New Android Photo Browser doesn't import GPS data with photo

[tiwane]

From https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/android-app-not-reading-picture-location-data/37908 I can replicate on my Pixel 3A running Android 12, so maybe it's not just an Android 13 thing. I'm using iNat version 1.28.9 (562). There seems to be a new image picker.

1. Make a new observation and select "Choose image"

2. Import a local image from your device that you took with the device's camera and that you know has GPS data in it by tapping on it and adding to iNat.

3. New observation is made. Date and time are imported, location is not.

4. Delete observation.

5. Make a new observation and select "Choose image"

6. Before tapping on any image, tap on the kebab menu and choose "Browse". Select the same photo.

7. New observation is made. Date and time are imported, as well as location.

8. Delete observation.

For what it's worth, sharing the same photo from my Files to iNat works - location data is used to make the observation.

[tiwane]

Logs, screenshots, are here https://inaturalist.slack.com/archives/G041A2Z1W/p1671225259723169?thread_ts=1671057677.354549&cid=G041A2Z1W

[budowski]

So this is very odd:

• The log file shows that we indeed fail in reading EXIF location data in one case, but succeed in the other
• In the case of the failed EXIF location data - the URI of the photo suggests it is indeed the new Android Photo Picker.
• From Android 11, you need to ask for specific permissions to read location data of photos, which we do.
• Apparently, the intended behavior of the new photo picker is to redact location data from images, even if we ask for that permission.
• The odd thing here, is that the way that we trigger that "choose photo" screen, is supposed to bring up the old photo chooser.
• And even weirder, when I tested it on my Pixel 7 with Android 13 - it worked fine, even though it showed the new photo picker!

[robbitt]

On my pixel 7, the photo chooser does not extract location data. I'm using version 1.29.11 (585)

[budowski]

@robbitt - there have been fixes related to that in a newer version (that is not public yet, but available as an APK here on Github)