View EXIF "date/time taken" in a JPG photo

Displaying EXIF date/time taken

JPG photos will contain EXIF metadata which gives information about the time and date the photo was taken, the phone/camera model used to take it, and the technical settings such as focal length and ISO speed. The date and time taken, including the seconds, can be used as a unique reference for a photo. 

To display the date/time taken you can use Acute Photo EXIF Viewer on a Windows system (if the JPGs are not currently on a Windows system, compress the JPGs into a 7-ZIP or RAR file and email that to yourself and then open the email on your Windows computer and extract the files, or else use a USB cable to plug the device where the JPGs are into a Windows computer).  

 An example of the display using Acute Photo EXIF Viewer can be seen below. 

The ISO speed number (which shows that the JPG was produced by a camera rather than being a scan) is circled in red and, above that, the camera make and model is also circled in red just below the EXIF date/time the photo was taken which is separate from the ordinary file-system date/time circled in blue (which happens to be the same in this example but will not always necessarily be so if the JPG has been copied from one device to another).

Doing a basic check that EXIF camera-specific metadata is present

Many apps which display EXIF data only display the hours and minutes of date/time taken, not seconds. But the seconds are necessary to uniquely reference a photo as typically several photos will be taken within a few seconds of eachother. However if all you need to do at the present time is confirm that EXIF date/time taken data exists in a JPG (and has not been lost in a copy operation) then you can use one of these apps if convenient.     

Bear in mind, however, that if the app you are using to check whether the JPG has intact EXIF data has a limited panel size it may display the ordinary file-system date/time of a JPG file, if the EXIF date/time taken data is missing, and do so in exactly the same position on the screen. So the mere fact that a date/time is displayed for the JPG does not necessarily mean that there is full intact camera-specific EXIF data. You should look for the ISO number. In the example on the left below the date/time displayed is just the ordinary file-system date/time because the JPG has no EXIF date/time taken tags. In the example in the centre the JPG was created by scanning in a card photo and the limited EXIF data shows the scanner make/model - again the date/time displayed is just the ordinary file-system date/time. It is only in the example on the right that the JPG does have full camera-specific EXIF data - the date/time displayed (in the same position on the display) is the EXIF date/time taken but you only know this because of the fact that other camera-specific EXIF data such as ISO number is also shown.

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 December 2024. Disclaimer