GPS works, but EXIF data in photos broken

albrecht

GPS tagging of photos used to work perfectly in both the standard “Camera” app as well as in “Open Camera”, but recently both store only NUL bytes in the EXIF tags, e.g.:

$ exiftool -v3 IMG_20230410_160315_759.jpg
[…]
  | + [GPS directory with 11 entries]
  | | 0)  GPSLatitude = undef undef undef (0/0 0/0 0/0)
  | |     - Tag 0x0002 (24 bytes, rational64u[3]):
  | |         00bc: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
  | |         00cc: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                         [........]
  | | 1)  GPSAltitude = undef (0/0)
  | |     - Tag 0x0006 (8 bytes, rational64u[1]):
  | |         00d4: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                         [........]
  | | Warning = Tag ID 0x0001 GPSLatitudeRef out of sequence in GPS
  | | 2)  GPSLatitudeRef = 
  | |     - Tag 0x0001 (2 bytes, string[2]):
  | |         0054: 00 00                                           [..]
  | | 3)  GPSSpeed = undef (0/0)
  | |     - Tag 0x000d (8 bytes, rational64u[1]):
  | |         00dc: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                         [........]
  | | 4)  GPSProcessingMethod = 
  | |     - Tag 0x001b (4 bytes, string[4]):
  | |         006c: 00 00 00 00                                     [....]
  | | Warning = Tag ID 0x0005 GPSAltitudeRef out of sequence in GPS
  | | 5)  GPSAltitudeRef = 0
  | |     - Tag 0x0005 (1 bytes, int8u[1]):
  | |         0078: 00                                              [.]
  | | 6)  GPSSpeedRef = 
  | |     - Tag 0x000c (2 bytes, string[2]):
  | |         0084: 00 00                                           [..]
  | | Warning = Tag ID 0x0003 GPSLongitudeRef out of sequence in GPS
  | | 7)  GPSLongitudeRef = 
  | |     - Tag 0x0003 (2 bytes, string[2]):
  | |         0090: 00 00                                           [..]
  | | 8)  GPSTimeStamp = undef undef undef (0/0 0/0 0/0)
  | |     - Tag 0x0007 (24 bytes, rational64u[3]):
  | |         00e4: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
  | |         00f4: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                         [........]
  | | Warning = Tag ID 0x0004 GPSLongitude out of sequence in GPS
  | | 9)  GPSLongitude = undef undef undef (0/0 0/0 0/0)
  | |     - Tag 0x0004 (24 bytes, rational64u[3]):
  | |         00fc: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
  | |         010c: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                         [........]
  | | 10) GPSDateStamp = 
  | |     - Tag 0x001d (11 bytes, string[11] read as undef[11]):
  | |         0114: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                [...........]

Other apps accessing the GPS data (inter alia OsmAnd~ and OpenTopoMap) work perfectly. Older photos (latest as of 2023-03-13) have proper GPS tags. IIRC, there has been an OS update since then (the build ID ends in 2023040400), but I did not touch any of the settings of the camera apps.

Any idea how I could fix the issue?

csis01

I think the problem is probably that in a lot of cases, it can take a LONG time to get a GPS fix, especially when you are in a building. The options available when this is the case are as follows;

1) Use the last known location, which could be significantly out of date,
2) Skip adding the location.

Probably the best approach would be to use (1) if the location age is within some reasonable amount of time, like 15 minutes, and then fall back to (2). In either case, it would be nice to be notified that it failed to get a location and has taken one of the fallbacks, as well as which fallback.

It is also possible that something is changed/broken recently.

albrecht

Hi csis01, thanks for your comment!

I don't think that the GPS setup time is the issue in this case, though:

the broken GPS data is exactly the same in all ~ 200 photos taken since 2023-04-02,
the vast majority of them has been taken outside buildings or narrow streets where GPS is also somewhat inaccurate,
at least on one day, I know for sure that OpenTopoMap was active simultaneously, showing proper GPS positions.

It is also possible that something is changed/broken recently.

I actually presume that this is the case…

csis01

albrecht Just for fun, I did a test on mine for this issue. Made sure that location tagging was enabled in GrapheneOS Camera, ran gpstest long enough to get a fix, switched back and immediately took a picture. The resulting image includes coordinates and elevation as expected.

Are you certain that location tagging is actually enabled in your camera settings? Open the camera program, there should be a button showing a chevron pointing DOWN near the upper-left corner of the screen, click that and ensure that the PIN icon (left-most icon) is backgrounded in BLUE.

albrecht

Are you certain that location tagging is actually enabled in your camera settings?

I am… As I mentioned above, I didn't change the Camera/Open Camera settings since a while. Double-checked again that GPS tagging is enabled for both (and Open Camera actually shows a little icon if GPS tagging is active and a very small green dot next to it if the GPS data is accurate). Also ran your Check with Gpstest and both Camera apps, and all other apps terminated – same effect, all NUL bytes in the EXIF data.

csis01

albrecht Last idea; make sure that location PERMISSION is enabled. If it already is, then you may need to submit a bug report;

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues

albrecht

Hi csis01, thanks again, but all permissions are enabled – submitted issue 2103 a few moments ago…