What is photo-migration-doctor?

Photo Migration Doctor is a native macOS desktop app that repairs the mess left behind when someone exports their photo library from Google Photos using Google Takeout. When Google Takeout creates that export, several things go wrong: every file's date gets reset to the day of export instead of when the photo was actually taken, GPS location and descriptions get separated into individual JSON files instead of staying attached to the photo, Live Photos get split into a separate image and video file, and duplicate copies end up scattered across different folders. This app reads those separated JSON sidecar files and writes the dates, GPS coordinates, and titles back into the actual photo and video files using a tool called ExifTool. It then produces a clean, organized copy of the library that can be imported into Apple Photos, a self hosted photo server called Immich, or any other photo app. Key features include dragging a Takeout zip file straight into the app without unzipping it first, repairing file system dates so photos sort correctly by when they were taken, detecting duplicate files using content hashing, automatically pairing split Live Photo image and video files back together, recognizing album folders from the original export, and choosing from a few different folder structures for the final organized output. Everything runs entirely offline on the user's Mac. Photos never leave the computer, there is no cloud upload, no tracking, and the app has no network access at all. To use it, a user downloads a disk image from the Releases page, or builds it from source using npm, then exports their library from Google Takeout, drags the zip files into the app, reviews a scan report of what was found, and exports the repaired result. The app is built with Electron and React, uses ExifTool and the exifr library for reading and writing metadata, and is distributed for free but marked as all rights reserved rather than open source.