GPS metadata stripped from uploaded photos

[Tellervo89]

Description

The Android app strips GPS/location metadata from photos when they are uploaded. This applies to automatic and manual uploads.

Steps to reproduce

1. Take a photo with GPS/location information embedded in the EXIF metadata.
2. Upload the photo using the Android app or wait for the auto upload.
3. Download or inspect the uploaded photo. The GPS location metadata is no longer there.

Expected behavior

The uploaded photo should retain the original GPS coordinates.

Actual behavior

GPS metadata is stripped from uploaded photos.

Additional information

Tested on a Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 9.

[bluecasita]

The root cause appears to be that the app never requests ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION. Since Android 10, the OS redacts GPS EXIF from any media file read through MediaStore unless the app holds that permission (docs) — the upload itself is faithful, but Android hands the app a location-stripped copy. A search of this repository shows no occurrence of ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION in the manifest or permission handling.

Nextcloud's Android app had this identical bug (nextcloud/android#12188, nextcloud/android#6248) and resolved it by declaring the permission and requesting it alongside media access; it's present in their manifest today. Reproduced on Pixel 9 Pro XL, camera location saving enabled: uploaded files retain all EXIF (including OffsetTimeOriginal) except the GPS block — the exact fingerprint of media-location redaction.

[guruz]

@bluecasita Thank you for digging this out.
Yes, it probably would be nice to request the permission only when actual photos/videos are uploaded and not in general.

[fracarvic]

Same issue, all my photos uploaded since April 2026 doesn't have gps data, tested with Google Pixel 6 and Google Pixel 9.

[bluecasita]

@guruz any update on a fix? Do we have an ETA? I'm trying to decide whether or not to wait for the fix, or implement an alternative soltion. Thank you :)

[kulmann]

Thank you for the bug report and analysis. Would one of you @bluecasita @Tellervo89 @fracarvic be willing to contribute a pull request that we can review? 😇

[bluecasita]

@kulmann I'm afraid I don't know how to code, or I would gladly do it. I might be able to pull something together using Claude Code, but no guarantees it isn't AI slop :) Let me know if that would be helpful. I'm happy to try...

[bluecasita]

I created the PR. Tested it on my phone and it works perfectly.