Camera Location Frustration
For more than a year now, I've been following a two camera app strategy: GrapheneOS Camera for temporary shots that I don't intend to look at more than once and Pixel Camera (formally known as Google Camera) for proper photography. GrapheneOS Camera has EXIF removal enabled by default and Pixel Camera is assumed to take better quality photos which is why I have delegated my workflows in such a way.
The strategy has always worked reasonably well. However, I did notice that my photos taken by Pixel Camera never had location data as part of the EXIF. I always attributed this to the fact that I generally don't have location enabled and, even when I did enable it, perhaps I wasn't waiting long enough for a location lock.
Today, I tried really hard to get it working. I checked that the Save location toggle was enabled. I also checked that the app had the Location permission. Despite both looking correct, I couldn't capture a photo containing location data. I disabled EXIF removal for the GrapheneOS Camera and was able to take a photo with location data which confirmed that the issue here was limited to Pixel Camera. Eventually, I found the answer in the GrapheneOS forums:
Google Camera uses Google Play services for location. You should use sandboxed Google Play.
😮💨
I don't intend to install the proprietary Google Play services which means I need a workaround. So far, I've found that Aves allows me to manually set a custom location which I can get from a maps app like CoMaps. I'd also greatly appreciate any suggestions if anyone reading this has any.