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Location Tab

Summary

The Location tab sets GPS on the selected photos. Type or paste a place to fly the map there, save a spot as a preset for next time, or import a .gpx track (a GPS log file from your phone or handheld) and let Jade GT match every photo by timestamp.

  • Search or paste

    One field accepts addresses, landmarks, Google Maps URLs, decimal pairs, and DMS strings.

  • One-click presets

    Save a spot once, reuse it forever. Presets can carry city, state, country, and IPTC fields, not just coordinates.

  • GPX track sync

    Drop in a .gpx from a handheld or the Mobile GPS Logger. Jade GT pairs every photo with the closest track point by time.

The Location tab with a map at the top, a status row above it reading "Active Location: Wiley A Branton Sr Highway" with coordinates on the right, a search field beneath the map, and a row of workflow buttons (Ref Photo, Phone, Presets, Pin, Reset) below the search. The Location tab with a map at the top, a status row above it reading "Active Location: Wiley A Branton Sr Highway" with coordinates on the right, a search field beneath the map, and a row of workflow buttons (Ref Photo, Phone, Presets, Pin, Reset) below the search.
The Location tab. Map up top, search and toolbar below.

The map uses OpenStreetMap tiles for street view and Esri / ArcGIS imagery for satellite view. The attribution line sits in the bottom right of the map. Address search runs on MapTiler and falls back to OpenStreetMap Nominatim when MapTiler is unreachable.

Active Location header

A single row at the top tells you which location the selection currently uses. The colored stripe on the left changes with state: emerald for a saved location, amber for a staged change you haven't saved, grey for none set.

Close-up of the Active Location header. A green stripe on the left, the label "ACTIVE LOCATION", the place name "Wiley A Branton Sr Highway", the coordinates "34.17311, -92.01993" on the right, and a small copy icon to the right of the coordinates. Close-up of the Active Location header. A green stripe on the left, the label "ACTIVE LOCATION", the place name "Wiley A Branton Sr Highway", the coordinates "34.17311, -92.01993" on the right, and a small copy icon to the right of the coordinates.

The small icon to the right of the coordinates copies them to your clipboard in lat, lng format. Handy for pasting into Google Maps, a tracking spreadsheet, or a chat with a client.

Search or paste coordinates

The search bar under the map handles both. Type an address or landmark to fly the map there, or paste coordinates directly. Jade GT reads three formats.

Right-click anywhere in Google Maps and Copy link. Paste the full URL into the search bar.

Example: https://maps.google.com/?q=45.5231,-122.6765

A comma-separated lat/lng pair, with decimal degrees.

Example: 45.5231, -122.6765

Degrees, minutes, seconds with N/S/E/W direction letters.

Example: 40°42'46.0"N 74°00'21.6"W

Formats Jade GT does not read

Plus Codes (the short letter/digit codes like 84QV+CW) and what3words addresses don't work. Convert to decimal first using plus.codes or what3words' own site, then paste the decimal pair.

Workflow toolbar

The row of buttons under the search bar is the everyday toolbar.

Close-up of the Location toolbar. Five outlined buttons in a row: Ref Photo (camera icon), Phone (phone icon), Presets (star icon with caret), Pin (pin icon), and Reset (refresh icon, red). Close-up of the Location toolbar. Five outlined buttons in a row: Ref Photo (camera icon), Phone (phone icon), Presets (star icon with caret), Pin (pin icon), and Reset (refresh icon, red).

  • Ref Photo

    Pick a separate image whose EXIF already has GPS. Jade GT pulls the coordinates and stages them on the selection. Handy when a second camera shot the same spot and you want one to inherit from the other.

  • Phone

    Pull GPS, altitude, heading, and timestamp from your phone via Phone Metadata. Use this when you shot reference photos on your phone and want the same location on your camera files.

  • Presets

    Open the saved-presets dropdown. Pick one to apply, or save the current coordinates as a new preset.

  • Pin

    Save the current coordinates as a short-term reference pin. Pins appear in a strip at the bottom of the tab and below the search bar in Map Studio. They go away when you close the app.

  • Last

    Re-apply the coordinates from the last location you staged. Only shows when you've used a location in this session.

  • Reset

    Drop the staged GPS and bring back the original coordinates. If the photo had no GPS to begin with, Reset leaves it blank.

Pin and Last show up only when they apply

Pin shows only when the photo has GPS set. Last shows only after you've used a location in this session. The toolbar hides buttons that wouldn't do anything right now.

Presets dropdown

Click Presets to open the dropdown. Saved presets show their name and coordinates. Click one to apply.

Close-up of the Presets dropdown opened. The map and toolbar are visible behind it. A panel reads "SAVED PRESETS" then lists Home Studio (32.2217, -110.9265) and Gallery East Pier (41.8921, -87.6126), then a "+ Save Current as Preset" button, then a "From phone..." button. Close-up of the Presets dropdown opened. The map and toolbar are visible behind it. A panel reads "SAVED PRESETS" then lists Home Studio (32.2217, -110.9265) and Gallery East Pier (41.8921, -87.6126), then a "+ Save Current as Preset" button, then a "From phone..." button.

  • Save Current as Preset

    Save the active coordinates with a name (for example, Home Studio or Gallery East Pier). Jade GT stores presets in this browser, so they survive a refresh and are available on this device next time you open the app.

  • From phone

    Open Phone Metadata to receive a waypoint from a phone photo, then save it as a preset on the desktop. Use this when you want to reuse a phone capture across many shoots.

  • +IPTC presets

    A preset can also carry city, state, country, sublocation, and common IPTC fields (Description, Copyright, Artist). Presets that carry those extra fields show a small +IPTC badge in the dropdown so you know picking them writes more than just GPS.

GPX track sync

Import a .gpx log recorded on a GPS handheld or with the Mobile GPS Logger. Jade GT pairs every photo in the gallery with the closest track point by time, so it geotags the whole shoot in one click.

The Import GPX Track button at the bottom of the tab opens a file picker. Once a track loads, the button swaps for a card with the file name and two actions.

Close-up of the GPX active-track card. A green dot and the file name "SAMPLE.GPX" sit at the top, with a wide orange "Run Match" button on the left and a "Discard" link on the right. Close-up of the GPX active-track card. A green dot and the file name "SAMPLE.GPX" sit at the top, with a wide orange "Run Match" button on the left and a "Discard" link on the right.

Click Run Match to open the Match Preview window. Discard removes the track and the card flips back to the import button.

The GPS Match Preview modal with an amber alert warning "MANY PHOTOS UNMATCHED. CAMERA CLOCK MAY BE OFF", a Fix Clock button, per-photo cards showing Old/New coordinates, filter/sort controls, and a Match Window 30 MIN slider. The GPS Match Preview modal with an amber alert warning "MANY PHOTOS UNMATCHED. CAMERA CLOCK MAY BE OFF", a Fix Clock button, per-photo cards showing Old/New coordinates, filter/sort controls, and a Match Window 30 MIN slider.
The Match Preview checks every pairing and flags clock drift before any coordinates get written.

How the match works

  • Scope

    Run Match works on every photo in the gallery, not just your current selection. Single-photo and batch selections act the same way at this step.

  • Time offsets

    Correct for a camera clock that drifted from UTC. Jade GT also handles per-camera offsets when a shoot mixes bodies with different clock settings. The matcher applies the right offset to each photo based on which camera took it.

  • Match window

    Default is 30 minutes. The slider in the Match Preview tightens to 1 to 2 minutes for closely-spaced tracks, or widens for a badly drifted clock. Photos outside the window keep their original GPS.

  • Pick by nearest time

    Jade GT picks the single closest GPX point to each photo's timestamp. It does not guess a position between two track points, so accuracy depends on how often your GPX wrote points.

  • What gets written

    Only latitude and longitude. Jade GT does not write altitude, heading, or speed from the Logger to the photo.

  • Confirm before commit

    Nothing writes until you tick the photos to apply and confirm. Unmatched photos get a Fix Clock shortcut so you can dial in an offset and re-run.

What the Match Preview shows

After clicking Run Match, the preview shows a card per photo with:

  • Old vs new coordinates side by side.
  • The time difference to the matched GPX point.
  • Filter controls (All / Matched / Unmatched) and sort controls (Time Delta / Filename).
  • Per-card checkboxes. Tick the cards you want to apply before confirming.
  • A Fix Clock shortcut at the top if many photos come back unmatched. It jumps straight to the offset instructions on the Logger page.
What the GPX reader reads

Jade GT reads <trkpt> (track points) and <wpt> (waypoints). It skips route points (<rtept>) and GPX extensions (including speed, cadence, and heart-rate fields).

Run a time shift before a match

The Logger's Sync Photo tells you the camera's exact clock drift. Dial that drift into EXIF Info → Shift Time, commit, then run the match. Every photo will line up against the right track point in one pass.

Map Studio (Pro)

The Map Studio button in the corner of the small map opens a full-screen map workspace. It swaps the small map for a larger view and three tabs: Search (recent pins), Tracks (the same GPX matcher with bigger sliders), and Library (Ref Photo lookup and saved presets).

Double-click the map to drop a marker, drag a marker to refine, and hit Escape to exit. The header shows the current place name and coordinates so you can check the spot before you apply.

Troubleshooting

Map will not load

Jade GT uses MapTiler as the main address-lookup service and OpenStreetMap's Nominatim as a fallback. If neither loads, check that your network or ad blocker isn't blocking requests to api.maptiler.com, nominatim.openstreetmap.org, or the OpenStreetMap / ArcGIS tile servers.

Address search returns nothing

Try a more specific query ("Olympia Tucson AZ" instead of "Olympia"). MapTiler returns the top results first. If your search is unclear, Nominatim's fallback can sometimes match a landmark MapTiler misses.

GPX import shows zero matches

Almost always a camera-clock mismatch. Walk through these:

  • The camera's clock was set correctly when shooting, or you have dialed in the right Time Offset.
  • The GPX track covers the time range of your photos. Photos taken before the track started or after it ended can't match.
  • Your photos sit inside the match window. Widen the threshold slider in the Match Preview if your camera clock was badly out.
  • The GPX contains <trkpt> or <wpt> points. Jade GT skips route points (<rtept>).

If the camera clock is off by a fixed amount, dial that amount into the Time Offset slider, or correct the dates once with EXIF Info → Shift Time before running the match.

Coordinates pasted but the pin did not move

Jade GT only reads the formats listed under Search or Paste Coordinates. Plus Codes and what3words don't work. Convert to a decimal pair first, then paste again.

Reset did not bring back my original GPS

Reset brings back the original coordinates from when the file first loaded. If the file never had GPS, Reset clears the staged location. To bring back a previous edit from disk after you've committed, use Re-read on the Preview tab.

  • Mobile GPS Logger

    Record a GPX track on your phone, sync the camera clock, and export the track for the matcher here.

  • Phone Metadata

    The Phone button and the From phone preset option both open Phone Metadata to receive a waypoint from your phone.

  • EXIF Info → Shift Time

    Dial a camera clock back into UTC before a GPX match so every photo lines up.

  • Review & Commit

    Where staged GPS turns into bytes on disk.