Which PNG date tag does Google Photos use for the capture date?
Asked 6/2/2019
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I’m uploading PNG screenshots to Google Photos and want them to appear under the correct date taken instead of the upload date. I tried writing PNG metadata with ExifTool, including CreationTime, but Google Photos still shows the upload date. For JPEGs, DateTimeOriginal is typically used. Is there a PNG metadata tag that Google Photos recognizes as the capture date, or does it rely on something else?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
2
PNG metadata is poorly supported by most software, but it looks like in this case, Google has started supporting EXIF data in PNG, which it did not in my previous tests.
If you write to the EXIF:DateTimeOriginal in a PNG, Google photos will correctly read the date/time, at least in my test. It also seemed to support other data written to the EXIF group, including GPS.
PNG:CreationTime still seems to be the proper place to write the date for Windows to read it.
Originally by user37960. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37960
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Based on the reported tests, Google Photos is inconsistent with PNG metadata. While one user found that EXIF:DateTimeOriginal in a PNG was read correctly, multiple later reports say Google Photos ignored PNG EXIF date fields such as DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate, ModifyDate, and CreationTime.
The most reliable result in the shared answers is that Google Photos uses the file system’s File Modification Date/Time for PNGs. In practice, changing the file modification timestamp made the images appear in the correct order/date in Google Photos.
So if your goal is Google Photos compatibility for PNGs, updating the file’s modification time is the safest approach. CreationTime may still be useful for other software (for example, Windows), but it does not appear to be dependable for Google Photos.
In short: there is no clearly reliable PNG metadata tag for Google Photos here; use the file modification timestamp instead.
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AI7y ago
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