Photos app not showing images in date captured order

Question

Photos app not showing images in date captured order

The issue is with Photos on my Mac (running Sequoia 15.5). The Photos app is the latest version available to me, as is MacOS.

I have just imported some 2,750 photos into Photos following a family event. The huge majority of these were taken by the photographer with a professional camera. All are time/date stamped, but not GPS tagged. There are also quite a few photos taken on various smartphones, mostly iPhones of varying ages, some Android photos. All are time/date stamped and most appear to be GPS tagged.

When I view these images in Photos they aren't in correct time/date order. I have Sort set to "Keep sorted by oldest capture date". I can't begin to work out what order the photos are displayed in, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

I have searched this support forum as well as the wider internet and the general solution offered relates to Time Zones - this doesn't apply here as all photos were taken on the same day in the UK (same time zone).

It means we cannot properly view these photos in chronological order and it's very frustrating. Does anyone have any suggested solutions?

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 23, 2025 10:36 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

16,011 points

Jul 23, 2025 11:05 AM in response to Lord Vader UK

I remember a trip to Ireland (before GPS, etc) and trying to synchronize the pictures from four different cameras. The thing is, different cameras may treat times and dates in a different way. People don't always think to set the time zone or the clock. As you suspect, it's unlikely that they're simply random, but when you put them all together, it looks that way.

The Info window should show the kind of camera, so the first thing that I would do is make a Smart Album for each kind of camera, like this:

Then you can see if a single camera has the pictures in the order you expect, even if the times don't agree with others. If the cameras are consistent, then you find a picture from that camera that's taken at the same time as another camera, so you can see how different they are. Then you can select all and use the "Image>Adjust Date and Time" fix all of them at once.

If the cameras are all self-consistent, then you just have to separate them and fix each set. Of course, two iPhone 14s, for instance, may mean you have to separate in another way. iLet us know how this goes--

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Answer 2

Jul 23, 2025 12:59 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you for this suggestion - setting up a smart album allowed me to separate out the photographer's photos. I still don't know why the other photos don't sort correctly - having examined a subset they all seem to have the correct timings - but getting at the 'official' photos has solved the issue, at least enough for me to achieve what I needed. Thank you!

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

214,380 points

Jul 23, 2025 11:00 AM in response to Lord Vader UK

What view in the library are you using ?

The screenshot below shows the various photos sort order available in different views:

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