Add GPS location and a timestamp to photos on iPhone
Your iPhone already records where and when a photo was taken, but invisibly, and that data is stripped the moment you share it. For site visits, deliveries and inspections you need the stamp on the image.
What the iPhone records by default
With Location Services on for Camera, every photo carries GPS coordinates, date and time in its metadata (EXIF). You can see it by swiping up on a photo or tapping the info button. That is useful for your own library, and useless as evidence: WhatsApp, Messages, most email clients and every social network strip metadata when you send a photo, and anyone can edit it anyway.
When a visible stamp is the right answer
- Proof of delivery, meter readings, before-and-after photos on a job.
- Site inspections, surveys and property reports.
- Insurance claims and incident records.
- Field notes where the address matters more than the coordinates.
Adding the stamp with GPSMark
- Install GPSMark and allow location access While Using the App. Precise Location should be on; without it the coordinates are approximate.
- Choose a stamp layout. Each layout can show any combination of coordinates, street address, a small map, date, time and a note.
- Give the phone a few seconds outdoors to get a GPS fix. Indoors and in dense streets the first reading can be off by tens of metres; the accuracy figure on screen tells you when it has settled.
- Take the photo. The stamp is drawn into the image, so it survives any messaging app, email or print.
- Share from the app or from Photos, where the stamped copy is saved.
Accuracy and honesty
Consumer GPS is accurate to about five metres in the open. A stamp makes a photo harder to misrepresent, not impossible; for anything legal, keep the original file with its metadata as well as the stamped copy, and take two photos a minute apart.
Privacy
A stamped photo shows exactly where you were. Do not post stamped photos of your home or routine publicly, and remember that the unstamped originals still carry location metadata unless you strip it before sharing.
Questions
- Can I add a stamp to a photo I took earlier?
- GPSMark stamps at capture time so the location is genuine. For an older photo, the date and time in its metadata can be shown, but a location can only be added if the metadata already has one.
- Does the stamp use mobile data?
- The map and address need a connection; coordinates, date and time do not. Without a connection the stamp shows coordinates only.
- Can I choose the time format?
- Yes. 12 or 24 hour, and the date order of your region.
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