Hello!
I manage a contractor network and we require geotagged photos to accompany all work submissions.
I've heard that some contractors are not able to geotag their photos due to being in a remote area/outside of cell service.
Is geotagging affected by cell service or is it only affected by GPS connection?
Any other information in regards to this topic would be helpful as well.
Thank you!
Make sure that "location data" are turned on for the Camera.app. Manage location metadata in Photos - Apple Support (EG)
Go to Settings 
, tap Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera
The Camera is suppose to use any available service, that will provide location data. "When Location Services is turned on for the Camera app, it uses information known as metadata gathered from cellular, Wi-Fi, GPS networks, and Bluetooth to determine the location coordinates where the photo or video is taken."
My experience is, that the Camera is trusting the Wi-Fi more than the GPS. Occasionally I had to turn off the Wi-Fi completely, to ensure that the GPS has been used. In rare occasions the Wi-Fi location can be completely wrong. For example, some of my photos taken on the river Danube in Hungary in Europe have been tagged with Kansas, United States based on the Wi-Fi from a nearby ship. After turning off the Wi-Fi, only the GPS has been used and I was back in Europe.
Make sure that "location data" are turned on for the Camera.app. Manage location metadata in Photos - Apple Support (EG)
Go to Settings , tap Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera
The Camera is suppose to use any available service, that will provide location data. "When Location Services is turned on for the Camera app, it uses information known as metadata gathered from cellular, Wi-Fi, GPS networks, and Bluetooth to determine the location coordinates where the photo or video is taken."
My experience is, that the Camera is trusting the Wi-Fi more than the GPS. Occasionally I had to turn off the Wi-Fi completely, to ensure that the GPS has been used. In rare occasions the Wi-Fi location can be completely wrong. For example, some of my photos taken on the river Danube in Hungary in Europe have been tagged with Kansas, United States based on the Wi-Fi from a nearby ship. After turning off the Wi-Fi, only the GPS has been used and I was back in Europe.
The location has not only been wrong in Photos but the Compass.app has also shown the wrong location. I suspect a ship from the US following our ship has been using a Wi-Fi-Router giving a wrong position,
I took this screenshot, when I noticed that the photos had been tagged incorrectly.
The correct position would have been 45.52226° N, 19.09279° E.
I had turned the cellular service off, because the river has been the border to Serbia, and it would have been very expensive to connect accidentally to the Serbian Wi-Fi - no EU data roaming!
It has not been the first time, that I got completely incorrect locations with the cellular service turned off, when only GPS and Wi-Fi have been available. Turning off Wi-Fi too fixed this.
What also can happen ist that the Compass is showing the correct coordinates, but a wrong location name. That happened to me during a road trip across Europe. We were crossing the Balkan mountains in Bosnien Herzegowina, but the Compass kept showing the location name "Sofia, Bulgaria", more than 1000km away. I had turned the Compass on to see when we were at the highest point of the pass. The altitude and GPS were shown correctly, but the name of the location was completely wrong.
Try taking a picture in Airplane mode. That turns off cellular and wifi and bluetooth.
In a picture I took just now in Airplane mode, I am surprised that it shows no location, even if I turn everything back on. I was going to say that, with no internet, you would not see the map, but GBS location would be recorded. I'm pretty sure it worked that way once!
Nothing like actual experimenting!
Interesting experiment, Richard. Apple says, "Turning on Airplane Mode turns off all radios except for Bluetooth"[*], and GPS does use radio reception hardware. Maybe somebody decided even a radio receiver should be blocked in Airplane Mode.
It then adds, "If you turn off Bluetooth while you're in Airplane Mode, your device will remember that and will turn off Bluetooth the next time that you turn on AirPlane Mode." and explains how you can use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if the airline allows it.
léonie wrote: …I took this screenshot,
when I noticed that the photos had been tagged incorrectly.
The correct position would have been 45.52226° N, 19.09279° E.
…
I't so hard not to say, "I guess you're not in Kansas, anymore…"
Second thoughts: The Airplane Mode experiment doesn't necessarily tell us whether the lack of a cellular signal interferes with the reception of GPS signals.
barber_j, are these remote areas in rugged terrain? The GPS hardware needs to be able to see enough satellites to establish a location fix, and mountains or crevice sides can block that. Heck, tall buildings can confuse it.
léonie wrote:
For example, some of my photos taken on the river Danube in Hungary in Europe have been tagged with Kansas, United States based on the Wi-Fi from a nearby ship. After turning off the Wi-Fi, only the GPS has been used and I was back in Europe.
How on earth discover that weird detail?! Were you previously connected to the ship's Wi-Fi or did the phone just grab the location from the ship's Wi-Fi when triangulating location? Why did the ship's Wi-Fi broadcast Kansas GPS in Hungary -- was it using VPN? Oh well, just another detail to try to ask when someone complains a wrong location in photos.
I believe I have only once experienced a similar issue that in retrospect might have been caused by my brother's Wi-Fi dongle that mysteriously put a few of my iPhone movies to his home a few hundred km away when he was visiting me with that dongle. I later fixed the locations with exiftool or GraphicConverter to the movies (outside Photos).
I read the "turn off bluetooth" thing somewhere that was supposed to be reliable--I hope I didn't just use a Google summary! But you're right-- I've used wireless earphones while on the plane!
And, like I said, the GPS thing surprises me, because that should just be a receiver--so why turn it off in an airplane? But my camera certainly does not give me location data in Airplane mode. So, "Second Thoughts," I'm not sure that airplane mode is the same as being away from wifi and cellular.
"And, like I said, the GPS thing surprises me, because that should just be a receiver--so why turn it off in an airplane? "
Perhaps because initially GPS and Cellular were on the same chip? I am not sure, if it is still so. But when I tried to purchase iPads with GPS but no cellular receiver for my research group, it has not been possible. We needed the GPS for the photos we took during the file experiments. But the university did not want to pay for cellular devices. I had a hard time until I got the required iPads.
The ability to geotag photos outside of cell service areas depends on the device's GPS capabilities, not its cellular connectivity.
If a device has a built-in GPS receiver, it can geotag photos even without cellular service. The device will communicate directly with GPS satellites to determine its location.
Therefore, taking photos in remote areas without cell service does not mean that those photos will not be geotagged. If the device has GPS capabilities it will still be able to add location data to the photos.
Factors Affecting GPS:
Signal strength: GPS signals can be weak in certain environments, such as indoors, in dense forests, or in deep canyons.
Device capabilities: Not all devices have built-in GPS receivers. Some rely solely on cellular data for location information.
léonie wrote:
For example, some of my photos taken on the river Danube in Hungary in Europe have been tagged with Kansas, United States
You're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!
a.k.a TWoO
Richard.Taylor wrote:
…
I't so hard not to say, "I guess you're not in Kansas, anymore…"
Kansas is one of the few places I have never been. 😀
Can/will photos be geotagged when outside of cell service areas?
