How to use the event timeline

The timeline sorts your photos by the moment they were taken, so participants can jump to the hour they crossed the finish line. It is a browsing feature, not a recognition type: it doesn't consume recognition capacity.

How a photo gets on the timeline

A photo appears on the timeline when two things are true:

• it has a capture time, read from the camera data (EXIF) of the file you uploaded;
• its album has Timeline turned on.

Photos without a capture time, for example screenshots or files whose camera data was removed during export, stay out of the timeline but are still shown in their album as usual.

Turn the timeline on

1. Open your event, click the Recognition tab and go to the Timeline sub tab.
2. Click the Timeline switch at the top right, or Turn on Timeline in the empty state. The Timeline dialog opens.
3. Set Timeline on new albums: it decides whether albums created from now on get the timeline by default.
4. Below it, switch on the existing albums you want (or use Enable all), then click Save.

You can also turn Timeline on or off in each album's Album Settings.

Read the Timeline sub tab

• Photos on timeline: photos with a capture time in albums with the timeline on, and how many of them are in published albums.
• Not on timeline: photos with no capture time, or in albums with the timeline off.
• Time span: the first and last capture time on the timeline.
• Albums on timeline: how many of your albums have the timeline on (for example 2 of 6).
• Photos by capture hour: one block per day with its photo count, and a bar per hour showing how many photos were taken in that hour.

What participants see

When the timeline is on, the gallery shows a Timeline button next to Find My Photos. It opens the Photo Timeline: a chip per day with its photo count, and a bar chart of photos per hour. Clicking an hour shows the photos taken in that hour.

Good to know

• The Timeline switch shows the real state across your albums: off, on for all of them, or a mixed state with "N of M albums" when only some have it.
• An album whose photos have no capture time at all can't get the timeline: the dialog locks it with "Photos have no capture time". An empty album can be switched on, ready for your uploads.
• "Timeline is off" means no album has the timeline on yet. "No photos with a capture time yet." means the timeline is on, but none of those albums has a photo with a capture time.
• Times are shown as the camera recorded them, so set your cameras to the local time of the event.