Restore dates and locations after a Google Takeout or Snapchat export

An exported photo can keep its original camera information while extra dates or places remain in separate JSON files. Photo apps may miss those files, and your computer may give downloaded copies new file dates. DateMend matches the available export information back to the pictures.

Start with a complete export

Google Photos: use Google Takeout, select Google Photos and download the ZIP archives. Keep every part and its JSON files: a picture and its metadata may be in different parts. See Google's export instructions.

Snapchat: open My Data on accounts.snapchat.com, enable Export your Memories and include JSON metadata where offered. Choose the date range you need. Download the actual memories as well as the export information. If the archive contains an index.html with download links, open it to download the memories. Links without the media files cannot be repaired by DateMend. See Snapchat's instructions.

Add all the ZIP parts together, or select the unpacked folder containing both media and JSON files. Keep the originals until you have checked the results.

Where dates and locations are stored

A photo's capture date and GPS coordinates can be stored inside the picture. Google preserves original embedded information and puts additional metadata in JSON files. A Takeout JSON often records the photo's date and coordinates. Snapchat's memories_history.json can list dates and coordinates for individual memories.

Those JSON files need to be matched to the right pictures. Takeout file names can be shortened or numbered differently; edited copies and live-photo videos can share another file's information. DateMend handles these matching rules before writing the saved copies.

A capture date is different from your computer's Date modified or Date created. Downloading, copying or editing can change file dates without changing the capture date inside a picture.

What DateMend restores

• JPEG and PNG photos: available capture dates and missing GPS coordinates. Existing photo locations are kept.
• MP4 and MOV videos: supported capture dates. Video locations are not added.
• Other formats, including HEIC: file contents stay unchanged. A recovered date can still be included as the file's modified date in the ZIP.
• Snapchat captions and stickers: the separate overlay can be put back on a photo. Video overlays stay as separate images.

The check table shows the selected date, its source and any export coordinates available for a supported photo. A location can be restored even when its export has no usable date. Existing photo dates are kept unless you select replacement; Snapchat export dates take priority.

Choose how to save

Save as ZIP is recommended. Extract it to use the fixed copies. The ZIP carries modified dates, which extraction tools normally restore; it does not restore file creation dates. On Windows, modified dates before 1980 don’t survive the ZIP; the date inside a photo can still go back further.

Save into a folder is available in Chrome and Edge on a computer. It restores supported metadata inside the copies, but browsers cannot set file created or modified dates. An advanced, off-by-default option includes scripts you run yourself afterwards. The Windows script sets both dates; the Mac/Linux script sets modified dates. Use the ZIP route to avoid running scripts.

Import a few fixed copies into your photo app and check their dates and map positions before importing the whole batch. Apps differ in which fields they display. New export dates use your computer's time zone; existing camera dates are shown as recorded.

When information is missing

A missing location cannot be inferred from the picture. DateMend needs valid coordinates in the export to add one. In an export, a file without a date in the JSON keeps the export day as its modified date; DateMend doesn’t use that as a capture date.

For ordinary screenshots and photo folders (not exports), an optional fallback can use the existing file modified date if it matches when the picture was made. Another option uses dates in file names. These are secondary fallbacks; they do not replace export or embedded dates. Leave modified-date fallback off when the date reflects a later edit or download.