Modern smartphones automatically embed GPS coordinates into the EXIF data of every photograph you take, allowing Google Photos to magically organize your library by location and generate “Places” albums. However, if you take photos with an older digital camera, or if you intentionally disable location services on your phone for privacy reasons, those images will lack geotags. To keep your Google Photos library perfectly organized and searchable, you can manually add or edit location data for any image or batch of images.
How to Add or Edit Location Data on the Google Photos Website
Editing metadata is often easiest on a desktop computer, especially if you need to update a large batch of photos simultaneously.
- Open your web browser and navigate to photos.google.com.
- Locate the photo you wish to edit and click to open it in full-screen view.
- Click the Info icon (a lowercase “i” inside a circle) in the top right corner.
- The information pane will slide out on the right. Look for the map section. If no location exists, click Where was this taken?. If a location already exists and you want to correct it, click the small pencil icon next to the location name.
- A search bar will appear. Type in the name of the city, landmark, or specific business where the photo was captured.
- Select the correct location from the dropdown suggestions.
To edit multiple photos at once on the desktop, hover over the images in your main library grid and click the checkmark in the top left corner of each thumbnail. Once selected, click the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner of the screen and choose Edit location.
How to Edit Location Data on the Google Photos Mobile App (iOS & Android)
You can also fix geotags directly from your smartphone while reviewing your camera roll.
- Open the Google Photos app on your mobile device.
- Tap to open the specific photo.
- Swipe up on the screen (or tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner) to reveal the image details.
- Under the Location map, tap the pencil icon (Edit).
- Search for the correct location in the search bar and select it from the results.
It is important to note that when you manually add a location in Google Photos, the platform updates its own internal database, but it does not necessarily rewrite the original EXIF data embedded inside the physical image file. If you download the photo later, the manual location tag may not carry over to other applications.