Photo GPS incorrect

[mustang7757]

Here are the screenshots (3 pics).

View attachment 347290
View attachment 347291
View attachment 347292

Try putting it in unrestricted mode

 

[MyfavoriteRockhound]

Try putting it in unrestricted mode

Thanks for sticking with me trying to find a workaround on this. But nope, unrestricted battery mode for the app didn't help either. I switched it to unrestricted, took a new picture, and got the same 1/4 mile away incorrect pic location tag. At least it's consistently incorrect, from my house. Maybe I should try going to that other address to take a picture, and see how that pic is tagged, just for giggles. But it's also been way off at restaurants, etc.. At least it gets the city right.

 

[mustang7757]

Thanks for sticking with me trying to find a workaround on this. But nope, unrestricted battery mode for the app didn't help either. I switched it to unrestricted, took a new picture, and got the same 1/4 mile away incorrect pic location tag. At least it's consistently incorrect, from my house. Maybe I should try going to that other address to take a picture, and see how that pic is tagged, just for giggles. But it's also been way off at restaurants, etc.. At least it gets the city right.

Welcome also check settings>apps>Meta service is disabled can mess with GPS

 

[MyfavoriteRockhound]

Welcome also check settings>apps>Meta service is disabled can mess with GPS View attachment 347298

I'll opt out of letting Foursquare share my personal information with their vender lists and advertisers (I don't like their privacy policy). I get enough bothersome ads as it is. I've concluded that the problem isn't with my GPS. Google Maps is accurate (even as I had to calibrate my home address with Google, which they approved), and I checked my Google timeline, both locally and from recent travel, and it is eerily accurate. What is interesting is that photos I've taken on this phone actually appear in my online Google history/timeline at the correct locations (which surprised me), even though the location tags within the same pictures in my phone are inaccurate. So, the problem is that accurate locations are not being properly transcribed to the photos themselves. All things considered and tested, this has to be a Samsung (or maybe Android) software glitch that seems to be specific to my phone, and apparently a few others, based on this thread. I haven't found this specific issue mentioned elsewhere outside of this forum, so it's either not widespread, or other S22U users haven't used or noticed it.

 

[mustang7757]

I'll opt out of letting Foursquare share my personal information with their vender lists and advertisers (I don't like their privacy policy). I get enough bothersome ads as it is. I've concluded that the problem isn't with my GPS. Google Maps is accurate (even as I had to calibrate my home address with Google, which they approved), and I checked my Google timeline, both locally and from recent travel, and it is eerily accurate. What is interesting is that photos I've taken on this phone actually appear in my online Google history/timeline at the correct locations (which surprised me), even though the location tags within the same pictures in my phone are inaccurate. So, the problem is that accurate locations are not being properly transcribed to the photos themselves. All things considered and tested, this has to be a Samsung (or maybe Android) software glitch that seems to be specific to my phone, and apparently a few others, based on this thread. I haven't found this specific issue mentioned elsewhere outside of this forum, so it's either not widespread, or other S22U users haven't used or noticed it.

Yeah , you can try resetting the app clear its data as long u back up , u can install again if you want to try

 

[gtt1]

I tried clearing data and cache on effected appsand no different still get incorrect address on photos taken at home but not from other locations. Apps effected are Gallery and Accuweather. unusual problem and weird it happens fro home address.

 

[mustang7757]

Strange

 

[spARTacus]

...still get incorrect address on photos taken at home but not from other locations. Apps effected are Gallery and Accuweather. unusual problem and weird it happens fro home address.

Is there some sort of privacy setting in Google to "randomize the precision" of home, as a social media protection? Is "home" incorrectly stored somewhere in Google as the incorrect location you notice and then the phone always retrieves those coordinates (instead of real time coordinates from gps) once some sort of other flag somewhere in the software achieves a location=home state, maybe as some sort of presumed faster processing/retrieval logic?

 

[gtt1]

Is there some sort of privacy setting in Google to "randomize the precision" of home, as a social media protection? Is "home" incorrectly stored somewhere in Google as the incorrect location you notice and then the phone always retrieves those coordinates (instead of real time coordinates from gps) once some sort of other flag somewhere in the software achieves a location=home state, maybe as some sort of presumed faster processing/retrieval logic?

Not that I am aware of. Locations shown on my Huawei Mate 20 Pro were always accurate (if sitting in back yard I would get the house behind address). I believe its something particular to the apps involved not Google. Certainly not a big concern just curious why. Maybe its a Gallery safeguard we are not aware of. It actually is good that images from home which could be published don't show correct address. But then why are others not seeing this, I haven't knowingly turned on any privacy feature.

 

[danhartman26]

I see the same thing, just haven't chimed in... I have been watching to see if you get a solution.

 

[oldSeattleGuy]

I think I have a solution, though my girlfriend should get the credit. my apologies if this has already been proposed, but it's a long thread and I didn't read every post.

>>> turn on airplane mode. this seems to force photos to get the location from the sattelite network instead of the cell phone towers.

I did the following and I would love it if someone tried to duplicate it.

1) turn on airplane mode
2) walk to a location
3) launch google maps and wait until the location "dot" stabilizes
4) take a photo (with GPS locations on, of course)
5) walk to another location and open google maps and wait for the dot to stabilize
6) take another photo.

I then uploaded the photos to my desktop and looked at the GPS locations. they were exactly correct.

I'm going out now to visit a park where I will try this on a larger scale. If anyone else tries this I'd be very interested in your result.

 

[oldSeattleGuy]

I've been working with this "solution" for a several hours and here's what I've learned:

settings:
airplane mode on
Location->App Permissions: Camera, allow while in use
Location->App Permissions->Camera: use precise location
Battery and Device Care->Battery->Power Saving off

I don't know if any of the above settings (other than airplane mode) are really necessary, but that's the way my phone is set up.

1) the key thing is to be in airplane mode. If you are then photos has to get the location from the GPS satellites.
2) getting the location from the satellites will take some time, as much as 60 seconds.
3) If photos hasn't gotten a location yet, it will not put anything in the JPEG meta data for GPS coords or, worse, it will put in stale coords from a previous location.
4) You must give it time to settle, 30 seconds minimum, or the location will be inaccurate.

SO, to get GPS coords in your photos (as accurate as GPS ever is). DO the following

Turn on airplane mode
Walk to the location you want to photograph. Wait about 30 seconds and take a photo. Check that the photo contains GPS coords:
touch the circular image on the bottom left, the photo pops up
touch the 3 dots in the lower right to access the menu
touch Details
The details should show a location, if not, delete the photo and try again.
For best accuracy, delete this photo, wait 15 seconds and take another photo.

You can also do this by opening google maps, waiting for it to settle on a location and then take the photograph. That way you can watch the blue dot to determine when your phone is finished getting data from the satellites.

A caveat:
I took almost 150 pictures in a park using this method (combo map and photo apps). Even so, in 3 of the photos there was no GPS location info in the meta data. Always check to see if GPS info has been added to any images where the location is important.

I think there's still a lot to learn about using this phone to get accurate GPS meta data. I'm not convinced that what I've done is optimum and I hope some of you can suggest ways to make this easier and to improve accuracy.

BTW I don't like this work around because it's clumsy. What Samsung needs to do is add some GPS controls to the photos app. We need the ability to force the photos app to use satellite info and the photos app needs to signal when it has enough info from the satellites to produce accurate GPS. A further enhancement would be a way to show the location in maps and let the user drag the pin to correct the location if need be so the software can correct the GPS meta data.

I understand why the default for photos is to use cell tower triangulation -- it's faster and uses less power, and for 99% of applications it's sufficiently accurate. But sometimes we need more and it wouldn't be hard to add the above features to the software.

I look forward to hearing if this works for others and any corrections, suggestions, etc.

 

[MM100]

Thanks for the detailed Airplane mode workaround. But it did not solve problem for my S22 Ultra.

As others have reported, photos taken at home are tagged with an address about 100 yards away. (I haven't noticed an offset problem with photos taken at other locations.) Google Maps and other GPS apps (for example, Trusted Places in Smart Lock) are not affected, showing my correct home address.

Even if I edit the location in Gallery, removing the location and adding correct location, the resulting map can be zoomed to my home which has the red location flag sitting right on my correct house address number, but the address bar shows the same wrong house address - wrong number and street. And changing the written address bar still adds the same wrong address. It's as if the wrong address is hard coded for my home coordinates in Camera and/or Gallery.

I had this issue consistently with my Note 8. But neither my wife's S22 nor my Tab S5e have the problem. My S22 Ultra is U.S. unlocked, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, BTW.

 

[mustang7757]

Make sure play system is up to date not play store , on newer Samsung it can be found in setting about phone>software page

 

[MM100]

Make sure play system is up to date not play store , on newer Samsung it can be found in setting about phone>software page

Thanks. Google Play System update is July 1, 2022.

Also, I submitted an error report on Samsung Members yesterday, and got a reply that may indicate that it's a known problem: ". . . we have raised this issue to our developers for further evaluation. Once an update becomes available, we will get back to you as soon as possible."

 

[abcomputing]

Locked At&t and got the 2AVHD update the 1st of Sep. Now the location finally shows accurately in the photo info. It took them long enough to fix that.

 

[mustang7757]

Locked At&t and got the 2AVHD update the 1st of Sep. Now the location finally shows accurately in the photo info. It took them long enough to fix that.

Glad to hear its fixed