not in the embedded EXIF. Tools that import from Takeout (including most Google Photos alternatives) need to read the sidecars to preserve the edits - which is one reason migrating from Google Photos is more involved than people expect.

How to edit photo metadata with ExifTool (the power user option)

ExifTool is a free open-source command-line utility written by Phil Harvey. It reads and writes metadata in essentially every image and video format that exists. If you are comfortable on a terminal, it is the only metadata editor you will ever need.

Install it on Mac with Homebrew (brew install exiftool), on Linux through your package manager, or on Windows by downloading the binary from exiftool.org.

Common one-liners (backup your photos first):

• Shift all dates forward 9 hours (fix a time zone): exiftool "-AllDates+=0:0:0 9:0:0" *.jpg
• Set a specific date on scanned photos: exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1987:08:14 12:00:00" scan-*.jpg
• Add GPS coordinates: exiftool -GPSLatitude=48.8566 -GPSLongitude=2.3522 paris-*.jpg
• Remove GPS without touching other fields: exiftool -gps:all= photo.jpg
• Copy metadata from one file to another: exiftool -tagsfromfile source.jpg target.jpg

ExifTool writes a backup copy alongside the original by default (a .jpg_original file). You can delete the backups with exiftool -delete_original *.jpg once you are sure the edits are correct.

How to edit photo metadata in Viallo

Every method above edits photos on the device they live on. That works fine for a one-time fix, but it breaks down the moment you have already uploaded the photos to a cloud service and want the corrected version to show up in a shared album.

Viallo's metadata editor is designed for exactly that case. Viallo is a private photo sharing platform with a built-in metadata editor that lets you fix dates, GPS coordinates, and captions on photos already inside an album - without downloading, re-editing, and re-uploading them. Edits propagate immediately to the shared album view, the map view, and the location-based grouping.

Here is the flow:

1. Open the album and tap the photo (or select multiple photos for a batch edit).
2. Choose Edit metadata.
3. Fix the capture date and time. You can set an absolute date or shift all selected photos by the same offset (useful for trips with a wrong time zone).
4. Set the location. Pick a place from the map, type a city name, or remove the location entirely. Viallo's auto-organization picks up the change and re-groups photos by location.
5. Save. The share link updates in place - any recipient who refreshes sees the corrected date, the corrected map pin, and the corrected timeline order.

Because Viallo uses the same metadata the rest of the world uses (EXIF + GPS), the edits are not locked inside the platform. If you later export your album, the corrected metadata is baked into the downloaded files, not hidden in a proprietary sidecar.

Viallo's free plan includes 2 albums, 200 photos, and 10 GB of storage - enough to fix metadata on a full trip before deciding whether to upgrade. See Viallo's pricing for Plus and Pro plan details.

Common metadata editing mistakes

A handful of mistakes come up over and over again:

• Editing copies instead of originals, then losing track. Always edit a dedicated working copy or a file you know is the canonical version.
• Forgetting time zones. A photo taken at 3 PM in Tokyo and a photo taken at 3 PM in New York are 14 hours apart. Leave the time zone field blank only if you really mean "local time with no offset."
• Using a date format the tool does not understand. Windows File Explorer is famously picky. Stick to YYYY:MM:DD HH:MM:SS and you will avoid 90% of the errors.
• Assuming Google Photos or iCloud edits are portable. Both store edits in a layer on top of the file, not always in the file itself. Always test an export before deleting originals.
• Faking camera data. There is almost no legitimate reason to edit the camera model, lens, or exposure fields. Do not do it - you will only confuse future search tools and scripts.

Frequently asked questions