Photo Gopher Help

Photo Gopher allows you to pick a movie or image from your Photos Library, Finder, or Files App, and then goes digging for that item's metadata, which it then displays. We use the terms media item to refer to any movie, video, image or photo, and metadata as the descriptive and identifying information bundled with that item.

Photo Gopher goes to great lengths to find a media item's location (GPS) metadata, which it uses for the singular purpose of providing turn by turn directions from you to that favorite item. Assuming the media contains GPS information, simply choose the Show Route action to begin your journey. (You must have Location Services enabled in Settings / Privacy & Security / Location Services / Photo Gopher.)

When Photo Gopher was created the App required Full Access to your Photos Library; that is no longer the case. When Limited Access became available you pre-selected a set of available media items for Photo Gopher to use, but that was painful as you continually redefined the contents of that set.

These days no access, called Private Access, is sufficient — indeed recommended — for Photo Gopher. When the Photos Library media picker is presented you may see this alert, which can be safely closed:

Essentially, this alert is informing you that Photo Gopher has full access to a copy of any selected media item.

Topics

Media Metadata

A non-exhaustive list of the metadata that Photo Gopher can show follows. Thank you Phil Harvey for many of the detailed descriptions.

General information such as name, size, creation date, resolution, etcetera.
Movie specific information such as audio and video track details, data rate, cover art, etcetera.
Image specific information such as orientation, aperture, exposure, etcetera.
Places, GPS coordinates, an annotated map, and if location services are enabled, turn-by-turn walking or driving directions back to that favorite location.
Apple specific metadata:
- EXIFAux, EXIF Auxiliary Faces data, the bounding box of detected face regions.
- MakerApple, Apple MakerNote data.
MakerNote information from other manufactuers.
EXIF, Exchangeable Image File Format data.
TIFF, Tagged Image File Format data.
PNG, Portable Network Graphics data.
JFIF, JPEG File Interchange Format data.
IPTC, International Press Telecommunications Council data.
DNG, Digital Negative data.
... and more.

Top

Usage

The Photo Gopher window consists of four tabs:

Media presents the Photos Library picker for choosing items (if the picker isn't visible simply click the Media tab to re-open it).
Addtionaly, you can also view the metadata of an external media item:
- On iOS open the Files App to select an item, then Share /
  Photo Gopher
  .
- On macOS use the File menu Gopher... ⌘G to select and open an item.
Once a media item is chosen a Gopher view appears showing a media thumbnail (typically clickable), detailed metadata, and a map centered on the coordinates of the media item, assuming the item has a geotag with GPS coordinates. The latitude, longitude and altitude are automatically copied to the pasteboard, which you can paste directly into Maps' search field. You may also manually copy any other asset metadata ferreted-out by the Gopher: long-press for iOS, control-click for macOS.
Favorites itemizes media items that you previousaly marked as a favorite. Selecting a favorite opens a new Gopher view. Swipe left on a favorite to remove it from the list.
Settings contains App settings.
Help shows this information.

Top

Gopher Actions

After selecting a media item a Gopher view appears - touch the Action button (or on macOS use the File menu) and the Gopher shows the allowable actions, from the following list:

Make Favorite adds the media item to the Favorites tab. The maximum number of favorites is selectable in Settings.
Show Route invokes Maps to display travel directions, using the media item's location as the destination and your current location as the starting point. You may select the route type and map type in Settings.
Mail invokes Mail with the media item's metadata in two attachments: a textual representation of the data structure used by the Gopher, and a PDF of that structure tailored for human consumption.
Print prints the media item's metadata in human readable form, formatted for 8.5" x 11" paper in portrait orientation. On macOS suggest setting Scale to 98%.

Top

The Scene That Started It All

Alas, I had no time to absorb this picturesque setting, a pano hurriedly taken on an iPhone 5 would have to suffice until I could come back for a closer look. But in 2013 exactly how to accomplish this was not obvious, thus Photo Gopher was born and with its assistance eventually return, I did.

To investigate this picture on iOS long touch the image and choose Save to Photos, or for macOS drag the image onto Photos (do not control-click / Add Image to Photos, this method removes GPS metadata). In either case, check the Recents folder for the imported picture.

For a video sample, download Slow Mo Bugs and open as an external media item.

Top

What's New?

OS Version Compatibilty
   iOS 14.0 - 26.3.1

   iPadOS 14.0 - 26.3.1

   macOS 11.0 - 26.3.1

   visionOS 1.0 - 26.3.1

OS Version Compatibilty
iOS	14.0	-	26.3.1
iPadOS	14.0	-	26.3.1
macOS	11.0	-	26.3.1
visionOS	1.0	-	26.3.1

26.3.1 - 2026.03.17

Update for Apple OS versions 26.3.1.

6.0 - 2024.07.17

New support for movies, audio & video track detail, artwork, data rates, etcetera.
Expanded metadata descriptions for movies and images.
Full access to your Photos Library is no longer required.
Ability to open external media items.
Clickable thumbnails.
Improved {makerApple} and {Regions} presentations.
Bug fixes, miscellaneous improvements and internal modernization.
Refreshed documentation.
Update for iOS 17.5.1, iPadOS 17.5.1, macOS 14.5.

5.3 - 2022.02.02

Synthesize a new convenience field in the Global Positioning System section called Location, which is three comma-separated floats: the picture's (Latitude,Longitude,Altitude).
Nerd alert: iOS versions >= 14 and macOS versions >= 11 now use the modern PHPicker photo chooser rather than the venerable UIImagePicker.
Minor bug fixes and improvements.
Update for iOS 15.3, macOS 12.2.

5.2 - 2021.09.15

Include a picture's FileName and FileSize in the General Information metadata section.
Miscellaneous bug fixes and cosmetic enhancements.
Update for iOS 15.0, macOS 11.5.2.

5.1 - 2021.01.01

New macOS Universal binary that runs on either Apple Silicon or Intel Macs.
Update for iOS 14.3, macOS 11.1.

5.0 - 2020.08.18

Photo Gopher is now a single purchase that runs on your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad and Macintosh.

4.1 - 2020.06.02

Ensure conformance with Apple's 2020.06.30 App Store guidelines.
Update for iOS 13.5.1 and macOS 10.15.5.

4.0 - 2020.03.13

Photo Gopher is now available for macOS Catalina.
Minimum iOS version is 11.
Support Dark mode.
Improve display of Apple MakerNote metadata.
Improve printing: output designed for 8.5x11" paper, landscape.
APIs: out with the old, in with the new.
Update for iOS 13.3.1 and macOS 10.15.3.

3.6 - 2019.03.23

Update for iOS 12.1.4.
Documentation now supports BigCatOs Appearances.

3.5 - 2018.09.14

Update for iOS 12.0.
Documentation updates.

3.4 - 2018.01.12

Update for iOS 11.2.2.
Use your iDevice's maximum screen resolution when capturing metadata results for Print or Mail actions.

3.3 - 2017.11.01

Update for iOS 11.1 and iPhone X.

3.2 - 2017.10.25

Update for iOS 11.0.3.
Full support for iPhone X.

3.1 - 2017.07.23

Documentation updates.
Update for iOS 10.3.3.
Bug fixes.

3.0 - 2016.12.14

Update for iOS 10.2.
The Sharing In App Purchase option is now free.
Photo Gopher now requires that your iDevice run an iOS version >= 8.

Previous Versions:

2.1 - 2013.09.17
2.0 - 2013.08.07
1.0 - 2013.07.26

Top