Photos can arrive without latitude and longitude, direction, or elevation. Where they came from tells you why.
Photos taken in Collector
Collector saves the date, location, direction and elevation with every photo, from a paired GNSS receiver if you have one. If those are missing:
- Location services were off for Ecobot when the photo was taken. Turn them on in your device settings.
- The device has no GPS chip (common on Wi-Fi-only tablets). See Location or GPS is wrong.
Photos uploaded to Manager from a computer
These rely on the location data (EXIF metadata) stored inside each photo file. It's lost when:
- the camera or phone didn't record it, because it has no GPS or location was turned off for the camera;
- the photo was taken in a third-party app, such as Google Drive or OneDrive, instead of the device's own camera app;
- the photo was sent by text message, or through Slack without zipping it first. Both strip the metadata;
- the photo was emailed with a client that strips it. Some email apps do.
To keep it, take photos with the device's own camera app and move them to your computer with AirDrop (Mac) or a USB cable. If you email them, check one uploaded photo in Manager for its location before you send the rest.
Fix photos that are already in Manager
In the survey's Photos page, select the photos, click Actions, and choose Edit Photos. You can link a photo to a sampling point and use that point's latitude and longitude. See Photos in Ecobot Manager.
Still stuck?
Get help from Ecobot support. Say where the photos came from and how they were uploaded, and attach one of the affected photos if you can.