How to edit EXIF data, and why your edit may never reach the file
Short answer: you can edit EXIF data's date and location in the Photos apps on iPhone, Mac and Android, and a few text fields in Windows' file Properties. But a photo app often changes its own library record, not the file. Google says a downloaded or shared copy can show the original date and location. To edit the EXIF inside the file itself, use ExifTool, then check the copy you actually send.
Most guides for this query list a handful of EXIF editor apps and stop there. The more useful thing to know is where your edit is stored, because that decides whether anyone else ever sees it.
What you can edit, and where else it lives
EXIF is one of several metadata blocks in a photo. The same fact is often written more than once, so changing one copy can leave another that disagrees:
| What you want to change | EXIF field | Other places the same fact can sit |
|---|---|---|
| Date taken | DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate (plus ModifyDate) | XMP date fields, IPTC date created |
| Time zone | OffsetTimeOriginal and related offset tags | XMP dates, which can carry an offset |
| Location | the GPS block: GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude and their Ref tags | XMP GPS fields |
| Author and copyright | Artist, Copyright | XMP dc:creator and dc:rights, IPTC by-line and copyright notice |
| Camera and lens | Make, Model, LensModel | the maker notes, a vendor block most editors don't touch |
The time zone row trips people up. Plain EXIF dates have no time zone. The separate offset tags were added in EXIF 2.31, so a tool that shifts the date without touching the offset can leave the two out of step.
Library edits vs file edits
This is the part the app-list guides skip.
Google Photos lets you change the date and time, and add a location, on the web and in the app. Its help pages set two limits. First, "if you share the photo to other apps or download it, the photo may show the original date and time saved by your camera." Second, a location your camera added automatically can't be changed or removed there, and a downloaded photo shows "the original location your device saved" without your edits. So a Google Photos edit fixes how your library sorts and maps the photo. It doesn't rewrite the file other people get.
Apple Photos on iPhone and Mac lets you adjust the date, time and location, and has a Revert option that returns the original values. That alone tells you Photos keeps the original alongside your change. Apple's guides don't say which fields an exported or shared copy carries. Don't assume: export one photo and look at it, as described under "Check the result" below.
Windows and ExifTool work differently. They write into the file on disk, so the change goes wherever the file goes.
On iPhone
- Open the photo in Photos, then swipe up or tap the Info button.
- Tap Adjust next to the date (on recent iOS versions, Adjust Info, then Adjust Date & Time).
- Pick the new date, time and, if needed, time zone, and tap Adjust.
- For location, choose Adjust Location, search for a place and pick it. No Location removes it.
- To undo, open the same screen and tap Revert.
You can select several photos first and adjust them together. If what you actually want is to remove the date, camera and location rather than change them, that's a different job: see how to remove metadata from an image.
On Mac
- In Photos, select one or more photos.
- Choose Image > Adjust Date and Time, enter the new value in the Adjusted field, pick a time zone on the map if needed, and click Adjust.
- For location, open the Info window and type a place. Apple's guide notes that Revert to Original Location removes the location you assigned.
Preview doesn't edit EXIF. Its Inspector shows the fields and can remove location, nothing more.
On Android
In Google Photos, open the photo, tap More (three dots), and edit the date and time from there. Google says this works only for photos that are backed up. For location, use More > Add a location, or select several photos and choose Edit location. Keep the limit above in mind: the file you download or share can still carry the camera's original values.
On Windows
Right-click the photo, choose Properties, and open the Details tab. Click a value: if it turns into a text box, you can type over it. Title, Tags, Comments, Authors and Copyright are the fields people usually change here. Many camera fields are read-only. The Remove Properties and Personal Information link at the bottom is for deleting fields, not editing them, and it doesn't cover everything.
With ExifTool, which writes to the file
ExifTool is free and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It edits the metadata directly and leaves the compressed image data alone, so the picture doesn't lose quality. A few commands cover most needs:
# Set all three main EXIF dates at once (format: YYYY:MM:DD HH:MM:SS)
exiftool -AllDates="2026:07:14 18:30:00" photo.jpg
# Shift the dates of every photo in a folder by 1 hour 30 minutes
# (fixes a camera clock that was set wrong)
exiftool -AllDates+=1:30 folder/
# Set a location (Statue of Liberty); the Ref tags carry north/south and east/west
exiftool -GPSLatitude=40.6892 -GPSLatitudeRef=N -GPSLongitude=74.0445 -GPSLongitudeRef=W photo.jpg
# Set author and copyright
exiftool -Artist="Your Name" -Copyright="© 2026 Your Name" photo.jpg
# Delete every GPS tag
exiftool -gps:all= photo.jpg
AllDates is ExifTool's shortcut for DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate. It doesn't change the XMP or IPTC copies or the offset tags, so if those exist, set them too or they will disagree. By default ExifTool keeps your untouched file with _original added to its name. The -overwrite_original option turns that off, and ExifTool's own documentation says to use it only if you already have separate backups.
Browser-based EXIF editors exist too. Check whether one processes the file locally or uploads it first: Metadata2Go, for example, says files are processed on its servers in Europe.
Check the result
Whichever method you use, check the copy that will actually leave your device, not the photo in your library:
exiftool -a -G1 -time:all -gps:all photo.jpg
-G1 shows which block each value came from, so you can see an EXIF date and an XMP date that disagree. Without a terminal, the image metadata viewer lists the fields in your browser without uploading the file. It reads JPEG, PNG and WebP. It doesn't read HEIC, so for an iPhone original, check the exported JPEG. Viewing EXIF data covers other ways to look.
What editing EXIF can't do
- It doesn't hide the edit. Editors commonly update
ModifyDateor add aSoftwaretag, and the maker notes may still hold the camera's own values. A changed date next to untouched copies elsewhere in the file is easy to spot. - It breaks Content Credentials. If a photo carries a signed C2PA manifest, the signature covers the file's bytes. Change the EXIF and a validator will report that the content no longer matches its credentials. C2PA Content Credentials explained covers why, and the Content Credentials checker shows whether a file has a manifest at all.
- It isn't proof of anything. Anyone can write any date or location into EXIF in a few seconds. That cuts both ways: an edited date doesn't make a photo's story true, and an EXIF date on someone else's photo isn't evidence either.
- Your edit may not survive sharing. Many platforms strip EXIF from the copies they serve, so a corrected date or a copyright tag can vanish on upload. See which platforms strip EXIF.
- Editing isn't removing. Changing a GPS value to a different place still tells people where the photo "was". If the goal is privacy, delete the fields instead. The metadata cleaner rebuilds the image from pixels in your browser, which drops EXIF, XMP, IPTC and C2PA together. The trade-off: a JPEG is re-encoded at quality 0.95, so it isn't bit-identical to the original.
Questions people ask
Can I edit EXIF data on iPhone without an app? Yes, for date, time and location, using Adjust in the Photos info panel. Other fields, such as author or camera model, need a separate tool.
Does editing EXIF reduce image quality? Not with a tool that only rewrites metadata, like ExifTool. A tool that re-saves the image (an editor's "Save as", or a cleaner that rebuilds the file) re-encodes the pixels.
Why does my photo still show the old date after I changed it? Usually because the edit lives in the app's library and the file kept the original, or because only one of several date fields changed. Check the file with -G1 as above.
Can I change the camera model? ExifTool can write Make and Model. The maker notes keep the camera's own data unless you remove them too, so the file will still contain what the camera wrote.
The short version
Photo apps change the date and location their library shows, and Google says downloaded or shared copies can still carry the originals. Windows edits a few text fields in the file. ExifTool edits any field in the file, without touching the pixels. Dates and locations are often stored in several places, so change them all, then check the exported copy before you trust the edit. And if the real goal is privacy, delete the metadata instead of rewriting it. Does cropping a photo remove metadata? explains what everyday edits leave behind.