RollmendMove Google Photos to Immich, Synology Photos or OneDrive
All three sort your library by the date stored in the file. Straight out of Takeout, many files lack it – so the import shows them on the download day. Fix the files first, then import.
Updated 2026-10-26 · 5 min read
Why dates break
Takeout keeps the real “photo taken” time, GPS and description in a separate .json per photo. Apps like Immich, Synology Photos and OneDrive read EXIF/QuickTime metadata from the file, not Google's JSON.
Immich
Immich's community tool immich-go can import a Google Takeout directly and reads the JSON – a good option if you're comfortable with a command-line uploader. Alternatively, fix the files with Rollmend and upload the year/month folder through the web UI or the Immich CLI; dates, GPS and captions are then in the files themselves, which also helps any future migration.
Synology Photos
Fix the Takeout with Rollmend, copy the year/month folders to your Photos share (or personal space), and let Synology Photos index them. Dates come from EXIF; for HEIC files, Rollmend patches the date in place and writes location/caption to an .xmp sidecar.
OneDrive
Upload the fixed folders to OneDrive › Pictures. OneDrive's Photos view uses the date taken from the file metadata.
Checklist
- Keep the original Takeout until you've checked the new library.
- Choose the time zone in Rollmend (Google stores UTC).
- Album membership is saved in Rollmend-albums.csv; recreate key albums in the new app.
Scan your Takeout first – free. Rollmend reads your Google Photos Takeout folder or zip parts in the browser, matches every photo and video with its JSON (including .supplemental-metadata.json and cut-off names), writes the real date, GPS and caption back into the files, removes album duplicates and exports a year/month folder. Nothing is uploaded. The scan report is free for everything and 50 files can be fixed free; a $15 one-time license fixes the whole library.
Questions and answers
Do I need Rollmend if I use immich-go?
Not necessarily – immich-go handles Takeout JSON itself. Rollmend is for a point-and-click route and for files you want fixed permanently, whatever app you use.
Videos too?
Yes: MP4/MOV get their QuickTime creation time and a location tag.
Sources and product names: Immich and immich-go documentation (GitHub); Synology Photos and OneDrive help on date taken. Google Photos and Google Takeout are trademarks of Google LLC; iCloud and Apple Photos of Apple Inc.; Synology of Synology Inc.; OneDrive of Microsoft. Immich is an open-source project. Rollmend is independent and not affiliated with them.