Joshua Garrett

Q: iPhone 5s photos have no GPS

I was trying to manually add GPS locations to some of my old pre iPhone photos the other day in Photos for Mac OS, and I noticed that some recent 2013 photos do not have GPS. They were taken with an iPhone 5s and originally came from Aperture. I think at that time I had the option set to automatically import Photostream photos into Aperture. I went back into my old Aperture library found the photos that I originally, manually exported and then imported into Photos, and they don't have GPS either. How could these photos have lost their GPS coordinates?

Posted on Aug 26, 2016 12:16 PM

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Q: iPhone 5s photos have no GPS

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  • by JimmyCMPIT,

    JimmyCMPIT JimmyCMPIT Aug 26, 2016 12:22 PM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 5 (6,968 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 26, 2016 12:22 PM in response to Joshua Garrett

    some formats do not keep that data (pretty much anything but JPG) or the phone was unable to determine it's location at the time the picture was taken or an option to not include the data though the software used to take the pictures turned it off.

  • by Joshua Garrett,

    Joshua Garrett Joshua Garrett Aug 26, 2016 3:30 PM in response to JimmyCMPIT
    Level 1 (96 points)
    Apple Watch
    Aug 26, 2016 3:30 PM in response to JimmyCMPIT

    They were all shot with an iPhone 5s in 2013 in Phoenix & Sedona Arizona. Is there an option to turn location on the camera?

  • by Joshua Garrett,

    Joshua Garrett Joshua Garrett Aug 28, 2016 6:07 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT
    Level 1 (96 points)
    Apple Watch
    Aug 28, 2016 6:07 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

    Is it possible they had GPS and one point and maybe Aperture stripped it out of them? I wonder if photos from Photostream before iCloud photo library lost their GPS

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 28, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 10 (103,368 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 28, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Joshua Garrett

    Joshua Garrett wrote:

     

    Is it possible they had GPS and one point and maybe Aperture stripped it out of them? I wonder if photos from Photostream before iCloud photo library lost their GPS

    It's possible but it's more likely they were taken in a location that couldn't be determined.

     

    Yes location can be turned on and off for the camera. (settings > privacy > location services)

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 28, 2016 7:01 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 10 (84,185 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 28, 2016 7:01 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    found the photos that I originally, manually exported and then imported into Photos, and they don't have GPS either. How could these photos have lost their GPS coordinates?

     

    Obviously only you know what you did - my best guess is that you failed to include the location tags when you "manually exported" the photos - that is the most likely reason not to have it - only the metadata that you specifically specify  is included in an export

     

    LN

  • by Joshua Garrett,

    Joshua Garrett Joshua Garrett Aug 29, 2016 1:10 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (96 points)
    Apple Watch
    Aug 29, 2016 1:10 PM in response to LarryHN

    Obviously only you know what you did - my best guess is that you failed to include the location tags when you "manually exported" the photos - that is the most likely reason not to have it - only the metadata that you specifically specify  is included in an export

    I thought about that but I went back to the Aperture library and they have no GPS there as well. I highly doubt the iPhone 5s couldn't get coordinates in Phoenix but I'll check my wife's photos. Maybe I had the location turned off in privacy settings but I don't know why.