What EXIF is
EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. It is a standard for storing metadata inside image files — JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, and a few others. The image is the pixels you see. EXIF is everything else: when the photo was taken, what camera took it, what lens, the shutter speed, the ISO. And, when location services were on at capture time, where the camera was.
The GPS fields inside an EXIF block
EXIF has a dedicated set of GPS tags. The common ones:
- GPSLatitude / GPSLatitudeRef — the latitude as a number plus N or S.
- GPSLongitude / GPSLongitudeRef — the longitude plus E or W.
- GPSAltitude / GPSAltitudeRef — height above or below sea level. Phones save this on most modern devices.
- GPSTimeStamp — when the GPS fix was acquired (often slightly different from the photo timestamp).
- GPSImgDirection — which way the camera was facing. Useful for matching a photo to a landmark.
An app that reads EXIF — including Photo Find, the built-in iPhone Photos app, and any “EXIF viewer” app on the App Store — just pulls these fields and turns them into a location on a map, a compass arrow, or numeric coordinates.
What gets stripped, when
- Social media uploads — Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Snapchat, Threads, BlueSky all strip EXIF on upload. The version shown on the platform is metadata-free.
- Most email clients on “smaller image” or “resized” modes. Send the original at full size to preserve EXIF.
- Screenshots never have EXIF — iOS does not embed it because the “camera” is the screen, not a sensor.
- Photo editors that re-encode images. Some preserve EXIF, some do not. Apple’s Photos preserves it.
- Browser-downloaded images from arbitrary websites. Whatever was uploaded is what you get — usually stripped.
How to read EXIF on iPhone
- Quick view: open the photo in Photos and swipe up. The “Information” panel shows a map preview if GPS is present.
- Compass navigation: open the photo in Photo Find. The app reads EXIF and points a compass at the spot.
- Raw coordinates: use an EXIF viewer app from the App Store. They show every field including GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude, and the rest.
Why people care about this
Two opposite reasons. Some people want EXIF GPS — to navigate back to a foraging spot, to find a parked car, to share a meeting point. Other people want it stripped — to avoid leaking where they live or where their kids go to school. EXIF is both a feature and a privacy concern depending on the situation.
Photo Find is for the first group: people who own the photos and want to use the location data that is already inside them.
Photo Find reads EXIF GPS from any of your photos and turns it into a compass arrow.