When does email strip photo location?

The rule

If the email client sends the original photo file untouched, the EXIF GPS data inside it travels along. If the email client resizes or re-encodes the image, metadata is usually stripped as a side effect of the encoding pass.

iPhone Mail app

When you attach a photo on iPhone, Mail asks you to pick a size at the top of the compose view: Small, Medium, Large, or Actual Size. The first three resize the image, which strips EXIF. Actual Size keeps the original file intact, including GPS.

If you want a photo to arrive with location data, pick Actual Size.

Gmail web

Gmail in a browser typically sends the original file when you drag and drop a photo into the compose window. Image metadata is preserved. Gmail’s mobile app behavior varies; test it before relying on the result.

Outlook, Yahoo, ProtonMail, others

Behavior is client-dependent. Most desktop clients send the original file unchanged. Mobile email apps frequently auto-resize on upload to save bandwidth, which strips metadata. Test once with your own email setup and then trust the answer.

How to verify a received email photo has GPS

1. Save the attached photo to your iPhone library.
2. Open it in the Photos app and swipe up.
3. If you see a map preview with a place name, EXIF GPS made it through. If you see “No Location,” it was stripped (or was never present at capture time).

Alternatively, open the saved photo in Photo Find — same EXIF read, plus a compass arrow if location is present.

Sender vs. recipient

This is a sender-side issue. If your friend resizes the photo when sending it, no recipient can recover the GPS from the resized version. Ask them to send at full / actual / original size next time.