Step by step
- Export: at takeout.google.com select Google Photos, choose .zip, and download every part. Takeout can also deliver the archive to OneDrive, but that only stores the ZIP files there — download them to your computer to fix them.
- Fix: drop all parts above. Tick Skip album copies of photos that are also in a year folder or choose Sort into YYYY/MM folders: OneDrive keeps every copy, so album copies would show up twice.
- Extract: unpack the fixed ZIP(s) into one folder.
- With the OneDrive desktop app (Windows or Mac): move the folder into your OneDrive folder, for example into Pictures. It uploads in the background and keeps each file's modified date.
- Without the desktop app: at onedrive.live.com choose Upload → Folder (Edge or Chrome) and pick the folder. Check a few files afterwards — see below.
What carries the date in OneDrive
- JPEG and HEIC: the date taken in EXIF, written or kept by the tool. This is the date OneDrive reads as the photo's date taken.
- MP4 and MOV: the creation time in the video header, filled when it was empty or only the upload time. Microsoft does not document which video date OneDrive shows, so the file date matters too.
- PNG, GIF and other formats: only the file date. Keep it by using the desktop app: Microsoft's answers say the browser upload may record the upload time instead.
Why not a direct import from Google Photos?
Since Google restricted its Photos API in 2025, other services can no longer read a whole Google Photos library for you. Takeout is the route that works for everything, and fixing it first is what keeps the dates.
Frequently asked questions
Does this upload my photos to OneDrive?
No. It only fixes the archive on your computer. You put the fixed files into OneDrive yourself, so your Microsoft account is never involved here.
Will OneDrive keep the file dates?
The OneDrive desktop app keeps a file's modified date when it uploads it. For the browser upload Microsoft does not promise that, so prefer the desktop app for files whose only date is the file date (PNG, GIF, screenshots without EXIF).
Which files get their date written inside?
JPEG photos get the date (and, if missing, the location) written into their EXIF data, the place photo apps read first. HEIC photos get the same in their EXIF block when they have one, as iPhone photos do; a HEIC without an EXIF block gets the file date only. MP4, MOV, M4V and 3GP videos get the date in their movie and track headers — the "creation time" video apps read — changed in place, without re-encoding. PNG, GIF, WebP, AVI, MKV and other formats are not modified: they get the date as their file date (the "modified" date) when you extract the fixed ZIP.
My Takeout has several 50 GB parts. Will this work?
It is built for that. The tool reads only each ZIP's table of contents and the small JSON files up front, then copies every file's compressed bytes straight into the new archive. For a file stored uncompressed in the ZIP it reads just the header it edits; only a compressed file it edits is unpacked in memory, one at a time (up to 256 MB). In Chrome and Edge the fixed archives are written directly to a folder you pick, so their size is limited only by your disk. Firefox and Safari build each fixed archive as a download; when one holds more than about 1 GB of rewritten files it is split into several ZIPs.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. The ZIP files are read by your browser on your own computer and the fixed archive is written there too. Nothing is sent to a server — you can disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded and it still works.