How to Geotag Your Photos
This guide walks you through using Geotag Editor to add location and date metadata to your photos. Whether you're processing scanned film negatives, correcting timestamps on digital photos, or preparing images for Google Photos, the steps below cover everything you need.
Step 1: Upload Your Photos
Open Geotag Editor and drag your photos into the upload area, or click to browse. You can upload multiple images at once — JPEG, PNG, and TIFF formats are all supported. Your photos stay on your device; nothing is uploaded to a server.
After uploading, thumbnail previews appear in the image grid. You can remove individual photos by clicking the X button on each preview.
Step 2: Set the Location
The controls sidebar appears once you upload at least one photo. You have two ways to set the GPS location:
- Click the map — zoom and pan to the spot where the photo was taken, then click to drop a pin.
- Enter coordinates — type decimal coordinates (e.g., "48.8566, 2.3522") or DMS format into the location input field.
You can also search for an address using the search button above the map. All uploaded photos will receive the same GPS coordinates.
Step 3: Set Date & Time
Pick the date and time when the first photo was taken. Choose the correct timezone from the dropdown — this is especially important for travel photos taken in a different time zone than your home location.
If you prefer to keep the original date already in each photo's EXIF data, toggle the "Keep original date" switch and only the GPS location will be modified.
Step 4: Batch Processing with Time Intervals
When you upload more than one photo, an interval picker appears. This sets the time gap between consecutive photos. For example, if you set the first photo's date to 14:00 and the interval to 60 seconds, the second photo will be 14:01, the third 14:02, and so on.
The default interval is 60 seconds. You can change the unit to minutes for larger gaps, or set the interval to zero if all photos should have the same timestamp.
Step 5: Download
Click the download button once you've set a location (and optionally a date). For a single photo, the browser downloads the processed file directly. For multiple photos, you get a ZIP archive containing all processed images.
The download dialog shows progress and indicates success or failure. If something goes wrong, you can close the dialog and try again without re-uploading.
Geotagging for Film Photographers
Film cameras don't record GPS or date metadata. After scanning your negatives or prints, the resulting image files have no location or timestamp information. This means Google Photos, Apple Photos, and other gallery apps can't organize them correctly.
With Geotag Editor, you can batch-add the location and approximate date to an entire roll of film scans in seconds. Upload the scans, pick the location on the map, set the date, and download. The photos will now appear in the correct location and date when imported into any photo management app.
Organizing Photos in Google Photos
Google Photos uses EXIF metadata to sort photos by date and display them on the map. If your photos are missing this data, they'll appear out of order or without a location pin. After processing your photos with Geotag Editor, re-upload them to Google Photos and they'll be correctly placed on the timeline and map.
The same applies to Apple Photos, Amazon Photos, and other services that read EXIF data. Correct metadata makes your photo library searchable and well-organized.
Understanding EXIF Metadata
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a standard for storing metadata inside image files. Common EXIF fields include:
- GPS Latitude & Longitude — the geographic coordinates where the photo was taken
- DateTimeOriginal — when the photo was captured
- OffsetTimeOriginal — the timezone offset at capture time
- Camera Make & Model — the device used (not modified by this tool)
Geotag Editor reads and writes GPS and date/time fields. All other EXIF tags are preserved as-is.
Tips for HEIC and iPhone Photos
iPhones save photos in HEIC format by default. Geotag Editor can convert HEIC files to JPEG for processing. Simply upload your HEIC files and the tool handles the conversion automatically.
Tips for Drone Photos
Some drone models record GPS coordinates but with low accuracy, or write coordinates in a non-standard format. If your drone photos show up in the wrong location in Google Photos, you can use Geotag Editor to correct the coordinates by pinpointing the exact spot on the map.