Change GPS date in Apple Photos on Macintosh

Yes, this is an unexpected problem for external drives. Leave feedback here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

On the other hand, location metadata is very easy to enter-- you just add it to the info window, and then it is added to the database. You can even do that in spite of the external drive limitation. The problem there is with the lookup, which is not part of the metadata.

Is your Library in the Pictures folder on your Mac, or is it external. There is a lookup problem for Libraries on external drives. You could try making a new Library on your internal drive and import these pictures to it to see if it finds the location correctly.

Using GraphicConverter was a clever attempt, but keep in mind that, after the metadata is scanned for an imported picture, all information is stored in the Photos database. Altering metadata in the picture doesn't change the database. New information must be added through the Photos app.

I think you can enter GPS data, but it won't give location, saying "Looking for location…"

However, I just did this with a Library on an external drive-- I entered an address; I entered GPS coordinates-- in both cases it found the location and showed me a map!

OK-- rather than relying on my memory, I went back to stuff I did a couple of months ago:

I have a small test Library from my internal drive that I copied to an external SSD. I opened that in Photos, and I entered a location in one of the scanned images that didn't have one. It worked fine. I used the Image>Location procedure to copy the location from that picture to another, and it worked.

However, in another picture I entered Eiffel Tower into the location field of a picture; it correctly placed the Pin in Paris, but "Looking up location info…" appears in the field.

When I copy that Library back to my internal drive, the Eiffel Tower shows up after a short wait.

It looks like pictures that had previously successfully used "Lookup" to name a location have kept the name. But new name lookups don't occur on the external drive.

So, apparently it's not simple! It looks like recording the location data before import works for you.

As to the Eastern Europe vs Utah, thing-- I know that the GPS format can be weird-- like what + or - means, or having the E or W in the right place. Was it just East longitude instead of West? We've also seen lookup fail in some places that are not well surveyed, or at least well traveled by Apple people.

Until the external drive thing gets fixed, here's an idea from what I do: I have a separate Library for my Nikon pictures. I do all the editing and curating in the Nikon Library, and then I transfer the finished pictures to the Library that is connected to iCloud. You might want to do something similar-- have a small Library on your internal drive that gets all the new pictures, curate them there, and then transfer. Even if the external Library can't get the Lookup right, we know that the information is there, and it transfers between Libraries. With multiple Libraries, most of us use the trusted 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($30) to make it easy to move albums back and forth.

Just thinking…

Maps interprets that correctly. But it reports in the form "38.42696° N, 109.92438° W" which I know that Photos reads. Actually, Photos like your form as well.

My Nikon also talks to the phone for GPS, and it works well. Except that I have to actually turn it on!

PaulWith wrote: … using GraphicConverter (which I've been using since the early 90s).

when it was iPhoto Library Manager!