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The camera in smartphones has become perhaps the most important module in addition to the processor. The newer the smartphone, the more details it captures, while the system is able to capture the location where this photo was taken.
The function is quite convenient: you can open the map and see where you took photos, but this is not always safe. If the phone is lost, scammers can use the geotag and pay a visit to your place.
After all, it’s not so safe if you don’t want to goof off in front of someone and give away the secret. Today we will tell you how to remove geolocation from a photo on Android or disable this feature for good.
Geolocation photo on Android
The geotag is always captured in the phone’s camera metadata
Any photo taken on a smartphone has its own metadata: time of shooting, date, model of the camera and the smartphone itself. So you can always view the details of the photo, for example, to verify their authenticity.
The location where a snapshot was taken is called a geotag (or geotag), which is encrypted information about a specific location placed in the snapshot’s metadata.
Do not confuse a geotag with geodata: in the second case, these are just the coordinates of a point on the map, which can be set manually on a social network, but the geotag always remains the same as it was originally when the image was taken using the phone’s navigation system.
Remove geolocation from photo
Photos in most cases are stored either on the phone or in Google Photos. You can remove a geotag from a photo directly from the cloud storage without first downloading it to your smartphone.
You can delete a location directly from Google Photos
- Go to the Google Photos app.
- Select the desired picture or video on your phone.
- Tap on the three dots in the top right corner to view the location data.
- Click on the “Edit” icon and select “Remove Location”.
After that, the location data associated with the photo or video will be deleted. Unfortunately, it is not possible to delete the location of several files, so you will have to repeat the steps for all the photos separately.
Also keep in mind that Google Photos can add approximate location to photos, even disable geolocation for camera photos.
How to remove geolocation from an Android photo
If you store pictures on your phone or microSD, you can also view and delete photo location data using the gallery. Here’s how to do it on a Samsung phone.
You can remove geolocation directly through the Gallery on your smartphone
- Open Gallery on your phone.
- Click on the three dots in the lower right corner.
- Select “Details” to see the metadata of the shot.
- After that, select “Edit” in the upper right corner to make changes.
- Click the red minus sign next to your location data, and then click Save.
Again, you can delete geodata of any photo in this way, but you need to do this separately for each image.
How to disable geolocation for photos on Android
Removing geolocation metadata takes too long. To avoid this, and even for each photo separately, just disable this feature. So your videos and photos will not be marked on the map, but you will save a lot of time.
Disable geolocation for photos permanently via settings
- Open the Camera app on your phone and tap Options in the top left corner.
- Scroll down to the General section and turn off the slider next to location tags.
There is an alternative way: you can simply revoke the permission to determine the location from the Camera application, so that the pictures are definitely not accompanied by a geotag.
You can also disable permission for the camera to insert geolocation
- Press and hold the shortcut for the Camera app.
- Tap the Info icon and go to Permissions.
- Go to the “Location” section and turn on “Do not allow”.
Now your geodata will be only with you. No one will know where the photo was taken, even if you transfer it in a messenger or via Bluetooth.
What to do if geolocation does not work
Sometimes geolocation does not work correctly or disappears altogether. Here’s what to do
If you notice that geolocation used to be, but now it is not, be sure to check some settings. It also helps if the geolocation has started to display incorrectly.
- Check your internet connection (at least 3G should work).
- Make sure the “Locate” toggle is active.
- Check the permissions for the application we talked about above: set “Allow in any mode”.
These settings should help get rid of the disappearance of geolocation in photos or when it does not work correctly.
