Many Lights Tools

Rename photos by date taken

Choose a set of photos and the tool reads the date taken from Exif and gives each one a name such as “2026-10-11_14-30-05.jpg”. Check the before and after list, then save the renamed copies as a zip. Your original files are not changed. Your photos never leave your browser.

Made for people who want to tidy up camera and phone photos (IMG_1234.JPG and the like) by naming them after the date and time they were taken.

or drop them here

You can choose many photos at once (up to 2,000). They are processed on this device only.

How to use

  1. Choose your photos. You can also drop them onto the page.
  2. Choose the name format (how the date is written, words before and after, a sequence number and so on) and check the before → after list. Photos whose date taken could not be read are marked with a symbol and text.
  3. Press “Save renamed copies as a zip”, then unzip the file the way you usually do.

Frequently asked questions

Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. Reading the date taken, working out the names and building the zip all happen in your browser. The words you type to put before or after the date are not sent either. The page only sends anonymous counts: that a page was opened, and that an action such as "saved" happened. See the Privacy Policy.
Which photo formats can it read the date from?
JPEG, HEIC/HEIF, PNG and TIFF. The tool reads only the parts of the file it needs and uses the Exif “date taken” (DateTimeOriginal). If that is missing it uses “date digitized” (DateTimeDigitized), and if that is missing too, the Exif “date modified” (DateTime). The list shows which one was used. Photos without Exif (screenshots, or photos whose data was stripped when they were passed around in apps) and other formats such as video cannot be read. RAW files built like TIFF (such as DNG) may be readable, but this has not been tested.
What happens to photos whose date taken cannot be read?
By default they are not renamed and are left out of the zip. If you select “Use the file's modified date”, they are named after the file's modified date. That date changes when a file is copied or edited, so it may differ from when the photo was taken. Either way, they are marked with a symbol and text in the list.
Which time zone are the times in?
The tool uses the time written in Exif as it is. That is the time on the camera's (or phone's) clock when the photo was taken. If Exif has a time zone offset (such as +09:00), the list shows it, but times are not converted. If the camera clock was wrong, the names will be wrong in the same way. When the file's modified date is used, the time is in your device's time zone.
What about photos taken in the same second?
When two photos would get the same name, -2, -3 and so on is added to the later ones (names that differ only in upper and lower case count as the same). If you add a sequence number, photos are numbered from 1 in order of date.
Are the photos in the zip the same as my originals?
Yes. The contents are not changed; only the names are (nothing is recompressed). Exif data such as location stays as it is. If you want to remove location data before sharing, do that separately. The file extension is kept as it is, and the modified date inside the zip is the original file's modified date (to 2 seconds). Your original files are not changed.
How many photos can it handle?
Up to 2,000 photos at a time, and the zip has to be under 4 GB in total. You'll see a message if you go over. Split the photos and use the tool several times.
Does it cost anything?
It is free, and there is no sign-up.

Before you use it