How to find when an image was first published online
Look for the oldest copies of the picture and check the date on each page. Retrace does this in one step: it lists earlier copies, names the earliest date a source confirms and links to that page.
Check a picture How it works
What you get
- The oldest copy found, its date and a link to the page.
- Other early copies, so you can see whether the first one really is first.
- How reliable the date is, or a note that no date could be named.
Questions
Is a “first seen” date the same as the publication date?
No. A search tool usually reports when it first saw or recorded a picture, which can be later than the real publication. Treat it as the earliest known date and confirm it on the source page.
Why does the date in the file not settle it?
The date stored in a file can be missing or wrong, and social networks often strip it when a picture is posted. Retrace reads it when it is there and compares it with what the open web shows.
See also