When I select photos from Google Photos, the date/time and location is not being imported with the photo.
This applies to photos being imported from the cloud, as opposed photos stored on the local device.
This problem has been occurring for at least a few months.
What do you mean by ācloudā - Google Photos? Can you walk us through the process, using screenshots? It would also be helpful if you can send one of these photos to help@inaturalist.org.
I infer this means the photo is no longer locally stored on the local device (phone, desktop). Is this perhaps related to: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/google-photos-import-is-currently-not-functional/65
Also, do you have the āRemove geo locationā setting on or off in the Google Photos app? Does the iNaturalist app have the permission to access your photos, location, and storage?
It might be. Other consequences of our lack of Google verification have begun manifesting this week. As usual, Google is a bit opaque regarding why things work in some places and not others.
I have the same problem too. Google Photos automatically uploads photos from your phone to its cloud. You can then choose to have Photos remove all photos from your phone that itās āsafely backed up.ā When I upload photos that are still on my phone, [most of the time] all the info appears. When I have Photos remove the photos first, then try to upload, all of the data is missing and I have to manually input it. The app has all the permissions and Iām pretty sure that I donāt have āRemove geo locationā checked- after I remove the photos from my phone, they still have the time and location on Google Photos (both web and app).
On certain Android devices (such as the Pixel), Google Photos is the gallery app for both photos stored on the smartphone as well as those photos which have been moved to the cloud. The reason Iām mentioning this is that whilst for Google Photos users, the steps required to Share an image with iNaturalist are the identical whether the original image is on the phone or Google Photos servers, different processes are occurring in the backend
This setting is set to OFF
Yes, iNaturalist app has full permissions
I just thought Iād follow up on this: Iāve noticed that location information from the photos in Google Photos seems to not transfer to iNaturalist when Google Photos reports that the location is āestimated locationā, which I guess, means that it is an approximate location, derived from triangulation using cell phone towers and wifi hotspots, I guess.
I have found the location of photos marked as āestimated locationā within Google Photos to be quite inaccurate, ie, +/- 1km or more, in some cases.
This might be why the location doesnāt transfer across for these photos.
Iāll keep you posted as I learn more.
I think that is a separate issue, though. Even if the photo has a [non estimate] location, as long as it is not on the phone, the location wonāt import.
Iām not sure if this is a bug, or some feature that Iām not fully understanding - but for the past year or two autofill has been working fine. Over this past weekend I took a few hundred photos in an area where I had no cell service on my phone, but the images still have the GPS tag and time so I planned to upload them later when I got home.
I uploaded maybe 2 dozen of the photos and the autofill of the location / time worked as expected - but then for whatever reason - I started getting to certain unaltered photos that wouldnāt autofill the time / location in the Android app. Downloading those images on my computer and using a browser interface to upload them worked as I expected and the autofill was populated. Iāve only found this issue affecting photos taken that one day so far. Photos taken today are autofilling correctly.
Assuming I have a strong internet connection, are there reasons that I donāt understand that would cause the app to fail to autofill the Time / Location? e.g. Is there some metadata flag that gets set when there is no Cell service that prevents iNaturalist app from auto-filling?
Just wanted to add this further observation that I discovered this afternoon - The photo fails to autofill properly when I try to import it from Google Photos - however if I download the photo to my device, and upload from a folder using the android app - the fields autofill properly. So this appears to be (for me at least) an issue with autofill with imports from Google Photos
Google photos is how Iāve imported 100% of my photos in the past however, so Iām unsure why itās failing in this circumstance.
Thanks for following up with more information. It can also often be helpful to list the version of the iNat app that you are using as well as screenshots, such as the photo metadata in the Google Photos app.
It sounds like this might be a duplicate of an existing report: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/metadata-from-google-photos-not-importing-android/7853 ?
I just tried taking a photo with location turned on, then opened the Google Photos app and shared it to the iNaturalist app. The date, time, and location all filled correctly.
I looked for an older photo, one that wasnāt on the device, but that I knew had GPS coordinates (I put them there manually from a separate camera), and I imported that from Google Photos into iNat. The date and time came through, but the location did not.
This was on a Pixel 3 using version 1.17.1 (390) of the Android app.
Iām also on a Pixel 3 using version 1.15.2 (387). Iām not sure why I donāt see the 1.17.1 version available as an update unless I have to download it manually somewhere?
I would agree that this question now does indeed seem like a duplicate to the one you linked. I think I may be encountering this bug all of the sudden because after uploading 24 or so observations, I took a break and in the interim I think I may have inadvertently āFreed up spaceā by selecting to remove photos already backed up to the cloud. Then when importing subsequent photos from that day, the time / location wasnāt being filled properly as described in the link you provided.
Iām in the beta testing program, if youāre interested you can opt in here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.inaturalist.android
Iāll merge these two topics. Hopefully itās something that can be addressed on iNatās side and isnāt stuck on Googleās endā¦
I donāt know if related, but when I use the Android app on my Samsung Galaxy S7, and import local photos, sometimes the location is not imported. Then, if I open iNaturalist with a web browser, go to that same observation, hit edit, then simply check the sync box next to the photos, then save, often it will find the location, but not always.
I might add that this may not be a problem with iNat. When Iāve had significant problems with this I found this to be the explanation:
When GPS signal is not available, Google approximates your location from your Wi-Fi and cellular connections.
In Google photos, if you click on a picture, go to info/properties etc to find the location of your picture on the map, if Google has indicated that location is approximate, it means that no geolocation data was embedded into the metadata for that photo when it was uploaded.
Google only offers this location approximation for the purpose of viewing the location on the map (etc). If you download or export these photos into another app from Google photos, Google photos will not embed their āapproximationā data into the photo. They will return the photo back to you with same/similar metadata to when you uploaded it (ie, with no geolocation data).
The same goes for if you try to download/export an image that Google has āoptimisedā ie, they did some sort of post-production processing to the photo. I believe the geolocation data will not be embedded into the photo.
(Side note, it is possible to give your photos geolocation data using Googleās approximate location data, en mass, but it is requires a long explanation for how to do it, beyond the scope of what weāre talking about here. Message me if you want to know how to do it. This is useful if you want to retrospectively put geolocation data into your photos, using Googleās location history data)
One other aspect of this which may be relevant:
Iām not an Android user, but Iāve seen this cause some issues. It does make you think that the photo actually has GPS data embedded in it, but Google just uses all the stuff they know about you to estimate the location in Google Photos.
Sometime in the past year or so, Google made it so that unless the actual full photo is on your device (not just backed up on Google Photos or another cloud backup service with a thumbnail on your device), apps canāt access the GPS coordinates of the photo. So you have to download the photo and save it to your device in order for iNat to read the coordinates.
That hasnāt been my experience. If the photo was uploaded to Google Photos with true GPS data, then you can download the image again and it will have the geolocation embedded.
The circumstances where location data will not be embedded in the image downloaded from Google Photos include:
