It works if you use the Photos app to look at any image with a geo EXIF tag.

But thank you for one more demonstration that even the HN crowd can’t reliably give or deny informed consent here.

And how, pray tell, do geotagged images magically get into your Photos library?

I actually couldn't get Photos address search to work right in my testing before writing my previous comment, even with a geotagged photo that I just took. So I'm not sure whether I have some setting disabled that prevents it.

The only match was via character recognition of a printed form that I had photographed.

To be clear, I meant that it was a nonissue for me, because I don't geotag my photos (except in that one test). Whether it's an issue for other people, I don't know.

One of the problems with iPhone lockdown is that it's a lot more difficult to investigate how things work technically than on the Mac.

> And how, pray tell, do geotagged images magically get into your Photos library?

By saving them from any source other than the camera app you’ve configured to not use geo-tagging.

I don't do that.

My Photos library contains camera snapshots and screenshots, nothing else.

The point still stands. That’s how geo-tagged images get in your photos, and the search function still works.

For what it’s worth, I’m surprised that you never save photos to your phone that you didn’t take yourself. Do people not send you interesting pictures? Pictures of yourself?

I don't actually use my phone for much. Taking photos, making phone calls. I'm not the kind of person who lives on their phone. I live on my laptop (which has Location Services disabled entirely).

I don't even use Photos app on Mac anymore. They've ruined it compared to the old iPhoto. I just keep my photos in folders in Finder.

you started out suggesting it wasn't possible and when presented with a common case showing it was not only possible but likely, you moved the goal posts and now say "well, I don't do that." Weak sauce.

I admit that I hadn't considered the possibility of importing outside geotagged photos into your own Photos library, because I don't do that. But I also said already, "To be clear, I meant that it was a nonissue for me, because I don't geotag my photos (except in that one test). Whether it's an issue for other people, I don't know."

I don't personally have a strong feeling for or against this particular feature, since I don't use geotagging at all, so it doesn't affect me. I'm neither endorsing nor condemining it offhand. I'll leave it to other people to argue over whether it's a privacy problem. It could be! I just lack the proper perspective on this specific issue.

Yeah, I have geo-tagged images from people having AirDropped photos to me. Occasionally I've noticed a photo somehow says the city it was taken in, much to my surprise -- only to remember this was actually AirDropped to me from someone who was there with me, or whatever. Maybe even iMessaged and then manually saved, not sure.

It's all about soundbite replies.

The issue is much deeper for anyone who has remotely worked with EXIF data for any creative or professional work they do.