Corrupted photo dates HELP

[XDFincredible]

Hello. The problem I'm about to mention has been driving me crazy to the point of madness and I'm not even sure this is the right place to ask for help but I'm desperate so please redirect me to a more appropriate forum if this isn't the right one. I'm a Samsung J3 2016 user running Android 5 and a couple of days ago I downloaded an app from Google play store called "LockMyPix" by fourchars to lock an album of 368 rather intimate photos. I didn't like it since there was soemthing about the way it ordered the photos so I just decrypted them and put them back on my regular gallery. Then I noticed the order was completely ruined and apparently the app had changed all the photo dates to the day I encrypted them thus ruining everything. I don't know how to reverse this and even if I wanted to edit manually the EXIF data of each photo I noticed I'm not allowed to in any way with any tool I've tried. I'm begging for any help.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I don't know how to reverse this and even if I wanted to edit manually the EXIF data of each photo I noticed I'm not allowed to in any way with any tool I've tried.

The good news is, this is fixable. The bad news is that the way I'd do it probably won't work for you.

First, you'd need a computer running Linux. Then you'd need to know your way around a command line and file system. Finally, you'd need to know how to use ImageMagick's commands to automatically read the EXIF data from each image, take its creation date and use it to name them as you want--this would all be accomplished via a shell script. Or you could do one image at a time...but after about 3, that would drive me nuts!

So to summarize, *I* would do this by moving the photos to one of my computers, then--working on COPIES of them [in case something goes wrong]--I'd write and run a script to parse the EXIF data and use its info to create output files named as I wanted.

I do not know if any or all of this can be done on other OSes, as I don't use them. Mac should work, since it's also a UNIX variant, like Linux, but windows...I doubt it. Certainly not the sophisticated scripting involved, as I doubt it [finally] has powerful, built-in commands like *nix.

I know these are personal photos but, depending on how important this is to you and your ability to fix it yourself, you may want to hire a professional to do it. You just need a Linux pro--like a programmer or system administrator--and they can knock this out in a few minutes.

 

[svim]

There are several photo exif editor apps that allow you to change the date, like this 'Photo Exif Editor' app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.xnano.android.photoexifeditor

But keep in mind that most photos have things like creation date, modification date, access date info buried in their metadata. Depending on what that lockpix app did to your photos, if all those dates are altered, and presumably done to each of those 368 files, then you don't have any reference date to restore them back to. Unless you have some sort of separate documentation to use as a reference. But you should install an exif editor app to at least see what your options are at this point.

Or if the exact dates aren't vital, would just using any date before a certain time work out as far as how their sort order in your photo manager app? Which brings up the question of which photo manager are you using? If you look in the app's settings is there any option to change the sort order to use creation date or modification date? The Simple Gallery Pro app as a lot of such options, it has a very extensive feature set.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro&hl=en_US

 

[MoodyBlues]

But keep in mind that most photos have things like creation date, modification date, access date info buried in their metadata. Depending on what that lockpix app did to your photos, if all those dates are altered

The OP implied that the EXIF dates are correct, but he's unable to edit them with anything he's tried. So I ran with that!

Will the apps you suggested automate the process? I know I wouldn't have the patience to do 368 files manually, one at a time!