Understand, find & edit your photos’ locations

You can use your photos' locations to organize, search, and explore your photos based on where they were taken.

Your photo may have a location if:

• Your device's camera saves your location with the photo.
• You add a location.
• Google Photos estimates your location from information such as your Google Location History or landmarks detected in your photo.
  • Check if your Google Location History is turned on.

Manage a location

Currently, you can't add or edit a location on your Android phone, but you can do it on your desktop. At the top, tap Computer. Only estimated locations can be removed in the Photos app. Location data captured by your device can't be removed in the Photos app.

Share a photo with a location

If you share a photo using Google Photos, the location of your photo may be shared if you added it, changed it, or if it was estimated by your device.

The following situations happen if you don’t stop people from seeing the location of your photos. 

• If you add a location to a photo, then shared it with someone on Google Photos, you'll also share the location.
• If your device estimated a location, and you shared that photo on Google Photos, it will show the location estimated by the device.
• If you edited a location that was estimated by your device, and then shared that photo on Google Photos, it will show the edited location.
• If you shared a photo with a location that was estimated by Google Photos, and then shared that photo on Google Photos, the estimated location will not be shared.

Remove an estimated location from a photo

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open Google Photos .
2. Tap a photo or video More .
3. Next to the location, tap Remove .

Hide your photos' locations from others

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open Google Photos .
2. At the top right, tap your profile photo or initial Photo settings.
3. Turn on Hide photo location data.

New albums, links, conversations, or items you share with a partner won't have location details.

This setting won't affect shared albums or conversations that you already contributed to. This also doesn't affect photos or videos you share differently, such as when you download and email them to someone. In that case, the original location your device saved shows without any edits you made in Google Photos.

Even if you hide your photos' locations from people, they may be able to guess based on landmarks in your photo.

Find your photos on a map

You can find the location of your photos and videos on an interactive map.

Find the map view

• Tap the Search tab.
• Tap the map in a photo's info section.
• Tap place names in the main photo grid's date headers.

Use the map view

The grid contains the photos in your library that are in the visible map area, including shared photos you've saved.

• To change the area of focus: Pinch and zoom the map. 
• To find photos you took in the visible map area: Scroll the grid or tap the heatmap.

Tip: Black dots on the map are photos you took on the same day.

View your Timeline

You can use the Timeline in your map to check out your photo history. When you scroll through photos in the grid, the path will update to reflect your Timeline for the day in focus.

This feature is only available if you have Location History data. Learn how to turn Location History on or off.

To turn the Timeline on or off:

1. In map view, tap More .
2. Turn on or off Show your private Timeline.

Tips:

• You can choose Default, Satellite, or Terrain for your map view.
• To find the entire Timeline path for a certain day, tap Zoom out .
• When you hide the Timeline from your map view, Photos doesn't remove your Location History data. Learn how to delete your Location History.

Control whether your camera adds location information

1. On your Android device, open the Camera app's settings.
2. Turn the location setting on or off.

Important: This setting varies by manufacturer. Learn how to change your location settings on your device.