Import a Google Takeout export into Microsoft Photos on Windows 11

Extract the zip parts with Extract All

1. Fix the export with FixMyTakeout. In Chrome or Edge the parts are written straight into a folder you pick; in other browsers each fixmytakeout-part- zip downloads on its own.
2. In File Explorer, right-click the first zip and choose Extract All. Point it at one folder, for example Pictures\takeout-fixed, and repeat for every part into the same folder.
3. Open the folder in Details view and look at the Date modified column. It should show the day each photo was taken, because every entry in the zip carries its capture time, including in the NTFS form.

Add the folder to the Gallery

Photos shows your Pictures folder by default. If you extracted somewhere else, or want the export listed as its own folder, open Photos, choose Gallery, open the folders tab on the left, click Add folder and pick takeout-fixed. Its year and album subfolders come with it.

The Import button is a different tool: it copies photos from a camera, SD card, USB drive or phone and asks where to save them. A folder already on the PC does not need it.

Microsoft, Manage photos and videos with the Photos app and Import photos and videos from a phone to a PC.

Which date Windows reads

Microsoft's support pages do not say which date the Photos app itself sorts by, what it does when a file has none, or how it dates a video. What Microsoft does document, on Microsoft Learn, is the Windows property system that File Explorer uses for its "Date taken" column: System.Photo.DateTaken. For a JPEG it reads these in order and takes the first present.

The general System.ItemDate property maps to Date taken for photos. So a fixed JPEG resolves at the first row. Microsoft's page describes the JPEG handler; other formats have their own handlers, and it does not list their order. Files with no date inside (the none found rows in fixmytakeout-report.csv) have no Date taken at all; they keep only the Date modified that Extract All set.

Microsoft Learn, System.Photo.DateTaken and System.ItemDate.

Location search

Microsoft's search page explains that photos include latitude and longitude in their embedded data and that Photos uses it to determine where a photo or video was taken. Searching by place is off until you allow it: open the Photos settings and, under Personalization, turn on location search. A fixed export carries GPS latitude and longitude in every photo that lacked them and had a real position in Google's geoData, plus Keys:GPSCoordinates in MP4 and MOV videos.

Microsoft, Search for photos.

Titles and captions

Nothing is documented about how the Photos app shows a caption. The Windows Title property is documented. For a JPEG it reads, in order, XPTitle, dc:title, UserComment, EXIF ImageDescription (tag 270), the IPTC caption and dc:description. A caption you typed in Google Photos is written to ImageDescription and dc:description, so it becomes the file's Title whenever the photo has no XPTitle, dc:title or UserComment ahead of it.

Microsoft Learn, System.Title.

Check the result

1. In File Explorer, open a year folder, switch to Details view and add the Date taken column (right-click a column heading, choose More). Compare it with Date modified; for a photo taken in your own time zone the two should agree, because both come from the same capture time.
2. Right-click a photo you captioned, choose Properties > Details, and look for the caption in the Title row.
3. In Photos, search for a place you photographed. If nothing comes back, location search is still off under Personalization.
4. Find a screenshot from the export in Explorer. Its Date modified should be the day it was taken, and it will have no Date taken. Microsoft does not document where the Photos app places a file like that, so look for it in the Gallery and see which day it landed on.