Step by step
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security.
- Tap Location Services. Make sure the master toggle at the top is on. If it is off, no app gets location access at all.
- Scroll to Camera in the alphabetical list of apps and tap it.
- Choose “While Using the App.” This lets the Camera app read GPS while you have it open, which is when you take photos.
- Turn on “Precise Location.” Approximate Location only gives a several-kilometer radius — useless for navigating back to a specific spot. Precise Location gives you the actual coordinates.
How to verify it worked
Take a test photo of something nearby. Open it in the Photos app and swipe up. You should see a small map preview with a place name. If you see “No Location,” something is still blocking location access — usually one of:
- The master Location Services toggle is off.
- Airplane Mode is on.
- You are indoors with no recent GPS lock.
Why this matters
Without GPS in photos, you cannot use any photo-location tool — including Photo Find, the built-in Photos map, or EXIF viewers — to find where the photo was taken later. The data has to be there at capture time. Once you turn on Camera location, every future photo carries the spot with it.
Privacy considerations
The location stays inside the photo file. Apple does not upload it anywhere on its own. The data only leaves your device when you share the photo. Social media platforms typically strip metadata on upload, so posting an Instagram or Facebook photo does not leak the location. Sending the original file directly (AirDrop, iMessage with full size, email at full size) does preserve it. See when iMessage strips location and when email strips location for the specifics.
Once Camera location is on, Photo Find can read any photo and point you back to where it was taken.