Metadata loss when photos/videos shared from external apps

[ajsteele]

Description

When using the share function from another app (most likely your phone’s gallery app), some metadata can be lost compared to uploading the photo directly into Ente.

I have created an album with a few examples, and phone/OS/app used are specified in the description within Ente to avoid confusion!

• Samsung Galaxy S21, using default Samsung gallery app
  • Photos are renamed as long hashes (eg 20240526_230357.jpg becomes RUID77fd712084f54aeeafda42e237959e11.jpg), and lose at least location metadata (and may lose other things I’ve not noticed)
  • Videos also lose date metadata
• Google Pixel 6 Pro running GrapheneOS, using Fossify Gallery
  • Photos seem to upload without any loss of metadata. I had to upload two photos taken moments apart because otherwise Ente detected them as duplicates!
  • Videos upload without date or location metadata (and may lose other things I’ve not noticed)

I’m not sure whether this is due to the gallery apps stripping metadata on share for privacy reasons (in which case it would be slightly odd that Fossify only does this on videos!), or if it’s an issue that can be resolved within Ente (eg can Ente request the original file be shared in some way?). But it’s very frustrating as sharing to Ente from gallery apps is our preferred workflow, and it’s confusing for non-tech-savvy friends and relatives if only certain upload routes work.

Let me know if you need any further info to troubleshoot this. :)

Version

No response

What product are you using?

Ente Photos

What platform are you using?

Mobile - Android

[ua741]

Thank you for detailed description and sample files. Please feel free to take down the link.

Videos

File	MD5 Checksum	Creation Time	Location
pixel_pro_direct_ente.mp4	last4_9e6a	2025-06-14T14:48:13.000000Z	present
pixel_pro_fossify_to_ente.mp4	last4_9e6a	2025-06-14T14:48:13.000000Z	present
samsung_direct_to_ente.mp4	last4_20f9	2025-03-27T15:51:13.000000Z	present
samsung_gallery_to_ente.mp4	last4_14fd	2025-03-27T15:51:13.000000Z	missing

Your assumption is correct. Samsung Gallery is stripping out location metadata when sharing to Ente.

Also, for files shared to Ente, it looks like we are not parsing creation_time and location using ffprobe. That’s why you are not seeing the correct time (in Samsung & Fossify Gallery) and location (in Fossify). We will fix this behavior.

To disable this behavior where the Gallery app is stripping out metadata, I’m afraid it’s not under the control of the app receiving the media. Users will have to identify and toggle the relevant settings on their device.

I was able to identify one such example for Samsung Fold devices:
https://www.samsung.com/ae/support/mobile-devices/why-is-location-information-removed-when-sharing-pictures-on-fold6-and-flip6/

There must be a similar privacy setting for the Samsung Galaxy S21.

PS: In the case of Fossify, if you open the info panel for the video, the app should ideally try to backfill the location information.