Have you ever imported photos from your camera into the Mac Photos app only to find that they aren’t sorted chronologically? Even though the images contain the correct date and time on your camera, Photos may still display them out of order.
Sometimes, when you go to File -> View -> Sort, the option “Keep Sorted by Oldest Capture Date” is grayed out, and the imported photos won’t appear in the correct chronological order. Fortunately, there are reliable ways to fix this issue.
Step 1. Check Each Photo’s Date and Time
Open Mac Photos, select one of the photos that appears in the wrong order. Click the Info (i) button.
The information window will display details such as filename, title, camera information, and the photo’s date and time.
If the displayed photo date is different from your actual shooting date and time, Photos may be using the import date instead of the original capture date. This is often the reason photos appear out of order.
Step 2. Fix a Few Photos in Photos App
If you just imported a few photos and they were taken at roughly the same time:
1. Open the Photos app. Select the photos you want to fix.
2. Go to Image -> Adjust Date and Time….
3. Set the correct shooting date and time. This will force Photos to display them in proper chronological order.
Step 3. Batch Fix Photos with Photo Exifer
If you have many photos that they were taken at different years and months, manually adjusting each one is not practical. Instead, you can use Photo Exifer, a third-party Mac app that lets you batch-edit photo metadata, including capture dates.
Option A: Copy Original EXIF Date to Photo Library Date
1. Download and install Photo Exifer on your Mac.
2. Open Photo Exifer and go to the Photo Library tab, select the photos you want to fix. Click Quick Action -> Batch Edit Photo Date in the Photo Library -> Use Original Photo Camera Date as the Library Date.
This automatically replaces the Photos app’s import date with the original shooting date from the photo’s EXIF metadata.
Option B: Manually Edit or Add Missing Dates
If some photos are missing or contain incorrect EXIF date information:
1. Select the affected photos in Photo Exifer. Go to Quick Action -> Batch Edit Photo Date in the Photo Library -> Edit Photo Library Date.
A pop-up window will contain three editing methods:
• Add or Subtract: Adjust by years, months, days, or hours.
• Set a Specific Date/Time: Assign the same date/time to multiple photos.
• Adjust by Offset: Shift photo times by a certain number of hours/minutes.
Choose one of three editing methods, and click Save Changes to apply.
Bonus: Edit More Metadata in Bulk
In addition to fixing dates, Photo Exifer also allows you to batch-edit: Photo titles, Keywords, Captions, Camera information and other metadata tags that Mac Photos doesn’t support natively.
Final Tip: If you want your photos to always appear in chronological order inside Mac Photos, make sure the EXIF capture date is correct before importing. Tools like Photo Exifer make it much easier to keep your library organized.
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