Saved Signal photos have the wrong date?

You saved photos from Signal, or copied them to a computer or a new phone. Now they sit together on one day in your gallery, Google Photos, Apple Photos or Immich, not on the days they were sent.

Why it happens

Photo apps sort by the "date taken" stored inside each file, in a block called EXIF. Signal is built for privacy and removes that kind of information from photos when they're sent, so a saved Signal photo usually has no date inside it.

With nothing inside, gallery apps use the file's "created" or "modified" date: the moment you saved it, or the day you copied it somewhere else.

The date is in the file name

When Signal saves a picture that has no name of its own, it names it after the message time:

signal-2024-01-05-14-32-10-123.jpg  ← current Signal (phone and desktop)
signal-2024-01-05-143210.jpg        ← older Signal for Android

That's 5 January 2024 at 2:32:10 pm, in the time zone of the device that saved it. The format comes from Signal's own open-source code.

If the sender's file kept its own name (say IMG_1234.jpg), Signal saves it under that name instead, and there's no date to read.

How to fix it (free)

Copy the saved Signal photos to a computer.
Open the Photo Date Fixer in Chrome or Edge and choose that folder. Nothing is uploaded.
Check the time zone, then pick an empty folder. Fixed copies are saved there with the same names and the date inside.
Copy the fixed photos back to your phone or import them into your photo app.

Photos that already have a date inside are left alone. Videos get the date written into the video file too.

Fix my Signal photos: it's free