DateTimeOriginal: What This Metadata Tag Means
DateTimeOriginal is the EXIF tag that records when a photo was taken, by the camera’s own clock. It is the most reliable capture date in a photo.
Last updated: November 13, 2026
What it means
DateTimeOriginal stores the date and time the shutter fired, written as year:month:day hour:minute:second. Photo apps use it to sort pictures by when they were taken, and the “Date taken” highlight in ExifMeta reads it first.
Example
- Tag
- DateTimeOriginal
- Group in ExifMeta
- EXIF
- Example value
- 2026:10:06 14:32:05
This is how the tag appears in ExifMeta’s results. The value in your file will differ.
Typical values
The format is always YYYY:MM:DD HH:MM:SS, with colons in the date as well as the time, for example 2026:10:06 14:32:05. A value of 0000:00:00 00:00:00 or an empty field means the camera wrote no real date. Fractions of a second, when recorded, are in SubSecTimeOriginal.
Where it comes from
The camera or phone writes it at the moment of capture, using its own clock and local time. The tag has no time zone; newer devices store the offset separately in OffsetTimeOriginal.
What it is useful for
It is the date to check when you need to know when a picture was taken: sorting an archive, building a timeline, or testing whether a photo really shows the event it is said to show. Comparing it with ModifyDate shows whether the file was saved again later.
Watch out for
If the camera clock was wrong or never set, this date is wrong too. Most editors keep it unchanged, but some export tools drop it, and anyone can rewrite it with metadata software. Treat it as evidence, not proof.
Find it in your file
Upload a file to ExifMeta, then type DateTimeOriginal into the “Search tags and values” box under All metadata. If nothing matches, the file does not contain this tag.
Learn more in the guide: How to Check When a Photo Was Taken (Date Taken)
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