Photos inconsistently take GPS tags?

[AlfredBaldenweck]

iOS and Android

I'm trying to figure out why the photos I take don't always include GPS tags? I'll take a photo at a spot and it'll have GPS tags, then take a photo at another spot 30 seconds later and get no GPS tags?

Why is this so inconsistent, and how can I fix this?

[DeonLengton]

Hi Alfred

I wonder if it could be that it takes a few seconds to acquire satellites or pull a location from Wi-Fi/cell towers. If you take the photo too quickly, the photo may not get a tag?

[AlfredBaldenweck]

Thanks for the response, Deon.

We're wrapping up a support case for this right now, and it looks like there is a correlation between phone signal and GPS tags getting written. Strangely enough, FieldMaps and QuickCapture don't seem to have this problem. I tested in the same spot with more or less the same signal strength each time, and only S123 had missing tags.

I will be updating this thread with the Bug # when I get it.

[AlfredBaldenweck]

Update: We got a bug logged today

• BUG-000179156: Images taken in Survey123Field App do not always have GPS Exif metadata 

1-2 bars of service had inconsistent tags, and apparently it got worse on airplane mode. To my knowledge and own limited testing, FieldMaps and QuickCapture were unaffected.