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.)
*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/40287342
Basically 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.
What problem are you trying to solve? I would like to strip EXIF data from file attachments before they ever reach a server. It would be nice the either the <input type="file"> or something in the ...
I'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.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2029620
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!
I 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.
@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.
@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.
@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?
@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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