Why do my photos appear out of order?

QI’ve taken lots of photos of my garden, giving dated names — such as ‘2017.02.04 Garden’, ‘2017.03.06 Garden’ and so on. On my PC, they appear in ascending order so that I can see the garden change in chronological order. When I transferred these same files on to my Android tablet I assumed that they would appear in the same dated order, but they didn’t. I assume Android uses a different method of setting the order of photos? What should I name my files to have them appear in the right order? The tablet runs Android 4.4.2.

Ray Hillier

AIronically, this is happening precisely because you’ve been renaming the photos! To your eyes the names are correctly dated but the Gallery app in Android 4.4.2 sorts files based on their digital timestamp. When you edit a file name in Windows, this ‘Date modified’ field (as it’s known) is updated with the current date and time. The original timestamp would have reflected the date and time the photo was taken.

There are ways to change all the timestamps in Windows but as you’ve already renamed all your files, it’d be easier just to install on your tablet a photo-viewer app that can sort by file name. Quickpic Gallery is a very popular option, and a free download from www. snipca.com/24202. Once installed, just tap the menu button (three dots, top right), then tap Sort (see screenshot) followed by ‘By name’.