For Your Scanned Family Photos

Every photo you scan is stamped with the day you scanned it, not the day it was taken. Timeline Scan finds each photo's real date and puts your collection back in order.

Your photo library without Timeline Scan

All your scanned photos land here

Hard to find. Hard to enjoy. Just sitting there, out of time.

  • Free to try
  • No credit card to start
  • Pictures untouched: we only fix the dates

How It Works

Four simple steps. No technical skill needed.

1

Upload your scans

Drag your scanned photos onto the page: JPEG or TIFF. A single shoebox or the whole attic.

2

We date each photo

Handwriting on the back, printed timestamps, and film-era clues: every signal counts. Close the tab; we'll email you when it's done.

3

Sharpen the dates

Happy with the results? You're done. Or tag the people you know: names and birth years anchor a second, sharper dating pass. Included, and entirely optional.

4

Enjoy them in order

Download your photos with the real dates written inside, or send them straight to your photo app, sorted into the right years.

Your original pictures are never altered: we only correct the date stored inside each file, the same date Google Photos, Apple Photos, and Immich use to sort your library. That one fix is how we automatically organize scanned photos, in your folders and in your photo app alike.

Date estimation

How We Find Each Photo's Real Date

Wondering how we could know? Your photos already carry the clues: we read them all.

File context

Folder and file names

A folder named 2011 anchors every photo inside it. A filename like Jul89_001.jpg narrows just that one photo.

Visible dates

Front and back timestamps

Printed date stamps, lab marks, and faint back-of-photo timestamps often narrow the estimate faster than visual clues alone.

Handwriting

Notes on the back

Handwritten dates, names, places, and captions are read and used as direct evidence when they are present.

People

Faces and age clues

Tag the people you know after your first results: birth years and apparent ages rule out years that do not fit the people in the photo.

Photo content

Context inside the image

Clothing, hairstyles, cars, decor, print borders, color, and film character all help identify the likely era.

Sequence

Neighboring photos

Photos scanned in alphabetical order often belong together, so nearby files can give useful context to each other.

Getting your photos back

Download them, or send them straight to your library.

Every finished archive comes back to you. Keep the files, send them to your library, or both. They land in date order either way.

The Timeline Scan iPhone app finds the scans stuck on the wrong date in your Photos library and writes the corrected dates back, right on your phone.

Dates fixed in place, in Photos and inside each file. Your full-size originals never leave your phone.

See how it works

Google Photos

Export only

We add your dated photos straight to your Google Photos library, in date order. Album optional.

An export, not an import: we can't see or change what's already in your library. Google accepts no face names from any app, and handwriting notes appear under “Other” in the info panel.

See what transfers

Import from your self-hosted server, then we write the corrected dates straight back onto your photos.

Dates, notes, rotation, and tagged faces, updated in place. Your original files are never touched.

See what syncs

File Download

Always included

Save the dated originals to your computer. Organize them as you uploaded them, oldest to newest, by year, or by person.

  • Your Family Photos
  • 1962 31 photos
  • 1974 48 photos
  • 1987 26 photos

Dates, notes, and names are written inside every file, so any photo app can read them. No lock-in.

See the folder layouts