Metadata bug leading to lots of incorrect posts - notifying users?

Bug Reports
1

I think this metadata/location info bug has the potential to cause problems that will be hard to fix. I am seeing all sorts of photos popping up in my area that people took while traveling, uploaded later on their phone at home, and assumed the location data was automatically imported. This is leading to all sorts of incorrect posts and people don’t realize it. I’m seeing observations with mountains in the background posted in the middle of the city here in Austin, TX. Is there a way to notify users who might have added posts with incorrect location data so they can manually fix it? It seems like thousands of users adding in all of this incorrect data for several days during this bug could really screw up the usefulness of data in the long term.

5 Likes
2

Incorrect time and location will be difficult to correct for thousands of observations! I manually fixed my last 3 observations, and I won’t upload any more until this is corrected. This problem started with the new release on iPhones about October 26, 2019.

1 Like
3

Same here I’m no longer uploading either
I’m doing the observations but until it gets fixed
I’m offline

4

As stated below
Date and time

5

Hey folks, I agree it’s potentially a significant problem. We just released an update in the the App Store (version 2.8.3) that should fix the metadata issue, so please update the app and check it out. It’s working for me. If it’s not working for you, please file a bug report.

We’re currently investigating the possibility of finding and correcting these errors automatically.

6 Likes
6

I think this is a apple issue with there last update ???
INat is not the only app with issues like this I believe

7

I have version 2.8.3, but I still have this issue. How do I file a bug report exactly? Thank you!

8

@gillydilly Probably best to email help@inaturalist with

  1. a photo that consistently causes this to iNaturalist. Please make sure the email program you are using does not strip the photo of its metadata. The Gmail app for iOS does this, so I recommend using the standard Mail app or sending us a link via Dropbox or the like.

  2. a screenshot of the Details page showing the incorrect date and location being filled in by the app.

  3. screenshot of the app’s Settings screen showing us that you are using 2.8.3

  4. device and iOS version information

Here are instructions for how to take a screenshot on several types of devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org

9

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