We’re investigating a long term fix. It’s frustrating that Google says they won’t change the way their new photo picker works.
In iOS we use Apple’s system-level picker, which means the iNat app only sees photos you choose to import into the app, so there’s some privacy protection there. The Apple picker includes location data though, which I think is a good compromise.
Edit: it is pulling in the coordinates now, which is good. The drawback is that the photo picker still doesn’t seem to have a path to access the android Photos app to access pics more than the 30-40 most recent photos.
I’m having the same problem as OP. I’m using a Google Pixel 6, uploading photos taken with my phone camera (gps/location enabled). Historically iNat has automatically grabbed the location data but in the last month or so I’ve noticed it stopped automatically importing. Anyone else experiencing this or find a work around?
Welcome to the forum! I merged your post with this existing one which seems to discuss the same issue - it looks like you found the workaround that is working for folks now until the issue with the new Adroid photo picker is dealt with.
I’m on a Pixel 4a, having the same issue suddenly. The workarounds work. (It had never occurred to me to start an obs from Photos by sharing to iNat, that’s pretty easy!)
I’d be willing to beta test a fix but not until after this weekend. I’m running a mushroom foray for 100 people, with many heavy iNat users - so I’m very glad to have found a decently easy workaround that I can share with people!
Thanks so much! Your workaround works for me, too (sharing from photo to iNaturalist app).
No location just started happening (Aug 29, 2023) to me with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Photos have location information, but suddenly stopped showing up in iNaturalist version 1.29.5 (579).
I’ve tested, coordinates are present in the metadata, if to upload the same photos in the browser version of iNat it recognizes location from the metadata, but the app is not recognizes them anymore (it was always working).
I’ve tried to reinstall the app, it has all permissions.
I can actually say for sure that it’s from the update that was installed on my phone on August 26, it stopped to indicate coordinates in the metadata of photos uploaded in the app: https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/313976110
So it destroyed the verifiability of all observations uploaded in the app since.
I’ve also noticed this issue and I’m using a workaround now. I choose a longer path to enter my phone gallery: Add → Choose Image → “three dots” → Browse… → Gallery → (choose photos from here).
So now, photos chosen from the phone gallery (deeper path) transfer gps data to iNat. Photos chosen from a catalog directly after “Choose Image” lack these data.