FAQ

Common questions and answers about our tool

Why do I need this?

When exporting from Google Takeout, your photos and videos may not have any of their metadata information written on them making it very hard to upload your library elsewhere and maintain their chronological order, GPS data, and other information. This tool will help you recover that and fix your images.

What metadata does Metadata Fixer restore?

Metadata Fixer helps recover and restore various types of metadata that Google strips from your photos.

Here's what we can fix:

📍 Location Information (When GPS was enabled on your device)
GPS Coordinates - Restore latitude, longitude, and altitude data
Location Names - Derive and restore city names from photo coordinates

🏷️ Tags & Keywords
Keywords - Recover searchable tags and labels you've added
Subject Tags - Restore additional categorization tags

📝 Descriptions & Captions
Photo Descriptions - Restore main description text
Image Captions - Recover caption and abstract text
Comments - Restore user comments and notes

📅 Date & Time Information
Original Capture Date - Fix the date and time when the photo was actually taken
Creation Date - Restore when the file was created
File System Date - Correct the system file creation timestamp

👥 People Information
People Tags - Restore names of people identified in your images

🎥 Video-Specific Metadata
Recording Date - Fix when the video was originally recorded
Track Information - Restore video track creation and modification dates
QuickTime Metadata - Recover comprehensive video metadata, including GPS coordinates for videos

Note: The availability of metadata restoration depends on whether this information existed in your original files.

How does this software work?

We use Phil Harvey's ExifTool to go through each media files and find their corresponding .json file containing all their metadata. We then merge the two so that your images and videos contain their correct metadata.

What's the demo?

The demo offers the exact same functionality as the full version but limits you to 100 photos and videos to give you a chance to try our service. If you think this can help your photo library, please consider getting the full version.

Why does this cost money?

After experiencing a lot of frustration with Google Takeout's messy export ourselves, we decided to create a simple interface to make the whole process seamless and stress-free. Pictures are important memories and we know the feeling of having them all left unsorted, especially when trying to import them elsewhere. This tool took a lot of time to create, test, and to make sure it processed all files from a typical Google Takeout library while being in an easy-to-use interface, and so we felt that it was fair to ask for a small fee to help maintain it.

How do I get help if I come across a bug?

We're constantly trying to improve this tool and make it easier for you to process your pictures! Please start by checking our Support Page for common problems. If you come across any other bug or issue that prevents you from processing all your photos and videos properly, please contact us so we can help you resolve the issue as soon as possible.

What file types do you support?

We support all file types that ExifTool supports, including:

  • Photos: JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEIC, HEIF, DNG, CR2, CR3, NEF, EXR, BMP, SR2, ORF, RAW, 360, 3FR, WEBP, JP2, EPS, EXIF, ICO, ARW
  • Videos: MOV, MP4, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, WMV, TOD, MTS, MOD, MMV, MKV, M4V, M2TS, M2T, DIVX, AVI, ASF, 3G2, WEBM

Note about MPG/MPEG and AVI: For these file types, we write the date and time to the Modified Date field as a fallback since systems like Synology can still use that correctly.

Note about HEIC files: There have been issues writing metadata to some HEIC files where they seem to be corrupted from Google Photos. These photos are still viewable and importable elsewhere, but we can't write to them, which may be due to the way Google Photos exports them.

Do you issue refunds?

We do not issue refunds for accidental purchases. It is your responsibility to use the demo before purchasing the software.

Please check our Support Page for common problems, and contact us if you find any errors in the Console Log (see Support Page).

We'll work with you to get the issue resolved and to make sure you're satisfied.

Please note that we will not refund purchases for issues outside our control such as missing file or information from Google Takeout archive. Please use the Demo first to make sure it works before buying. We require a copy of your Log (see Support Page) before issuing a refund for technical issues.

What operating systems are supported?

Metadata Fixer is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can download the appropriate version for your operating system from our download page.

Can I process folders directly, or do I need ZIP files?

You can process both ZIP files and folders directly. If you've already extracted your Google Takeout archives, you can simply select the folder containing your photos and videos. The software will automatically detect and process all media files within the folder structure.

What happens to files without metadata?

By default, files without corresponding JSON metadata files are processed normally. However, you can enable an option to move these files to a separate "Files Without Metadata" folder. This helps organize your processed files and makes it easier to identify which files couldn't be matched with their metadata. You can enable or disable this option in the processing settings.

What if my ZIP files are corrupted?

The software automatically checks ZIP archives for corruption before processing. If a corrupted archive is detected, you'll receive a clear error message identifying the problematic file. This helps you identify issues early and avoid wasting time on archives that would fail during extraction. If you encounter corrupted archives, try re-downloading them from Google Takeout.

Restoring Your Purchase

To restore your purchase on another computer, please email us for a code.