What are EXIF GPS tags?

EXIF is the metadata a camera or phone writes into a photo, such as the camera model, the date and, when location is on, a set of GPS tags. The position is stored as degrees, minutes and seconds with a letter for the direction: GPSLatitude with GPSLatitudeRef N or S, GPSLongitude with GPSLongitudeRef E or W, and sometimes GPSAltitude for the height above sea level.

Photo apps use these tags to put pictures on a map. Anyone you send the file to can read them too, so people remove the location before sharing, fix a wrong one, or add one to photos from a camera without GPS.

Tool description

Open a JPEG and its current location shows as a gray dot on the map. Click the map to drop a pin, drag it, type a latitude and longitude, or click "Use my location". Pasting a pair like 48.858222, 2.2945 into Latitude fills both fields. Altitude in meters is optional.

"Download with new location" saves the photo as name-geotagged.jpg, and "Download without location" as name-no-location.jpg.

Only the EXIF block changes. The image isn't encoded again, so the quality stays the same and the other tags, such as the camera and date, are kept. The old GPS tags are overwritten with zeros, so the previous location can't be read back from the file. The photo is edited in your browser and never uploaded, and only the map tiles come from OpenStreetMap.

Example

A pin on the Eiffel Tower at 48.858222, 2.2945 writes these tags:

Tag Value
GPSLatitudeRef N
GPSLatitude 48° 51' 29.599"
GPSLongitudeRef E
GPSLongitude 2° 17' 40.2"

Features

  • Pick a place on the map, type coordinates, or use your current location
  • Change or remove the location without encoding the photo again
  • Wipe the old coordinates and keep the other EXIF tags

Limitations

  • Only JPEG photos work. Convert other images to JPG first.
  • The new GPS block holds only the position and altitude, so other GPS tags, such as the GPS time, are dropped.
  • Some photos also store a location in XMP metadata. The tool warns you but doesn't change it, so some apps may still show the old place.