What does the EXIF tag GPSInfoIFDPointer mean?
Asked 10/3/2012
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2 answers
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In EXIF/TIFF metadata, what does the tag GPSInfoIFDPointer represent? For example, if an image shows GPSInfoIFDPointer: 5438, what does the number 5438 actually mean? In my file, the GPS data itself seems to have been removed, which made this confusing.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
3
It is the offset where the GPS Info is. You have to jump to that offset to read GPS info.
EXIF info works the same way. See on the previous line in your example:
ExifIFDPointer: 2790
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
GPSInfoIFDPointer is not GPS coordinates itself. It is an offset (a pointer) to where the GPS metadata block begins inside the EXIF/TIFF structure.
So in:
GPSInfoIFDPointer: 5438
5438 means “the GPS IFD starts at byte offset 5438” within the metadata/file structure being read. EXIF is organized as linked directories (IFDs), so tags like ExifIFDPointer, InteroperabilityIFDPointer, and GPSInfoIFDPointer simply tell software where to jump next to find those sections.
The exact number has no standalone meaning beyond location. It varies from file to file depending on how much metadata comes before it.
If the GPS block was later removed or stripped, you may still see the pointer in some metadata output, which can make it look confusing or incomplete.
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