Unofficial archive. This is a read-only, community-run archive of the Apple Support Community. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc.
Silversister
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Cannot correct future dates on photos downloaded to iPhone

Hello. I downloaded a large number of photos from Picasso (merged with google I think) and unfortunately alot of then have a future date of 2037. I was able to change the date on them but only by 3 years. It won't go back any further. Wondering if anyone has a fix for this? On my iphone the photos are always at the end because of the date. They are probably from 2011. If I sort by date - they are always at the end. If I sort by when added - again they are at the end because they recently were added. Please help

Posted on Oct 10, 2026 2:28 PM

8 replies

Silversister Author
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Oct 11, 2026 7:18 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I tried to duplicate one picture and it allowed me to change it to the correct date. So I may just duplicate all and change the dates on the copies. Thanks so much!!!

Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)

Oct 11, 2026 7:09 AM in response to Silversister

Silversister wrote:…a future date of 2037. I was able to change the date on them but only by 3 years.

That's weird. Corruptions can sneak into picture files. I would try to duplicate one of the pictures and see if you can change its date. Or export to Finder, and re-import.


You might learn something by using the free ExifTool Reader app. You can drag a picture from Photos to it, and learn a lot about its metadata. For instance, I looked at a 2011 picture, and it had

[ExifIFD] DateTimeOriginal : 2011:04:21 15:05:03

[ExifIFD] CreateDate : 2011:04:21 15:05:03


It would be interesting find what these pictures of yours say.


Just to be sure, you should try these two steps:

  1. Restart the computer (of course)
  2. Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this: 

           Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 




Silversister Author
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Oct 11, 2026 6:19 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Doing it on my MacBook. When I do that it doesn’t change. I am able to scroll the date back but it doesn’t hold. When I first tried it I recall it saying I could only move it back 3 years for some reason. I will check to see if I have all the updates.

Matti Haveri
User level: Level 7 (22,314 points)

Oct 11, 2026 6:44 AM in response to Silversister

Is the Photos library on the internal or external disk?


Ob notice: don't use any 3rd party virus apps or "cleaners" because they produce obscure errors like this and corruption. macOS built-in security is all you need.

Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)

Oct 11, 2026 8:08 AM in response to Silversister

Silversister wrote: tried to duplicate one picture and it allowed me to change it to the correct date. So I may just duplicate all and change the dates on the copies. Thanks so much!!!

That's great! Photos works hard on importing pictures to fix some corruptions, so I'm glad that worked!

Matti Haveri
User level: Level 7 (22,314 points)

Oct 10, 2026 11:45 PM in response to Silversister

Are you trying this on iPhone or Mac? Works for me in macOS 27.0.1 and iOS 16.7.16 (if the .jpg images have EXIF data or not):

Silversister Author
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Oct 11, 2026 6:48 AM in response to Matti Haveri

internal

Silversister Author
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Oct 11, 2026 6:53 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Just downloading the macOS 27.0.1. I don’t see the other update avail to me.

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256373877