Finding the best copy of a JPG or HEIC with EXIF data

If you have a JPG or HEIC photo on your computer, or in fact anywhere other than on the actual device you took it on, before you use it check that it contains EXIF data showing when the photo was taken. If it does not see if you can find a copy of the JPG or HEIC somewhere which does have EXIF data.   

The original JPGs/HEIC on the phone (or SDcard) the photos were taken on is the best place to start but a photo may have been taken some time ago on a mobile phone which has since been traded in for a new phone, or you might have lost a digital camera SDcard, or, even if the original device is available, the original file might have been deleted from it to save space, so you might have look elsewhere for the best copy available (e.g. on other devices or on backup media). 

Whenever you find another copy of the JPG/HEIC, check that it has full EXIF data showing when the photo was taken. 

Here are some possible reasons why a JPG or HEIC might not have full EXIF data showing when the photo was taken:-  

1. If it is a JPG satellite image or street view image supplied by Google, it will not have EXIF data because Google do not provide this.

2. The JPG photo might have been taken some ago using a phone which did not record EXIF data - most phones sold before 2010 did not record EXIF data on photos.

3. It might be that although the original JPG/HEIC did have EXIF data showing when the photo was taken, the copy of the JPG/HEIC you are looking at was copied in such as way that the EXIF data has been stripped off it. For example:

   • you might have moved the photo to a photo storage service in the cloud which, to save storage space, has stored it in "lossy" compressed form (by removing EXIF data and removing many pixels)

   • the copy of the JPG/HEIC you have might have been sent to you by WhatsApp or other messaging system. Such messaging systems typically remove EXIF data and reduce the number of pixels

   • the copy of the JPG/HEIC you have might have been emailed to you or you might have emailed it to yourself as a convenient way of copying it from one device to another. Copying some file types from one device to another by sending them by email can sometimes work satisfactorily but there is a potential trap for the unwary when using email to copy JPGs and HEICs because when you open an email containing a JPG/HEIC it might be displayed as an attachment or it might be displayed inline as part of the message. If it is displayed inline and you then save the inline picture the file as saved may not contain the EXIF metadata. (It is usually possible to save it intact with EXIF data from an email when it is displayed inline but the method needed is not obvious.)

4. The JPG might not be a digital photo at all but might have been created by scanning in a non-digital photo in card form, or by scanning in the negative on a specialist scanner. In this case EXIF data may not be completely absent: there will usually be some limited EXIF data giving the make and model of the scanner, but not the date the photo was taken nor items such as focal length and ISO number, obviously.

5. The JPG might have been created by scanning a photo in card form but that card photo might originally have been printed from a digital photo. EXIF data may not be completely absent: there will usually be some limited EXIF data but it will be EXIF data from the scanning process, not the original EXIF data showing when the photo was taken.

If (1) above applies - if it is a Google satellite image or street view image - that should be obvious. You can't get a copy with EXIF data from Google but what you can do is to obtain a copy of the satellite image or street view image from Google marked with the year and month (street view) or at least the year (satellite images) the image was taken. See here and here. 

If you have the negative then you know that (4) above is the explanation. Similarly if you can tell from the general appearance or features in the photo that it must have been taken before digital cameras existed - or if you are sure that you took it and from features in the photo you know it must have been taken before you first owned a digital camera or smartphone. In all other cases there is the possibility that a JPG/HEIC with EXIF data showing when the photo was taken might exist somewhere. So it is worth checking.   

Disclaimer

This information page is designed to be used only by clients of John Antell who have entered into an agreement for the provision of legal services. The information in it is necessarily of a general nature and will not be applicable to every case: it is intended to be used only in conjunction with more specific advice to the individual client about the individual case. This information page should not be used by, or relied on, by anyone else.

The information on this page about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date at the time it was written but no responsibility for its accuracy, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by me. You should satisfy yourself, before using any of the techniques, software or services described, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.

This page was lasted updated in June 2025. Disclaimer