Google Takeout to Immich or Synology: Fix the Dates Before You Import
You're leaving Google Photos for a self-hosted library — Immich, Synology Photos, PhotoPrism, or just plain folders on a NAS. You import your Takeout export, open the timeline, and every photo is dated today. The export is the root problem, not your new app, and it's far easier to fix before you import than after.
Why every photo shows the import date
Google Takeout has a habit of writing export-day file dates on the images while keeping the real dates in separate JSON sidecar files. The pixels arrive fine; the dates arrive next to the photos instead of inside them.
Your self-hosted app then does the only thing it can. It reads the image file, finds no valid EXIF date — or an export-day one — and falls back to the file-modified time or the moment of import. The symptom goes by different names — Immich Google Takeout wrong date, Synology Photos Google Takeout dates all showing this week — but it's one problem: the real dates never made it into the files.
Immich specifics
If Immich is your destination, the community-standard route is immich-go, an open-source uploader that reads Takeout archives and applies the JSON metadata during upload. For many libraries it's exactly the right tool.
Even so, users report date issues in Immich's tracker when the EXIF date and the file dates disagree. The more robust order is to fix the EXIF inside the files first, then import. Corrected files work in any future app, not just Immich — if you move again in three years, the dates travel with the photos.
Synology and everything else
Synology Photos, PhotoPrism, digiKam, and plain file browsers all sort primarily by the EXIF date-taken field, falling back to file dates when EXIF is missing. That's the whole argument for fixing the files rather than the app: do it once and every current and future tool gets it right. A self-hosted photos Takeout import stops being an app-by-app puzzle and becomes a one-time repair.
The safe migration order
- Extract all the Takeout ZIPs into one folder tree.
- Merge the JSON metadata into the files. ExifTool can do it from the command line, GPTH does the same job, or use PhotoDate — the browser tool we're building: nothing uploads, and early access is free.
- Spot-check a few files and confirm the date taken is the real date, not export day.
- Import into the new home — Immich, Synology Photos, wherever you've landed.
- Keep the original Takeout archive until you've verified the new library sorts correctly.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Immich show all my Google Photos dated today?
Google Takeout often writes export-day dates on the image files and keeps the real dates in separate JSON sidecar files. Immich reads the image files, finds no valid date taken or an export-day one, and falls back to the file date or the import time. Merge the JSON metadata into the files before importing and the real dates come back.
Should I fix dates before or after importing into Immich or Synology?
Before. Corrections written inside the files survive any migration: Immich, Synology Photos, PhotoPrism, or whatever you move to next all read the same EXIF date. Fixing dates inside one app only patches that app's own database.
What is immich-go?
A community open-source tool that uploads Google Takeout exports to Immich and applies the JSON sidecar metadata during the upload. It's the community-standard route for Takeout imports. Fixing the EXIF dates inside the files first is still the more robust order, because corrected files work in any app, not just Immich.
Migrating a big library?
Join the free early access and fix your Takeout dates in the browser before you import — nothing uploads.
Join free early access