LR Classic Mac location data problems on export

Question

LR Classic (Mac) 14.5.1Mac OS 26.0 I have several photos that I have imported in LR Classic. All retain their GPS data and show up on the map in LR. Photos were taken on an iPhone. GPS data also shows on original photos in Mac "Photos" app. Photos edited in LR and exported/imported into "Photos" no longer show location data. GPS coordinates also no longer show up on Mac "Get Info" for the image file. LR export settings have "all" metadata. Location data is NOT turned off. Internet searches, yielded no solution. I did, however, discouver the problem. Just can't find a way to resolve it. Mac seems to want to read GPS data as  xx xx xx Nxx xx xx E Lightroom apparently removes the N and E at the end and exports the data that way . If I manually edit the GPS info in LR to include the N and E, and then export, all is well in both LR and the Mac. Simple enough, but not feasible to do this for almost 1,000 photos.  Is there a way to bulk the "N" and "E" to photos so the Mac can access the GPS coordinates?

johnrellis · Accepted Answer

You've tripped over a five-year-old bug in Mac Photos. It doesn't generate XMP sidecars conforming to the industry standard:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/gps-location-imported-from-iphone-has-wrong-hemisphere/m-p/14597889#M363586

You've discovered one workaround. Another is to use Exiftool to correct the bogus XMP generated by Photos:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/gps-location-imported-from-iphone-has-wrong-hemisphere/m-p/10832180#M171197

You could file a bug report with Apple, but given this has been outstanding for five years and others have reported it, I think it's likely they just don't care.

jrm21 · Answer

Update:

Photo were shot on iPhone and first imported to "Photos." I did some quick culling and then exported "unmodified originals" for import to LR.

The Photo export had metadata exported as XMP. The XMP does show the "N" and "E" in the actual file. Re-importing into photos also shows location data retained.

However, when imported into LR, metadata and GPS coordinated are retained, but the "N" and "E" are lost.

Ater some testing, I found that if I export "unmodified originals" from "Photos" with the XMP option turned OFF, then LR does show the "N" and "E" in the GPS coordinates. It also retains that on export so location data is properly retained and can be read by other software.

That said, messing with the Metatdata menu settings in LR (Save to file, update Metatdata) will cause the "N" and "E" to dissappear. GPS coordinates and other metatdata is retained, it just seems to erase the letter at the end of the numbers.

Starting from scratch has caused me to lose several hundred edits, but at least I have a workaround.

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