I would like to report an issue on Android devices regarding GPS/EXIF detection.
Some photos clearly contain valid GPS metadata inside the EXIF data (latitude, longitude, timestamp, etc.), and the location information can be verified using other gallery apps or EXIF viewers. However, when uploading these images to Mapillary, the app consistently fails to recognize the GPS data and treats the photos as if they have no location information.
This issue happens every time, even though the EXIF metadata is correctly embedded in the image files.
What is strange is that if I transfer the exact same photos to an iPhone and upload them from there, Mapillary recognizes the GPS data correctly and the upload works normally.
Also, I am not very good at English, so I used ChatGPT to help translate this message.
I can confirm this issue. It happens quite often. In such cases, I am unable to upload the entire sequence from my device. However, when I transfer the sequence to my PC, I can upload it using the desktop uploader. Usually, I receive a message stating that one photo does not contain GPS data and has failed to upload.
@quocanhhoang and @Lowiekse I assume you are referring to “image import” functionality in the app. if so, than I would bet that the issue is connected to the recent security updates on Android. To fix it we will need to request additional permissions for some devices (in general, all modern devices) and already working on it.
When I import photos, the app opens the system file manager (com.android.documentsui). It’s possible that when importing through this app, the EXIF metadata in the file gets stripped, so the GPS data is no longer available. Maybe we could use another import method, such as importing directly through Google Photos instead.
I discovered this workaround when I used some tricks to remove the system file manager app and used ZArchiver instead, and the GPS data worked correctly again.
Hi @quocanhhoang - yes, this is the error that @Yaro mentioned above - we are aware of this problem and will plan to have a release out in the next couple of weeks that fixes this problem.
Hi @Shu, thank you for your follow-up. We have it in our backlog (closer to the top) and are considering including it in the next release. But for now, there’s no workaround, as the Android OS blocks the import; the only way to tackle it is with additional permissions (from our side).
Same issue on Android import — GPS shows in other EXIF viewers, but Mapillary treats the photos as having no location.
Before importing I usually re-check that lat/lon are still in the file (e.g. with an online EXIF viewer like https://removeailabel.com/ai-metadata-checker) after copying from the camera roll / file manager. On my side the tags are present; the miss seems to happen at import, which matches what Yaro described about Android permissions.
The issue is not connected to images, but Android OS itself, after receiving one of the updates (security patches), it started blocking EXIF access to the app. To solve this, we need to add more permission requests.
We’re considering landing a lightweight fix for the devices which are impacted. The plan is to include it in the next Open Testing (somewhere soon). Thank you for your persistence; this helps to understand what the most pressing issues are.
