Has anyone experienced weird issues with phone cameras randomly giving inaccurate GPS locations? Not sure if it is a make/OS issue but I have a Pixel 3A and it randomly will geotag my photos with locations that are slightly off or sometimes by several miles (Several observations have been tagged in …

this has sort of been discussed in lots of other threads in this forum. you may want to check out some of those (ex. Improving Location Accuracy on observations - General - iNaturalist Community Forum ).

I have had that occasionally, sometimes even when I’m running viewranger to keep GPS on (which I’ll do it I’m taking lots of photos for iNat). It’s usually been less than a mile but still obviously wrong. If you use iNat to take the photos it will record the location accuracy too. The trouble with …

Thanks, I’ll have to peruse a bit more, most of the responses I saw were specific to the app and as @zabdiel mentioned and I failed to mention specifically, I use the phone camera app (and not the iNat app) when I’m out in the field. I like doing this because it’s fast and doesn’t take me away from …

My phone doesn’t even give a location it sucks.

It happens to me occasionally. I believe it’s a factor of how well your phone is connecting to cell towers, is that correct? My cell service isn’t bad but it’s not the best service for my state. If I’m in the metro area it’s fairly good but I can get locations that are off when I’m in nooks of wilde…

Mobile GPS is far from great, so yes, you’ll have eventually wrong spots, sometimes very wrong, so keep an eye on that or download a GPS app, also what helps is try opening Google maps and using GPS button there, it’ll help your phone to not set your location kilometres away at least for some time.

Depending on the make or age of the cell phone or GPS, it will always take a “short” time to pick up the satellite signals. This can be 1 minute or 10 minutes on the older phone. The signals from the cell tower is there to speed things up. So if I just taken my phone out and take the picture of this…

If your photos don’t have gps date (or inaccurate gps data) then it’s possible to add the tags if you’ve been tracking your location. You can do this with apps like Strava & Viewranger. If you then download/export as gpx you can use a tool like exiftool to add geotabs. I do this with photos I take o…

Thanks all for your informed responses, I might try using an app if I notice it more and see if it doesn’t sap my battery life. Robert, now you have me scared for my GP-E2’s accuracy as well, yikes!

Nate, there is no issue with the accuracy of the GP-E2. It is very accurate once set. I am just checking it. In addition to the initial time it is taking to get to a “3D” satellite reception (no altitude) is the position update. It can be set to every second to every 5 mins. The last is a potential …

Troubleshooting GPS issues on phone camera

General

natemarchessault December 4, 2020, 8:01pm 12

Thanks Robert, that’s reassuring given the price point of the little trinket! I’m not complaining though, I love it for making iNatting with a DSLR so much easier!

And yes, accuracy high with spare batteries on hand always

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Troubleshooting GPS issues on phone camera

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