Geotag photos for the Apple Photos application

This post no longer applies to Apple Photos 2.0 under macOS 10.12 Sierra. HoudahGeo 5.1 can now add location information to photos in the Photos library.

The most common workflow for geotagging photos with HoudahGeo is:

1. Import photos into iPhoto or Aperture
2. Geocode the photos using HoudahGeo
3. Write geotags to the original image files
4. Notify iPhoto or Aperture of the newly added geotags

The new Apple Photos application lacks the programmatic interface needed for HoudahGeo to notify it of changes made to geotags.

Until this issue is resolved, we recommend that you geotag your photos before importing them into the Photos library.

1. Import your photos, either by making use of HoudahGeo’s Camera Import feature (starting with HoudahGeo 5.0), or by using Apple’s Image Capture.
2. Geocode the photos using HoudahGeo
3. Write EXIF/XMP geotags to the image files
4. Import the tagged files into your Photos library

We always recommend that you write geotags to the actual image files rather than entrust location information solely to a photo cataloging software.