Wrong timestamp when downloading photos from google photos

Here is a brief AppleScript that can access the internal image EXIF data written by the camera. In particularly, it prompts you for the camera image, and outputs a dialog containing the DateTimeOriginal field (when the picture was taken).

1. You can launch Script Editor from Dock : Launchpad : Other : Script Editor.
2. Copy and paste the following code into Script Editor, and click the hammer icon (compile).
3. Click Run, and it will open a file chooser on your Pictures folder. Select one image file.
4. A dialog will appear showing the internal date (DateTimeOriginal) that the picture was taken.

Output:

Note: if you click the document icon on the bottom toolbar of Script Editor, when you run the script, you can see all of the other EXIF data information for the image.

use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit" -- for image stuff

set valid_types to {"public.jpeg", "public.camera-raw-image"}

set POSIXPath to POSIX path of (choose file of type valid_types default location (path to pictures folder))
set DTO to DateTimeOriginal of (my readEXIFFromJpeg:POSIXPath)
if exists DTO then
	display dialog "DateTimeOriginal: " & DateTimeOriginal of (my readEXIFFromJpeg:POSIXPath) with title "EXIF Data"
end if

return

on readEXIFFromJpeg:POSIXPath
	set theImageRep to current application's NSBitmapImageRep's imageRepWithContentsOfFile:POSIXPath
	set theEXIFData to theImageRep's valueForProperty:(current application's NSImageEXIFData)
	if theEXIFData is missing value then return false
	log (theEXIFData) as record
	return theEXIFData as record
end readEXIFFromJpeg:

Because you are looking at file system information. The file you just created couldn't possibly have been created when the photo was taken because you downloaded it at a later time.

The file isn't the photo. It's just a container that holds the photo. Most cameras will embed EXIF data into the photo file which contains the metadata about the photo. If Goolag Photos exports that info when you download the photo, it should be still embedded in the photo.

In Finder, Show the Preview (View Menu) and see if the content creation date is what you expect. Use the Show More button to display the content created date. If that doesn't appear, it wasn't provided by Goolag Photos.