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Move a Google Takeout to Synology Photos with the real dates

Photos show the wrong date after Google Takeout? This puts the real date taken, the location and, if you want, the caption back inside every photo and video.

1
Add your Takeout
ZIP files or the extracted folder
2
Check the matches
Free, offline, nothing is written
3
Write the fixed files
To a folder or a ZIP

Drop your Takeout .zip files or the extracted folder

Add every part at once (takeout-…-001.zip, -002.zip …): a photo's JSON can sit in another part.

Free: scan and preview everything, fix up to 25 files. Day Pass or Pro: unlimited. See plans

Runs in your browser. Your photos never leave this device.

The only request during a job checks your plan. It sends the tool name and a file-count range, never file names or contents.

Check it yourself: open your browser's network tab while the tool runs, or switch off Wi-Fi after the page has loaded. The job still works.

How to download your Takeout

Omnvert is not affiliated with Google, Meta or Microsoft. Works with Google Takeout exports.

Synology's own guide to moving from Google Photos says that the time and location in a Takeout sit in .json files that Synology Photos cannot recognize. Synology Photos dates a photo from its EXIF data and, when there is none, falls back to the upload time or the last modified time. This page opens the fixer with the Takeout folders kept as they are: write the dates into the files, then copy the folder onto the NAS.

Synology Photos reads
Exif DateTimeOriginal, DateTime, DateTimeDigitized
Without them
The upload time or the last modified time
The fixer writes
DateTimeOriginal and its offset in JPEGs, creation time in MP4 and MOV
Put files in
/home/Photos (Personal) or /photo (Shared)

This page opens the fixer with the Takeout folders kept as they are. Checked: October 2026.

Personal Space or Shared Space

Every user who may use Synology Photos gets a Personal Space in the folder /home/Photos; it needs the user home service, which an administrator turns on in DSM under Control Panel > User & Group > Advanced > User Home. Shared Space keeps its files in the shared folder /photo, and its folder permissions are set by an administrator. Choose before copying: a Takeout of one person's library usually belongs in that person's Personal Space.

Copy the folder, then let it index

You can upload in the Synology Photos web portal (drag and drop takes up to 5,000 files per upload, and folder upload works in Chrome and Edge), back up from the mobile app, or copy files into /home/Photos or /photo with File Station, over SMB or with Synology Drive Client. For a whole Takeout, copying the fixed folder over SMB is the straightforward way. Synology notes that indexing uploaded items takes a while; if dates still look wrong afterwards, re-index under the Account icon > Settings > Personal (or Shared Space) > Indexing > Re-index.

Videos

For videos, Synology lists XMP fields (Xmp.xmp.com.apple.quicktime.creationdate and Xmp.video.DateUTC) rather than the creation time in the MP4 or MOV header, which is what the fixer writes. Synology does not document whether one fills the other, so check a few videos after indexing; when Synology finds no usable date it falls back to the upload time or the last modified time, and the set-dates scripts the fixer writes in folder mode set the last modified time to the date taken.

How to do it

  1. 1Add every .zip part of your Takeout below, or the folder you extracted them to.
  2. 2Check the preview and write the fixed files to a folder (Chrome, Edge) or a ZIP that you then unzip.
  3. 3Optional: run set-dates.ps1 (Windows) or set-dates.sh (Mac, Linux) in the fixed folder, so the modified dates match too.
  4. 4Copy the fixed folder into /home/Photos for Personal Space or /photo for Shared Space, with File Station, SMB or Synology Drive Client.
  5. 5Wait for indexing, then open the timeline and check a few photos and videos.
  6. 6If something did not move, re-index the space under Settings > Indexing.
Fix the dates first

Known pitfalls

  • Copying the unfixed Takeout first and fixing afterwards leaves you with two copies; fix on your computer, then copy once.
  • HEIC photos and HEVC videos added through the web portal, File Station or SMB need Synology Image Assistant to get previews in the web portal. The fixer copies HEIC files unchanged in this version.
  • Synology Photos writes date edits back only into JPG, JPEG, JPE, PNG and CR2 files, never into videos, so a video dated wrongly is better fixed before it reaches the NAS.
  • Synology's guide also mentions a third-party script for Takeout and says that method does not apply to videos. The fixer writes the creation time into MP4 and MOV files as well as the photos.

Questions

Why does the date in Synology Photos match the day I copied the files?

Because the file had no EXIF date, so Synology fell back to the upload or modified time. That is the case the fixer solves: it writes the date from Google's JSON into the file.

Does it matter which folder I copy into?

Yes. Synology's FAQ says that moving a folder into /home/Photos or /photo is what makes its photos viewable in Synology Photos. Pick "By date (YYYY/MM)" in the fixer's options if you would rather have year and month folders inside it.

Are my photos uploaded to Omnvert?

No. The fixer runs in your browser tab: the archives are read from your disk and the fixed files are written back to your disk.

What does it cost?

Scanning and the full preview are free. Writing is free for up to 25 files per job; one credit covers a whole job, and a Day Pass or Pro covers unlimited jobs.

Sources

The app-specific steps and behaviour above were checked against these official pages:

Omnvert is not affiliated with Google, Meta or Microsoft. Synology is a trademark of Synology Inc. Omnvert is not affiliated with Synology.