Getting rather frustrated that the latest Android strips location EXIF from the web file picker.
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@Edent @openbenches Much rage!
I suppose there's some value in adding an optional <geolocation> element or similar to the app anyway (I don't know about others, but I do most of my submissions while sat on the bench in question!). But I appreciate this is still a loss in quality.
Feels like this could be easily fixed by Google adding a toast popup that says "Location and other metadata was removed before uploading" with an "undo" button to re-try without that, maybe.
Anyway - for now: much rage.
@dan Yeah, we can ask for GPS but, as you say, people are rarely in the same place where they took the photo.
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*sigh*
Looks like Android is stripping GPS EXIF from photos whenever they're shared.
Affects QuickShare / Bluetooth - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/485307531
And the web photo picker - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/40287342Basically the only way to get geolocation is using USB transfer.
Like, I get the privacy aspect, but it is so annoying to explain to users of @openbenches that they can't upload via the mobile website any more.
@Edent @openbenches is this affecting non-Google camera roll backup too?
Mine still seems to get location but I don't know if it's because I'm on an old version.
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@Edent @openbenches is this affecting non-Google camera roll backup too?
Mine still seems to get location but I don't know if it's because I'm on an old version.
@InsertUser I don't know. It seems to be a problem on the defaults.
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@Edent The Chrome user agent string on Android is fixed to "Android 10" so I don't actually know if any Android 16 in the ones with successful geolocation, I can try and find out next week probably
@dracos just tried this photo which has geolocation - looks like FMS can't see the EXIF.
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Getting rather frustrated that the latest Android strips location EXIF from the web file picker.
Doesn't seem to be any workaround that'll let you pick a photo and have a web browser see the geolocation.
Like, I get the privacy issues, but it is rather frustrating for location-based web apps.
(Before reply-guying, please test if the code you found on a 4 year old StackOverflow post actually works on modern Android, thanks.)
it seems that in my tests with uploading anything through the browser or an app where it uses the file picker, then the exif location data is removed. When I open the photo with exif location data in my gallery app (Fossify Gallery on Pixel 8 with grapheneos) and then share that to Termux (like I mentioned in my useless comment), then it's preserved. I wonder if there's a way to share to the openbenches webapp similarly and just skip the file picker?
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*sigh*
Looks like Android is stripping GPS EXIF from photos whenever they're shared.
Affects QuickShare / Bluetooth - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/485307531
And the web photo picker - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/40287342Basically the only way to get geolocation is using USB transfer.
Like, I get the privacy aspect, but it is so annoying to explain to users of @openbenches that they can't upload via the mobile website any more.
Anyway, if you think the web should have a way to get the *full* photo a user uploaded - including geolocation metadata - please leave a
reaction on this request https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/11724#issuecomment-4192228562 -
D dansup@mastodon.social shared this topic
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@LaChasseuse you have to click on the link to GitHub and leave the reaction there.
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*sigh*
Looks like Android is stripping GPS EXIF from photos whenever they're shared.
Affects QuickShare / Bluetooth - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/485307531
And the web photo picker - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/40287342Basically the only way to get geolocation is using USB transfer.
Like, I get the privacy aspect, but it is so annoying to explain to users of @openbenches that they can't upload via the mobile website any more.
@Edent @openbenches That seems to be talking about Android 14 already. But I don't think it's the Android *OS* that does the stripping, as even with Android 15 I managed to add https://openbenches.org/bench/42085
Though I'm on a Fairphone 5 (with stock Android), and I used Firefox.
Would you like me to try Chrome to see if that's the problem?
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@Edent @openbenches That seems to be talking about Android 14 already. But I don't think it's the Android *OS* that does the stripping, as even with Android 15 I managed to add https://openbenches.org/bench/42085
Though I'm on a Fairphone 5 (with stock Android), and I used Firefox.
Would you like me to try Chrome to see if that's the problem?
@derickr Yes please. I've tried both and still can't get it to show geodata. I'm on Android 16 though.
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@derickr Yes please. I've tried both and still can't get it to show geodata. I'm on Android 16 though.
@Edent If I use the same photo with Chrome as the photo in that bench I linked to in the upload field, it tells me the right location. (I didn't save it, as that'd be a duplicate obviously)
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*sigh*
Looks like Android is stripping GPS EXIF from photos whenever they're shared.
Affects QuickShare / Bluetooth - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/485307531
And the web photo picker - https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/40287342Basically the only way to get geolocation is using USB transfer.
Like, I get the privacy aspect, but it is so annoying to explain to users of @openbenches that they can't upload via the mobile website any more.
@Edent Useful to know ... I'll be transferring images from my laptop backup of my phone anyway, but useful to know.
I understand that the OS might be privacy aware (though I have my doubts) but annoying to have the choice taken from me.
CC: @openbenches
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Getting rather frustrated that the latest Android strips location EXIF from the web file picker.
Doesn't seem to be any workaround that'll let you pick a photo and have a web browser see the geolocation.
Like, I get the privacy issues, but it is rather frustrating for location-based web apps.
(Before reply-guying, please test if the code you found on a 4 year old StackOverflow post actually works on modern Android, thanks.)
@Edent Doesn't appear to be unique to the Web based file picker. I've just had a little go with the CycleStreets app (which I wrote). Taking a photo using the stock intent is geolocated, using the built in image picker to select an existing photo is not geolocated.
If I get a chance, I'll apply the change @dracos made in his code, and let you know if it makes any difference
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Anyway, if you think the web should have a way to get the *full* photo a user uploaded - including geolocation metadata - please leave a
reaction on this request https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/11724#issuecomment-4192228562@Edent As long as it can be overruled by the user/owner I'd have no problem with it, but I can't see any purpose it would serve me.
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Getting rather frustrated that the latest Android strips location EXIF from the web file picker.
Doesn't seem to be any workaround that'll let you pick a photo and have a web browser see the geolocation.
Like, I get the privacy issues, but it is rather frustrating for location-based web apps.
(Before reply-guying, please test if the code you found on a 4 year old StackOverflow post actually works on modern Android, thanks.)
@Edent Ironically, libvips in it current settings in Mastodon adds a exif header to PNG-files and change to color mode from palette to truecolor, making optimized png larger in file size.
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@Edent Doesn't appear to be unique to the Web based file picker. I've just had a little go with the CycleStreets app (which I wrote). Taking a photo using the stock intent is geolocated, using the built in image picker to select an existing photo is not geolocated.
If I get a chance, I'll apply the change @dracos made in his code, and let you know if it makes any difference
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Anyway, if you think the web should have a way to get the *full* photo a user uploaded - including geolocation metadata - please leave a
reaction on this request https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/11724#issuecomment-4192228562I actually logged in to Github to upvote this.
Slightly tangentially I get why back in the mists of time sites stripped metadata, all those bytes add up in bandwidth.
But it absolutely infuriates me that what was once done of necessity now seems to be blind habit — because that's the way it's always been done.
Regardless of the site I find an image on I want to be able to see *all* the metadata the original author provided.
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Anyway, if you think the web should have a way to get the *full* photo a user uploaded - including geolocation metadata - please leave a
reaction on this request https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/11724#issuecomment-4192228562I've also raised a bug with Firefox. Android has a specific permission which will allow the browser to access the *full* location metadata of a photo.
2029620 - Geolocation EXIF stripped from media due to lack of Android Permission ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION
UNCONFIRMED (nobody) in Firefox for Android - Media. Last updated 2026-04-11.
(bugzilla.mozilla.org)
Not sure if it is worth raising bugs for Chrome and Samsung as well. Can't easily test them. If someone else wants to - please go ahead!
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Getting rather frustrated that the latest Android strips location EXIF from the web file picker.
Doesn't seem to be any workaround that'll let you pick a photo and have a web browser see the geolocation.
Like, I get the privacy issues, but it is rather frustrating for location-based web apps.
(Before reply-guying, please test if the code you found on a 4 year old StackOverflow post actually works on modern Android, thanks.)
@Edent I’m so very divided on this. I think it’s absolutely the right behaviour for photo sharing to strip location data by default, and I see the use cases for allowing it with user consent, what I’m struggling with is how to expose that to users in an understandable way because “this photo has high precision location data attached” is still really surprising behaviour to most people I think.
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@Edent I’m so very divided on this. I think it’s absolutely the right behaviour for photo sharing to strip location data by default, and I see the use cases for allowing it with user consent, what I’m struggling with is how to expose that to users in an understandable way because “this photo has high precision location data attached” is still really surprising behaviour to most people I think.
@jon agreed. Most services (FB, Insta, WhatsApp, etc) automatically strip it.
I remember when they didn't and it was very easy to find celebs accidentally sharing their home locations.
Given we have geolocation prompts in the browser, I don't think it is too much of a hardship - but I too am wary of prompt fatigue.
