Location (GPS) from videofiles not always correctly parsed #391
Description
Hi there.
When working with exiftool on a Immich app, I've noticed that some videos' GPS location is not correctly parsed. ( my original issue immich-app/immich#26101 )
After a longer investigation, I found out that exiftool prefers Location Information tag over other metadata to determine a location.
I found out that Location Information often contains <err> value. But other metadata are still good, so correct location can still be extracted. I've found many videos in my library (iPhone 4S, Canon PowerShot S100) with such problem.
I've developed a fix for Immich that works. But the question is whether this should be fixed directly in exiftool? Is it a data issue in those video files, or the tool is not handling data correctly?
Here an example video: https://github.com/user-attachments/files/25212785/immich-gps-problem.mp4.zip
By running exiftool -a -n immich-gps-problem.mp4:
# I only left the location data
GPS Coordinates : 37.4039 -122.0131 13
GPS Coordinates (slk) : 37.4039 -122.0131 13
GPS Coordinates (slk-SK) : 37.4039 -122.0131 13
Location Information (slk) : (none) Role=shooting Lat=37.40388 Lon=-122.01309 Alt=13.00 Body=earth Notes=
GPS Altitude : 13
GPS Altitude Ref : 0
GPS Latitude : 37.4039
GPS Longitude : -122.0131
Location Information : <err>
GPS Altitude : 13
GPS Altitude : 13
GPS Altitude : 0
GPS Altitude Ref : 0
GPS Altitude Ref : 0
GPS Latitude : 37.4039
GPS Longitude : -122.0131
GPS Latitude Ref : N
GPS Longitude Ref : W
Notice the <err> value. By importing such a video file to Immich, it does not parse the location correctly.
So I removed this field using exiftool -LocationInformation= -overwrite_original immich-gps-problem.mp4.
Running exiftool -a -n immich-gps-problem.mp4 now, returns:
# I only left the location data
GPS Coordinates : 37.4039 -122.0131 13
GPS Coordinates (slk) : 37.4039 -122.0131 13
GPS Coordinates (slk-SK) : 37.4039 -122.0131 13
GPS Altitude : 13
GPS Altitude Ref : 0
GPS Latitude : 37.4039
GPS Longitude : -122.0131
GPS Altitude : 13
GPS Altitude : 13
GPS Altitude Ref : 0
GPS Latitude : 37.4039
GPS Longitude : -122.0131
GPS Latitude Ref : N
GPS Longitude Ref : W
GPS Position : 37.4039 -122.0131
By importing video file to Immich now, everything works correctly.