GPS utility improvements

[yoshovski]

I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.

• Yes

The bug

The GPS utility should show you only photos without GPS coordinate.

Since last update, the utility has become very difficult and looses its purpose of actually being useful. Here are some UI experience ideas:

• Photo Filtering
  Show only photos without GPS coordinates. Alternatively, bring back the dedicated button to filter photos without GPS coordinates. If we reintroduce the button, its default state should be “Show photos without GPS coordinates.”

• Location Labeling
  Replace raw coordinates with a more intuitive label. For example, instead of:
  “Selected GPS Coordinates 39.475, -0.359”
  display:
  “Selected Location Valencia.”

• Selection & Copying GPS Location
  When clicking on a photo, select the photo itself (instead of the GPS coordinates) to keep consistency across the app and to allow multi-photo selection for assigning a location. Currently, I need to click the top-left corner of each photo for multi-selection, which is inconsistent.

  To preserve the “Copy GPS location” feature, add a small copy icon inside the city label overlaying the photo. This makes it intuitive that clicking the city name copies its coordinates.

  With this change, the instruction text “Click on an asset with GPS coordinates to use its location, or select a location directly from the map” becomes redundant and can be removed.

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

Version of Immich Server

v1.142.0

Version of Immich Mobile App

v1.142.0

Platform with the issue

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

Device make and model

No response

Your docker-compose.yml content

N/A

Your .env content

N/A

Reproduction steps

1. Go to Utilities
2. GPS locaiton

Relevant log output

Additional information

No response

[yoshovski]

Something like this.
P.S: I didn't put a filter button, that shows either photos without GPS location or All.

If someone has better UI ideas, would be great

[yoshovski]

I take this one. If someone has suggestions, write it down

[fdw]

I'd like to quickly see which images don't have a location, that is the main point of the screen (for me).

Then, there's a workflow of setting the GPS coordinates for each image. I definitely need a way to define them manually, but a button to set it on a map could be helpful, too. As @tibey1 said, it could also be helfpul to see images with location from around the same time.

[yoshovski]

It already exist the option to pick a location from the map. It's called "Choose on map"

[tibey1]

It would be nice to be able to show only the photos with missing location, but also pictures with location taken around the same day / time as thoses without location (either by showing them when selecting one photo or from the beginning if it's possible), allowing to copy gps data from another picture.

Also another nice improvement when looking for location it would be nice to be able to enter GPS coordinates

[skatsubo]

Related small thread: #21867 (comment)

[yoshovski]

UPDATE:

Filter: All / No GPS

Screen.Recording.2025-09-20.at.08.56.48.mov

Selecting location from assets labels and reverse geocoding

• copy icon added for better UI
• clear tooltip informative text
• for selected location, coordinates are shown with tooltip "latitude, longitude" when city or country is not available in the DB for that location. e.g. (when you pick a random spot in the sea)
• for selected location, city / country is shown with tooltip the coordinates

Screen.Recording.2025-09-20.at.08.57.48.mov

Warning message if assets with already existing location have been selected

Screen.Recording.2025-09-20.at.08.59.36.mov

[yoshovski]

It hasn't been implemented yet the suggestion made by @tibey1 as the changes will be gradual. After this PR is accepted and more feedback is collected, then we can proceed with this improvement.

[sblock23]

I love this utility!
A few suggestions:

• 3 way filter:
  • All
  • No GPS
  • No GPS (context)
    The No GPS (context) shows assets without GPS with just the assets adjacent in time at the beginning and end of each consecutive run of assets without GPS. So you may then see assets "around" the ones missing location and may choose these to harvest a location from.

I often grab a location from Google Maps in a seperate tab, just because it has more search options and has context of my movements. I can paste the copied GPS coordinates in the "choose on map" dialog, but it would be more convenient to select assets and paste directly Ctrl-V or Command-V.

I miss a few things from the first version of this utility:

• date label directly on asset- this can be used with the No GPS context filter above to see how close in time the adjacent asset is.

• also I would show all timestamps with a consistent timezone - likely the TZ of the Immich server (home location)

• Also I would love to see the metadata of the asset when you hover over it. Sometime there is a hint of the location in the TAG or EXIF description field.

• An option to trash selected assets from this utility would be useful so you don't have to waste time geocoding something you don;t want to keep anyway.

• Also in the "choose from map" if you could have saved locations that you often use, like home or work. You could save them with a #hashtag like #home #localbeach #park, etc. Then just enter these when you choose a location and the location is automatically filled.

My 2c. Great work!

[yoshovski]

Thank you for the suggestions. First of all, I want to credit properly @Johannbr for building this utility. I worked only on the improvements in this thread. Also, I see a lot of suggestions from other people is related to the context filter you described. So for sure it sill be considered for the next improvements, if the manteners approve.

Question: Would you think of another way to show the context location? Perhaps showing adjacent locations as suggestion tags in the header?

e.g. you are looking at photos from 20 April 2025, on that day you have been in Rome and in Milan. So you will see two suggested tags of these two locations.

[sblock23]

That would definitely be very convenient and quick. But I would also want to cover the scenario where you wish to fine tune the location. For example, you may see tags for Rome showing the Vatican next to your photos of the Colosseum, but you don't to give the location of the Vatican. If you could select the Vatican "Rome" tag and then fine tune it with the map tool, essentially using the Vatican as a starting place for finding the Colosseum?

The question of GPX file upload has come up a few times and this would be useful. But I wonder if this should be a seperate utility as I could see the workflow as quite different?

[sblock23]

Another thought bubble: if there was a way to select an image that you can't recall where it was taken and press a button from the menu that will download it and submit it to google lens and open the results in another tab. That would be really useful for the odd image that you can't recognise the location. You could always submit your own Google API key if required.

[TBxy]

Already great improvements, thank you 👍

To the already mentioned additional improvements it would be nice to have:

• View and delete images as well from this view (maybe already implemented)
• Suggest location based on previous and next image and time between (see [Feature]: Estimate Location from other photos #1675 (comment))
• Filter by Album (which could be linked from an Album Map view.
• Upload a gpx file which can be used to automap the images with the same timestamp. For me this would be usefull together with the Album Filter, since I often have Albums from hikes or so where I would have a corresponding GPS track. This would be a bigger task and it should probably be implemented in the backend? GPX track plus selected photos and/or Album which then would return the new location for each image (if it does not have one already) ... (see [Feature] Add GPS location to photos extracted from gpx file #11108, [Feature] GPX support #6831)

[TBxy]

Follow up to the filter by Album: By album and/or tag would be very helpfull 😉

[daanw78]

The GPS utlity is a great feature in immich! After adding quite some gps coordinates for images missing gps exif data using the gps utility, here are some thoughts for making it even better.

• It would be good if the utility would allow the addition of GPS coordinates to partner images as well. The gps utility already shows a combined stream, but partner images currently cannot be edited, you can only use them to 'collect' gps coordinates from by clicking them.

• The default zoom level for the map after searching for a location is far too low. When you enter a city name, the zoom level of the result is now more the size of a country or continent. The result is that you have to zoom in a lot every time to get a more reasonable view to be able to pinpoint were a photo was taken.

• Next to light and dark, a satellite map style option would be very handy. I know this can be done by customizing the dark or light preset but I think it's a much needed default view, especially for finding the exact location of where a photo was taken. Currently using a separate satellite google maps window and copy pasting the coordinates into immich works more efficient than finding the location in the dark/light map provided in immich.

• Streetview integration. In the (Android) app it is possible to open Streetview from the location. This is fun because it sort of puts you back (or at least close) to the position where a photo was taken. A link in the web interface to open Streetview at the recorded coordinates would be really nice.

[katashark]

Very nice utility, it is really a great and helpful feature.
Some improvement I suggest on top of the many valuable I have seen already in flight:

1. Image Metadata Display
Overlay the date and time stamp directly onto all displayed images.
Benefit: Allows users to quickly confirm the temporal relationship between a selected photo and an adjacent photo before deciding to copy its location data.

2. Filter Persistence & Context Switching
When a user toggles from the "No-GPS" filter back to the "All" filter, the view must return to and center on the last selected photo.
Benefit: This maintains context, immediately showing the surrounding photos that might contain the necessary location data for manual assignment.

3. New Filtering Option
Implement a Date Range Filtering option.
Benefit: Provides an additional method to group and isolate photos taken during a specific session or period, aiding in efficient location management.

[s-martin]

I use the geotagging utility almost daily to curate my photo collection.

A tremendous improvement would be, if this feature would be integrated into the regular timeline.

My use case is as follows:

• I fix geotags for photos somewhere in 2003
• While doing this I find other issues with a photo (rotation not correct, stacking not correct, wrong date, etc.)
• To fix these problems I have to switch in the regular timeline, find the photo, fix it and then switch back to the geotag utility (and find the time again, where I was)

This context switching makes curating more difficult than it should be. So I think it would be a great improvement, if I could fix geotagging directly in the timeline.

In addition in the geotagging utility I’m unable to access the photo to see in more details, where this photo was actually taken or look into other metadata, which would help me to determine the location of that photo.

[timonrieger]

Quick LLM write-up for this thread, summarizing the improvements suggested here

Priority = how many participants asked for it × how directly it serves the utility's core workflow

P1 — Core workflow: temporal context (most-requested theme)

• All / No-GPS filter + reverse-geocoded location label — PR feat: filter by GPS coordinates in geolocation utility #22227 (open, mergeable)

• Update assets in place after setting location — PR feat(web): update geolocation assets in place after setting location #28839 (open)

• Context filter mode ("No GPS + context")
  Extend the existing All / No-GPS filter with a third mode that shows GPS-less assets plus the temporally adjacent assets at the start and end of each consecutive run of GPS-less assets, so users can harvest coordinates from neighboring photos.
  Acceptance: in context mode, adjacent assets with GPS are visibly distinguishable (e.g. dimmed or badged) from the GPS-less targets; clicking one still copies its location as the selected location.

• Date/time overlay on asset thumbnails
  Render each asset's timestamp directly on the thumbnail (this existed in the utility's first version). Display all timestamps in one consistent timezone.
  Acceptance: timestamps visible without hover; needed to judge how close in time an adjacent asset is before copying its location.

• Asset inspection from within the utility
  Allow opening an asset in the detail viewer (or at minimum a metadata hover: EXIF, tags, description) without leaving the utility — descriptions/tags often hint at the location, and users currently must context-switch to the timeline.
  Acceptance: user can view an asset full-size and see its metadata, then return to the utility with scroll position and filter state intact.

P2 — Filtering, selection, and map ergonomics

• Filter-toggle context preservation
  When switching from No-GPS back to All, keep the view scrolled/centered on the last selected asset so its temporal neighbors are immediately visible.

• Additional filters: date range, album, tag
  Add a date-range filter, plus filtering by album and/or tag (album filter is also a prerequisite for the GPX workflow below).

• Direct coordinate entry and paste
  Accept pasted lat, lng (Ctrl/Cmd-V) while assets are selected to assign that location directly, and allow typing raw coordinates in the map search box. Users currently copy from Google Maps and must route through the "Choose on map" dialog.

• Suggested-location tags from same-day assets
  For the assets in view, surface the distinct locations already present on that day's photos as clickable suggestion chips (e.g. "Rome", "Milan"); selecting a chip pre-fills the location and should be fine-tunable on the map before applying.

• Fix default map zoom after search
  Searching a city currently lands at country/continent zoom. Zoom to a level appropriate to the result's bounding box (city search → city-level view).

• Partner assets editable
  Partner assets appear in the stream but can only be used as a coordinate source. Allow assigning locations to them too (respecting whatever permission model applies).

P3 — Map features and workflow extras

• Satellite map style
  Offer a satellite layer alongside light/dark in the map picker — the main reason users keep a separate Google Maps tab open for pinpointing exact spots.

• Saved locations
  Let users save frequently used locations under short names/hashtags (#home, #park) and pick them when assigning a location.

• Trash assets from the utility
  Add a delete/trash action on selected assets so users don't geotag photos they're about to discard.

• Street View link (web)
  Link from selected coordinates to Street View in the web UI (Android app already supports this).

P4 — Larger features (likely backend work / separate scope)

• GPX track upload for auto-geotagging
  Upload a GPX file and match selected assets (or an album) to track points by timestamp, skipping assets that already have a location. Likely a backend endpoint: GPX + asset/album selection → per-asset coordinates. Related: [Feature] Add GPS location to photos extracted from gpx file #11108, [Feature] GPX support #6831; possibly its own utility since the workflow differs.

• Auto-suggest location from neighboring assets
  Automatically propose a location for a GPS-less asset based on the previous/next geotagged assets and the time gap between them (see discussion [Feature]: Estimate Location from other photos #1675).

• Timeline integration
  Longer-term: allow fixing geotags directly from the regular timeline instead of a separate utility, eliminating the context-switching between geotagging and other curation fixes (rotation, stacking, dates).

• Google Lens lookup (single request; optional)
  Button to send an unrecognized image to Google Lens (user-supplied API key) to help identify where it was taken. One-off suggestion — validate demand before building.