Google Timeline Geotag

The app reads data gathered by Google Maps Timeline and a directory of images (recursively), jpeg or raw (tested with Canon CR2). Already Geotagged images are skipped.

Google Timeline is a little specific, so you will get more precise results with this program compared to generic geotagging software.

Input

• KML files exported for each day from Google Timeline UI - note that this format is easier to handle, but it is imprecise when you have long "tracks" with many points, because the file lacks exact timestamps for each point. Also, this format doesn't contain any altitude data.
• JSON location history exported using Google Takeout - this is a more detailed format containing timestamps of each point, also including altitude data.

Although it is huge, JSON format is recommended. The program will read your images first and determine the period, and then parse the exported JSON (that contains all of your movements since the launch of the service) to find the data for the correct period before geotagging.

DateTimeOriginal Exif tag is read from the image files. Timezone name needs to be provided as Exif stores only local times. The DST in the provided timezone is accounted for, so be sure that your images have correct times, including any DST changes.

Output

The program itself is non-destructive - it just outputs the commands for exiv2, but doesn't itself modify the images. You will then use the exiv2 program to actually geotag the images.

GPX output is also supported with --gpx in case you want to plot the images on the map first. You may use GPS Visualizer for this.

Tips

If the times of your photos are incorrect, I recommend shifting them first with exiv2 ad -a [+|-]HH[:MM[:SS[.mmm]]]

Building

The code is written in Kotlin, but the only requirement is Java 8 (e.g. openjdk8)

./gradlew assemble

You will find the resulting jar file in build/libs.

Running

java -jar build/libs/google-timeline-geotag.jar

Example with arguments:

java -jar google-timeline-geotag.jar LocationHistory.json ~/Photos/2016/Africa Africa/Nairobi > geotag.sh

or

java -jar google-timeline-geotag.jar LocationHistory.json ~/Photos/2016/Africa Africa/Nairobi --gpx > geotag.gpx