How to geotag photos with an iPhone
"Geotag photos on iPhone" can mean two different jobs. Either you want the iPhone's own photos to carry a location, or you want photos from a real camera to get their location from the iPhone in your pocket. The first is built into iOS. The second is what EasyGeotag is for. This page covers both.
Photos taken with the iPhone
The iPhone's Camera app writes the location into each photo as it takes it, but only if it is allowed to use Location Services.
- Open Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Location Services and make sure Location Services is on.
- Tap Camera and choose While Using the App.
- Turn on Precise Location for an accurate pin rather than an approximate area.
This only affects photos taken from now on. It does not add a location to photos you already took with location switched off.
Add or fix a location on an existing iPhone photo
The Photos app can add or change the location of a photo after the fact:
- Open the photo in Photos, then swipe up or tap the Info button.
- Tap Adjust Location (or Add a location if it has none).
- Type the place and choose it from the map results.
To do a batch, tap Select in the grid first, choose the photos, and adjust them together. They all get the same place. To undo, go back to Adjust Location and choose Revert.
That is the right tool for a few photos from one spot. It is the wrong tool for a day of walking, because every photo in the batch gets the same place, and you are picking a search result rather than the point where you actually stood.
Photos from a camera: let the iPhone be its GPS
Most dedicated cameras have no GPS. Some can borrow the phone's location over Bluetooth through the maker's app, but only while that link holds, and it often drops without telling you (why the Bluetooth location link drops).
The method that does not depend on any link is to have the iPhone record a GPS track on its own while you shoot, then match each camera photo to the track by its capture time afterwards. Nothing has to stay connected, and it works with any camera, old or new.
How to do it with EasyGeotag
- Record. Start a trip in EasyGeotag on your iPhone, lock the phone and put it in your pocket. Shoot as normal with your camera.
- Take one photo of the phone's clock with the camera at some point. It lets you correct the camera's time to the second later.
- Stop the trip. It is saved as a standard GPX file and appears on your Mac and iPad through your own iCloud account.
- Geotag on Mac or iPad. Open the trip and the card's folder, check how closely each photo matched the track, and press Geotag to write the coordinates into the files.
The iPhone is the recorder, not the editor. EasyGeotag does not geotag photos on the iPhone itself: matching needs a screen big enough to judge each photo and real access to a folder of originals, which is what the Mac and the iPad give you.
Recording without draining the battery
- Distance-based logging is the default: a new point is saved only after you have genuinely moved, so standing at a viewpoint does not fill the track with jitter.
- Interval logging samples every 15 seconds to 5 minutes if you would rather trade route detail for battery life. Photos taken between samples are interpolated.
- Max GPS accuracy rejects uncertain fixes, with an optional notification if the signal stays weak.
- Siri and Shortcuts can start or stop a trip, and a Shortcuts automation can start recording when the Camera app opens.
More on this in using your iPhone as a GPS logger for your camera.
Already have a GPX file?
Then you can skip recording. On iPhone, open or share a GPX from Files to import it into Trips. On Mac or iPad, choose Open GPX File… and use it exactly like a trip recorded in the app. See how to geotag photos from a GPX file.
Getting the match right
Most wrong geotags come from the camera clock, not the GPS. A wrong timezone moves photos by whole hours; daylight saving by one hour; drift by seconds or minutes. The clock photo from step 2 fixes drift, and the photo timezone setting fixes the rest. The details are in why photos get geotagged in the wrong place, and the bigger picture is in how to geotag photos.
What it costs
EasyGeotag is a free download, and one App Store listing covers iPhone, iPad and Mac. Recording trips on the iPhone is free and unlimited. Geotagging comes with five free photos per Apple Account on Mac and iPad, counted across your devices and reinstalls; after that, one $14.99 Bundle purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac, and works with Family Sharing. There is no subscription.
Questions
How do I make my iPhone add location to photos?
Open Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services, tap Camera and choose While Using the App. Turn on Precise Location for an accurate pin. This applies to photos taken from then on.
How do I add a location to a photo I already took on iPhone?
Open the photo in Photos, swipe up or tap the Info button, tap Adjust Location and choose the place from the map results. Tap Select first to give several photos the same place.
Can my iPhone geotag photos from my camera?
Yes. Record a trip in EasyGeotag on the iPhone while you shoot with the camera, then open the trip and the photos on a Mac or iPad, where each photo is matched to the track by its capture time and the coordinates are written into the file.
Can EasyGeotag write GPS into photos on the iPhone?
No. On iPhone it records trips and imports GPX files. Writing GPS into photos happens on Mac or iPad.
Is iPhone trip recording free?
Yes. Recording trips on the iPhone is free and unlimited. Geotagging comes with five free photos per Apple Account on Mac and iPad, counted across your devices and reinstalls; then one $14.99 Bundle purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Do I need to keep the camera connected to the iPhone?
No. The iPhone records the track on its own, so nothing has to stay connected and a dropped Bluetooth link cannot lose a photo's location.
Free download for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Recording on iPhone is free and unlimited, with five free photos per Apple Account on Mac and iPad. Requires macOS 15, iPadOS 18 or iOS 18.