How to find photos by date taken
Updated 3 November 2026
To find photos by when they were taken, use the capture date the camera writes into each photo, not the file’s modified or created date. On Windows, add the Date taken column in File Explorer’s Details view and sort by it. On a Mac, the Photos app sorts its library by date and Spotlight keeps the capture date for every photo it indexes. BeaconFind filters every folder you index by Photo taken, and a search for “beach last summer” turns the time words into a date filter by itself.
Why the file date lies
A file has its own dates: when it was created on this disk and when it was last changed. Copy a folder of holiday photos to a new laptop, restore them from a backup or run them through an editor, and those dates become today. The camera’s own timestamp, stored in the photo’s EXIF details next to the camera model and the exposure, does not move. We checked this on a Mac: a photo taken in March 2023 and copied today reported today as its file creation date and March 2023 as its capture date.
On Windows
Windows reads the capture date into a property called Date taken, which Microsoft describes as the date “as read from the camera in the file’s Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) tag”. To use it:
- Open the folder in File Explorer and switch to Details view.
- Right-click a column heading and tick Date taken (choose More… if it is not listed). Camera model is in the same list.
- Click the Date taken heading to sort. Photos from the same day now sit together, however the files were copied.
That works one folder at a time. For pictures scattered across folders and drives, the steps in how to find a file when you forgot its name help narrow the search first.
On a Mac
The Photos app arranges its library by date, and you can search it by date. For photos kept as files in Finder folders, Spotlight records the capture date as the content creation date and the camera as the acquisition model. Finder’s Created date is the file’s, so it can show the day the photo was copied. In Terminal you can ask Spotlight for the capture date directly:
mdfind -onlyin ~/Pictures 'kMDItemContentCreationDate >= $time.iso(2024-07-01) && kMDItemContentCreationDate < $time.iso(2024-09-01)'
That lists photos taken in July and August 2024 in your Pictures folder. Swap in kMDItemAcquisitionModel == "*iPhone*" to list photos by camera instead.
With BeaconFind: every folder, and plain words
BeaconFind reads the capture date, with the camera’s time zone when it recorded one, while it indexes JPEG, HEIC, PNG, WebP and TIFF photos and CR2, NEF and ARW raw files. It works the same on Windows and on a Mac, on every tier, across every folder you add, in both the Ctrl+K search window and the Search page.
- Filter by the day it was taken. Open Date in the filter row and set Which date to Photo taken, then pick a range. Files without a capture date are left out while it is chosen, and the date sort becomes Date taken.
- Or just say when. Words like last winter, in July 2023, Christmas 2024 or summer 2022 in a search become a small chip that filters by date taken; remove the chip with one click if you meant the words literally. A date written as numbers, such as 2021-07, stays ordinary search text.
- Add what is in the picture. “Birthday cake last winter” filters by date and ranks the photos by what they show. Add “in Lisbon” and it narrows by where the photo was taken too.
- Narrow by camera. With Show advanced options switched on under Settings, General, the Metadata filter under More has a Camera field, handy for separating phone pictures from the ones taken on a proper camera.
Selecting a photo shows its details in the preview, including when it was taken and with which camera. And if the photo has no useful date at all, a description still finds it: see how to find photos by describing them.
Type “last summer” and get last summer, free for 14 days, no card. Runs on your own PC or Mac.
Download BeaconFindFrequently asked questions
How do I find photos by the date they were taken?
Use the capture date the camera stores inside the photo, not the file's own dates. On Windows, add the Date taken column in File Explorer's Details view and sort by it. On a Mac, the Photos app sorts its library by date, and Spotlight keeps the capture date as the content creation date. BeaconFind filters every indexed folder by Photo taken and turns words like last summer in a search into a date filter.
Why is Date modified wrong for my photos?
Copying, moving, editing or restoring a photo can change the file's own dates, so a picture from 2019 can show today's date. The date taken comes from the camera and stays the same however often the file is copied.
Can I search photos by camera model?
Yes. Windows reads the camera model into a property you can show as a Camera model column in File Explorer. On a Mac, Spotlight records it as the acquisition model. In BeaconFind, switch on Show advanced options and use the Camera field of the Metadata filter.
Do all photos have a date taken?
Photos straight from a phone or camera nearly always do. Screenshots, scans, edited exports and pictures saved from the web often do not. While BeaconFind filters by Photo taken, files without one are left out, so switch the filter back to Modified to see them.