Whenever I try to upload a photo with metadata taken with the phone (Android; Google Pixel 7a), the location data, i.e., the coordinates, are not loaded. Date and time seem to be loaded without issues.
I have not changed anything in my phone (no updates, etc.). This seems to be a new issue since the last iNaturalist update. Even if I am showing a screenshot of a recently taken picture, I have also tried to re-upload some of the same photos I took one month ago, for which the coordinates were perfectly loaded without any issues back then, but not anymore. This does not seem to be related to any edition software either (that could erase some metadata); I have tried with both edited and non-edited photos now without success, and I have uploaded edited and non-edited photos one month ago without issues.
Would you be so kind as to take a look at this? It was very practical not having to add the coordinates manually for every observation.
Have you confirmed whether the photos on your phone have the location embedded in the photo? This is different than what you see in the Google Photos app.
You can test this by uploading it to a site like https://jimpl.com/ (if anyone has a better preferred exif viewer website please lmk)
Thank you very much for your answer. By using the suggested site, the result is indeed “This photo doesn’t include location data. We can’t find where it was taken”.
But this does not explain why it has been working in iNaturalist for years until recently, so there must has been a change in the way iNaturalist retrieves the information from an image file.
iNaturalist isn’t involved when you share the photo from Google Photos to that jimpl website though. To me it indicates a change with Google Photos/your phone.
I am having the exact same issue with a Pixel 9a, it’s really frustrating but it looks like something has changed with the permissions for sharing location info between the browser and device on Android. The location data is still being captured is still in the metadata but it is being stripped by android while communicating with the web browser.
You should be able to download the images on to a computer and upload through the browser that way, or the iNat app seems to work.
I have tried both chrome and firefox, both have the same issue.
Thank you very much for the explanations. I have also been investigating the problem more thoroughly on my side and it seems to be what hugo_innes says, that somehow the location data are specifically removed when the photos are transfered through any browser, and even when sent by e-mail! It seems to be related to new Google policies to “protect” the users by not allowing destinataries to see location data of shared photos.
Direct download on to a computer indeed keeps these metadata.
It is then not an iNaturalist problem and I apologize for not having noted this before writing my message.
