iOS4 landscape photos sideways in e-mail

GabrielI wrote:
Seeing the same issue. The EXIF data is just wrong. When I open an image taken with iPhone 4G in Photoshop, the dimensions are backwards, but Photoshop displays it correctly, as does Preview, iPhoto, etc. If I save the image in Photoshop, it corrects the dimensions in the EXIF data, storing them correctly for portrait mode.

The EXIF data is correct. The app displaying the image does not respect the EXIF data. The 'standard' has been to save the image so that rotation isn't necessary when displaying and lazy programmers make the assumption that is always the case. This is partially because not all of the rotation info was available in early versions of EXIF. Today that is no longer true but old practices and assumptions are sometimes set in concrete.

With the iPhone we see that isn't always the case. Apple must have had good reasons for doing it the way they did and I won't speculate on that.

When Photoshop saves the image it adjusts the save so that no rotation is required. The 'fix' is for the programmers to get over their belief that images are saved with no rotation and to actually read the EXIF data and use it to adjust the image before displaying it.

It is a case of Apple being 100% correct but still causing problems for their users because of the outdated systems the users must interact with. I don't like it but I do understand it.

It seems to be that the only way to have all photos and videos display correctly on any device would be to take EVERY pic/video in Landscape Mode on your iPhone4 to begin with. I realize that this is not a solution but until Apple puts out an update for iOS4, at least there is a way to send all of your images over correctly
without getting frustrated. It would have been nice had Apple picked up on this before the iPhone4/iOS4 release! I am sure Apple will get right on this so we can get back to taking our pics/videos in Portrait Mode. Go Apple!

Been going nuts over this, too. I just got Photoshop CS5 and iOS4 on the 3GS so I figured it was something in CS5.

Photos open up and are "corrected" within CS5 and there is a * indicating a change to the file. However, it doesn't show up in the History so there is no Undo.

Only fix I can find is to open it and resave it.

Come on, there's got to be a fix for this!

When emailing a photo taken in portrait mode (home button down) I find the following with these mail clients:

Gmail web interface: Preview thumbnail is correct orientation, but clicking image to view full size in browser results in it being sideways (top is now at left)

Postbox 1.1.5 on Mac OS: Photo is shown with top on left.

--JV

imix4u wrote:
<...>

Come on, there's got to be a fix for this!

Contact the authors/developers/companies providing the software that is failing to read ALL of the EXIF data in the photos from the iPhone. Their programs are at fault, the required data to handle the orientation properly is in every photo from the iPhone.

In my opinion it isn't very likely that Apple will 'fix' something that isn't 'broken'.

I understand the EXIF bit, but what changed between iOS 3 and iOS 4 to change the orientation? There may be some difficulty in asking Facebook, for example, to correct its approach to EXIF data, when hundreds of other devices support the current infrastructure.

It's easy enough to manually rotate the photos after uploading them, for now.

Not disagreeing with you, but click this link in Safari 5:
http://macdaddyworld.com/IMG_0038-1.JPG
Photo displays correctly oriented in Preview but not in Safari. I guess Apple needs to be added to the list of lazy programers/ broken apps. :-D

Pastahelmet wrote:
Not disagreeing with you, but click this link in Safari 5:
http://macdaddyworld.com/IMG_0038-1.JPG
Photo displays correctly oriented in Preview but not in Safari. I guess Apple needs to be added to the list of lazy programers/ broken apps. :-D

Certainly does 🙂 I suspect someone was a bit lazy. Note that if you access it with Safari on the iPad/iPhone 4 it is displayed correctly. I will be filing a bug report with Apple and suggest you do also.

I'm also having this same problem with photos being mis-oriented when sent via email (yahoo mail). This has only happened to me since upgrading to iOS4, it NEVER HAPPENED UNDER THE OLD OS...

Is there anyway to embed a photo within an email so that it shows up in-line with the text and not as an attachment?

Here is a video detailing the email problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As0QeKNaQCY

Ahhhhhh! Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post the video. So much easier than our poor text explanations!

Oh, and my name's not "Tiffany" hahaha

I arrived here while searching for info on this same problem. My emailed pics had been perfectly oriented for 7 months (since I got my iPhone), then I went and evidently did a dumb thing and upgraded the OS to 4.0. Now all my pics are arriving sideways and I don't get it. Aaaaarrrrgh. I send a lot of pics, and this is irritating. Hope there's a real remedy soon (like going back to the previous way). Hmm....can I go back to the old OS?

My wife and I are having the exact same issue on our phones (both iPhone 3G models) and only since installing iOS4. She sends a photo of our baby daughter everyday and we never had any issues before the upgrade. I called Apple support today and at first they told us that we needed to download the Photoshop app and rotate the photos before sending. When I insisted that this was not a good solution they eventually passed me up to a higher level support rep who told us that it's a known issue. He said we must setup the phone as new in iTunes which will supposedly download all new software and will fix the issue. We won't have access to our home computer for a few days so I won't be able to try it until then.

Here is the response from Apple to me regarding this issue:

"I have received word from the Engineers. So, the Engineers they have reviewed all the documentation and the emails and video you sent me and determined that the EXIF data on them (the pictures) is correct. The issue they feel, is not with the photos but rather the viewers of the photos the customer is using. No, they are not meaning you or the friends that are viewing the photos so don't be offended, I know how that sounds. What they are referring to when they say the EXIF data is the data attached to photos that includes information like the orientation, size, origin, camera maker, etc.. Since I am not familiar with 'viewers' or what the viewer is on an iphone I have sent a reply asking for more clarification on this and will contact you as soon as I have more. I apologize I do not know more at this time but I am still working on it. Please hang in there while I attempt to get more information."

I have been sending photos to friends from the iPhone 3gs and now 4. I always take the picture in portrait orientation (Home Button on bottom). Several have replied to me that the picture was sideways or showing in Landscape orientation. I dismissed this at first and told them it was their PC. I recently took a video with my iPhone 4 and sent it from the iPhone. Again, the same people had a problem with orientation. I was trying out Sandvox and when I dragged in a photo I took yesterday with the iPhone, it came in with a landscape orientation (looked sideways). I opened it with Photoshop Elements 8 and it had the proper portrait orientation.

I then used a utility to view the EXIF of the photo, and the photo showed in Landscape orientation. The image orientation was "right hand top" whatever that means. I wish someone would post a link to show with the different combinations mean or just post it here.

I took a video at the same time and one person I sent it to had the orientation problem with the video. Others did not.