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When you move photos from Google Photos to Apple Photos, the dates on your photos can appear wrong — photos from 2015 might show up as imported today. This happens because the date information is stored separately from the photo file in Google's JSON sidecar files.
The problem:
Google Takeout exports each photo along with a matching .json file (e.g., "IMG_1234.jpg" and "IMG_1234.jpg.json"). The JSON file contains the correct creation date, GPS coordinates, and album information. Apple Photos reads the date from the EXIF data inside the image file — not from the sidecar. If Google's EXIF data was never written or was overwritten, the date is lost.
The audit — using the Google Photos Metadata Audit:
1. Download your Google Photos library via Google Takeout:
- Go to takeout.google.com
- Deselect all, then enable "Google Photos"
- Export in the original file format (not HEIC conversion)
- Download all ZIP files
2. Upload one Google Photos Takeout ZIP to the audit tool.
3. The tool matches media filenames to JSON sidecars and previews the dates, GPS coordinates, descriptions, and titles available in those sidecars.
4. Download the free manifest CSV. It lists matched sidecars and metadata that may need to be restored.
5. Use the manifest as a review checklist with Apple Photos, Preview, ExifTool, or another metadata editor. The beta does not edit photos or write EXIF data.
6. Import photos into Apple Photos only after you have made and verified any needed metadata changes:
- Open Photos on Mac
- File → Import → select the folder or files
- Apple Photos will use the EXIF dates — your timeline will be correct
Tips:
- Keep the original Takeout ZIP unchanged as a backup.
- Test a small batch before changing or importing an entire library.
- If you see duplicates, use Photos → Image → Merge to combine them.