Can I add a location to a photo in Google Photos on iPhone?

Not directly — the Google Photos iOS app has no 'Add a location' option. The workaround is to open the photo in the iPhone's built-in Photos app (swipe up on the photo, tap Adjust next to the location row), set the location there, and let Google Photos re-sync. Alternatively, write GPS into the file using an EXIF tool before importing it.

Why is the location greyed out and I can't edit it?

Google Photos locks location editing when the GPS was written directly into the file's EXIF data by the camera. This is by design — the app will not override data baked into the file itself. The only way to change a camera-written location is to edit the EXIF tags at the file level using a tool like ExifTool.

Will adding a location in Google Photos put GPS into the actual file?

Not always. On Android, Google sometimes stores the manually-added location in your Google account rather than re-writing the original file's EXIF. If you need GPS baked into the file itself — so it travels with the photo if you move it elsewhere — export the photo from Google Photos after adding the location, or write the GPS directly into the file with an EXIF editor.

Why don't some of my photos appear on the Google Photos map?

The map (Collections → Places, or 'Your map') only shows photos that have a location — either from the camera's GPS or from a manually-added tag. Photos with no location data at all are simply invisible on the map. Adding a location to them via the Info panel, or writing GPS EXIF into the file, will make them appear after the next sync.

What if I don't know where an old photo was taken?

Google Photos' 'Add a location' feature requires you to know the place — you type it in or drop a pin. If you genuinely don't know where a photo was taken, you need a different approach: AI visual recognition can infer a location from the photo's content (landmarks, scenery, architecture). RetroTagr does this and writes the result as standard EXIF GPS, so Google Photos picks it up automatically. See the guide on finding where a photo was taken.

How to Add or Edit Location in Google Photos

Add, edit, or fix a missing location in Google Photos on desktop, Android, and iPhone — and why the location field is sometimes greyed out.

Google Photos stores location as metadata — either GPS coordinates that the camera wrote into the file, or a place tag that you or Google's systems added afterward. Those two sources behave differently: the first is locked, the second is editable. That distinction explains most of the confusion around the greyed-out location field and the missing iPhone option.

TL;DR: On desktop, open the photo's Info panel and click "Add a location". On Android, tap the three-dot menu → "Add a location" (the photo must be backed up first). On iPhone, the Google Photos app has no location-editing option — set it in Apple Photos or write GPS into the file first. If the location field is greyed out, the camera locked it in EXIF; you need a file-level editor to change it. If a photo doesn't appear on the map at all, it has no location data — add one using the steps below.

Add a location on desktop

Open photos.google.com and click on any photo. Click the Info icon (the circled i in the top right corner). In the panel that slides open, you'll see a location row — either the current place or a link that says Add a location.

Click it, type the place name into the search box, and select it from the suggestions. Google Photos accepts city names, street addresses, and specific venues. The location is saved immediately; you do not need to download or re-upload the photo.

This works for any photo in your library, including old uploads and scans that never had GPS, as long as you know what place to enter.

Add a location on Android

Open the Google Photos app, tap the photo you want to tag, then tap the three-dot menu (More) in the top right. Choose Add a location (or Edit location if one exists already). Search for the place and tap to confirm.

One important condition: the photo must be backed up to Google Photos before this option appears. If you took a photo on your phone and the backup hasn't finished yet, the menu item will not show. Wait for the sync to complete, then try again.

As with the desktop version, for some photos Google stores the edited location in your Google account rather than rewriting the original file's EXIF. If you later move the photo to another app or device, the location tag may not travel with it. Export the photo from Google Photos after tagging if you need the GPS in the file itself.

Why iPhone can't (and the workaround)

The Google Photos app on iPhone and iPad does not have an "Add a location" or "Edit location" option at all — the feature simply doesn't exist on iOS. This is one of the more common frustrations for people who manage photos across platforms.

The most practical workaround is to use the built-in Apple Photos app, which can write GPS directly into the file. Open the photo in Apple Photos, swipe up to reveal the info panel, and tap Adjust next to the location row. Set the location, and the GPS is written into the file. The next time Google Photos syncs that photo, it will read the location from the file and display it correctly.

If the photo isn't in your Apple Photos library — maybe it's a scan you imported, or a file from an old camera — you can write GPS into it using an EXIF editor before uploading. See the guide on adding GPS coordinates to a photo for the full set of options.

Why the location field is greyed out

If you try to edit or remove a location in Google Photos and the field is greyed out, the reason is almost always this: the camera wrote the GPS coordinates directly into the file's EXIF data.

Google Photos distinguishes between two kinds of location:

Camera-written EXIF GPS — baked into the file by the device that took the photo. Google treats this as the authoritative source and does not let you overwrite it through the app's UI.
Manually-added or estimated location — stored in your Google account or added via the Info panel. This you can edit or remove freely.

If you genuinely need to change a camera-written location — for example, a photo that was geotagged at the wrong place because the phone's GPS drifted — the only way is to edit the EXIF tags at the file level. ExifTool is the standard free tool for this: download the original file from Google Photos, rewrite the GPS tags with ExifTool, and re-upload it.

Getting old photos onto the map

Google Photos' map view (accessible under Collections → Places, or from the search bar as "Your map") only shows photos that have a location. A photo with no GPS data at all — a scan, an old digital camera shot, a photo shared over messaging — simply doesn't appear on the map. There's no way around this: the map is driven by location metadata.

If you know where the photo was taken, the desktop "Add a location" method above is the fastest fix. Do it for each photo individually, or use a batch approach: Google Photos doesn't have a bulk location editor, so for large numbers of photos without location, an EXIF editor that can tag many files at once is more practical.

If you don't know where a photo was taken, you can't use "Add a location" because you don't have a place to enter. This is the harder problem — and it's the one Google Photos' own tools can't help with. AI-assisted geotagging can infer a location from what's visible in the photo: recognisable landmarks, distinct architecture, characteristic landscape. RetroTagr works this way — it analyses the image, suggests likely locations for you to review and confirm, then writes the result as standard EXIF GPS. Once the GPS is in the file, Google Photos reads it on the next sync and the photo appears on the map.

For the full workflow on photos with no known location, see how to find where a photo was taken and how to geotag old photos without GPS.

Quick reference

Platform	Can add a location?	Can edit a manually-added location?	Can edit a camera-written location?
Desktop (photos.google.com)	Yes	Yes	No — greyed out
Android app	Yes (if backed up)	Yes	No — greyed out
iPhone / iPad app	No	No	No
Apple Photos (iOS)	Yes	Yes	Yes (updates the Photos library)
ExifTool (file-level)	Yes	Yes	Yes

Wrap-up

Google Photos' location tools are more limited than most people expect — no iOS editing, and a hard lock on camera-written GPS. For the common cases (adding a location you know, on desktop or Android) the built-in tools work well. For the iPhone case, the cleanest path is to write GPS into the file before or after upload, using Apple Photos or an EXIF editor. For the locked-greyed-out case, file-level editing with ExifTool is the answer. And for the hardest case — photos with no location at all and no memory of where they were taken — AI geotagging fills the gap that no manual tool can.