EXIF being stripped

Question

ForumsContributor OP

Created Apr ’21

Replies 5

Boosts 1

Views 5.2k

Participants 5

I currently have an issue with the "High Efficiency" (HEIC) images that are taken on my iPhone X. It seems that when I upload my HEIC image via the browser, the HEIC image is converted to a JPG and the EXIF data is lost. I tested this on mobile Chrome, Safari, and FF by sending an image to myself using Gmail.

However, when sending that same HEIC image through the Gmail mobile app, the EXIF data was retained and was still converted to a JPG.

I wasn't able to find much information on this except for speculation and was wondering if someone could clarify this behavior and possibly the "why".

I'm only aware of two different workarounds:

Using the mobile application of the platform I'm interested in.
Changing the camera image format to "Most Compatible"

Boost

Answer 1

ForumsContributor OP

Apr ’21

I also spun up this CodePen to use a library called "exif-js" to read the EXIF data that is sent.

Uploading a “High Efficiency” vs a “Most Compatible” ends up stripping most of the EXIF data right at the beginning when uploading an image. I do not believe this is an issue with Gmail but more of an issue with how iPhones upload their HEIC images via browsers.

The CodePen can be found at https:// codepen.io/moistcode/pen/XWpBJKM?editors=1011

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Answer 2

zhamm OP

May ’22

(May 2022) This is still not functional no matter if you choose High Efficiency or Most Compatible, if you use the built-in camera to take the photo (to upload to a website). It appears all EXIF data is stripped, and I see no option in any settings to avoid this. If you UPLOAD a photo previously taken with the iphone/ipad, the EXIF data is preserved.

There are certain conditions where having EXIF data is not only convenient, but necessary. It seems odd that Apple would intentionally strip EXIF data without any control from the user to choose otherwise. It seems browser agnostic, as far as I can tell.

I see no workarounds. To show this, try my codepen with an iPad or iPhone. Try using the camera first, then try uploading a photo you took with your device and see the difference. https:// codepen.io/zahamm/pen/oNEGbbY

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Answer 3

viewsbyme OP

Apr ’23

Starting from iOS 16.4 even photos and videos taken in the "Most Compatible" mode got their exif data stripped out during upload, silently without any note. Apple should give user an option to keep or not keep exif, just like the "Options" button when we try to "Share" a photo or video.

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Answer 4

AminAbuDahab OP

Apr ’23

It looks they have stopped stripping the EXIF info in iOS 16.4.2. At least DateTimeOriginal

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Answer 5

philffm OP

May ’23

Damn, I was almost doubting my web app's code since when converting the image to JPEG on the iPhone (e.g. using Darkroom) it works (using iOS 16.2). Uploading the HEIC using macOS browser also does seem to work. Weird - why would they do this?

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