Does a shared photo carry its location?
What happens to the capture location in the file depends on how you share it. We go through what each channel does with it, and show how Ohhi lets you decide at the moment you post.
Illustrative image · when you post, you choose whether the capture location travels along
You forward one photo, or put ten online at once. Whether the coordinates of the shot travel with them depends on how you do it. The photo itself looks the same either way, and by the time you notice, the choice has usually been made for you.
What each channel does with the place
There is no general rule; the behaviour differs per way of sending.
- The original file, by mail, AirDrop or as a document in a chat: everything travels along, including date, device and the coordinates of the shot.
- WhatsApp, Signal and most social media strip the metadata from the copy other people get to see. The original you send does reach that service's servers with the location in it.
- Classified sites and forums vary widely. One cleans the file, the next puts it online untouched, where anyone can download and read it.
- Photo services and shared albums treat the location not as a by-product but as a feature: your library is ordered by it and put on a map.
- A screenshot never carries a capture location, because it was made by your screen and not by a camera.
Afterwards is harder than beforehand
Once a file has been uploaded, the copy is out. Deleting the photo later does not pull back what has already been downloaded or forwarded. The moment you fully control lies before that: while the file is still on your own device.
In Ohhi that choice sits in the post sheet
When you pick photos to post, the sheet carries a row called Place travels along. It reads the picked files on your device and says what is in them, for example Place in 3 photos. One tap turns the row off, and the capture location is then taken out on upload. Your choice is remembered, because someone who switches this on rarely means just this one post.
The reading happens on your own device and without network traffic. For a photo you end up not posting, the coordinates never leave your device.
With a large selection, or with files the browser cannot open such as the HEIC photos from an iPhone, the row names no number and only reports that places are in there. A figure that is really a lower bound would suggest more precision than we have.
What happens when you take the place out
For a JPEG or PNG the file is rewritten in your browser before a single byte leaves, so those coordinates never reach our servers. Containers the browser cannot safely rewrite, such as HEIC, RAW and video, go as they are: the file in your own archive keeps its coordinates, but a marker makes sure the place is not carried over anywhere. That item then does not appear on the map, not in the place groups and not in the details panel. Date and camera settings stay in both cases.
When to leave the place in
Within your own circle that layer is worth having. You see your trip back on a map, photos from the same place end up together, and years later you still know where something was. That is why the row is on by default and the decision sits with each post, rather than in a setting you configure once and forget.
If you share a photo outside Ohhi, you can take the place out first with our free remove EXIF data tool, which also runs in your browser. What else sits in a photo file, you can read in what a photo reveals about you. Create an account; there's always a free tier.
