PowerShell: Google Takeout photo metadata fixer

This repo contains a PowerShell script that embeds Google Takeout sidecar JSON metadata into your image files (EXIF/XMP) using ExifTool.

What it does

Update-GoogleTakeoutPhotoMetadata.ps1:

• Recursively scans a folder for Google Takeout sidecar files:
  • photo.jpg.supplemental-metadata.json
  • photo.jpg.suppl.json
  • photo.jpg.json
• Pairs each sidecar to its image and writes metadata with ExifTool:
  • Date/time: DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate, ModifyDate
  • GPS: latitude/longitude (and altitude if available)
  • Text: description/title (writes to common EXIF/XMP + Windows XP fields)
• Skips files it can’t use (missing image, invalid JSON, no usable fields, etc.)
• Prints a per-file summary for updates and a final total.

Requirements

• Windows PowerShell 5.1+ (or PowerShell 7+ should also work)
• ExifTool for Windows (exiftool.exe)
  • Install from https://exiftool.org/
  • Either put exiftool.exe on your PATH, or pass -ExifToolPath.

Usage

Run on a Takeout folder

.\Update-GoogleTakeoutPhotoMetadata.ps1 -RootPath "D:\Takeout\Google Photos"

Dry run (no writes)

.\Update-GoogleTakeoutPhotoMetadata.ps1 -RootPath "D:\Takeout\Google Photos" -DryRun

If ExifTool is not on PATH

.\Update-GoogleTakeoutPhotoMetadata.ps1 -RootPath "D:\Takeout\Google Photos" -ExifToolPath "C:\Tools\exiftool\exiftool.exe"

Notes / behavior details

• Timestamp source: prefers photoTakenTime; falls back to creationTime.
• Timezone: written as UTC (Unix timestamps from Takeout are interpreted as UTC).
• Sidecar variants:
  • When processing *.supplemental-metadata.json or *.suppl.json, if a plain *.json also exists, the script merges missing fields from the plain JSON (time, geo, title, description).
• No backup files: ExifTool runs with -overwrite_original_in_place (no *_original files).
• Supported image types: common formats like JPG/PNG/TIFF/HEIC/WebP/GIF and several RAW formats (see script’s $ImageExtensions).

Example data

The example/ folder contains sample images and *.supplemental-metadata.json sidecars you can use to test the script on a small subset.