Open LightGPX before your shoot and start recording. Slide the phone in your pocket and shoot for as long as you want. The phone records your location in the background, signal or not. When you start, your iPhone shows a clock: take one photo of it with each camera.
Whenever you're finished shooting, hit stop. The trip is saved on your phone and syncs to your account whenever the phone is online.
Pull the photos off your camera the way you always do. Open LightGPX on the Mac, create a project and point it at the folder. LightGPX matches each photo it can to your track, writes the location into the file or an XMP sidecar next to it, and lists the photos it couldn't place.
Now in beta on iPhone and Mac. We're inviting photographers in small groups, so drop your email and we'll reach out as spots open.
LightGPX places a photo only when it has a GPS track for the moment you took it. If you recorded with another device, like a Garmin or a running app, import its GPX file on the Mac (File > Import GPX). Photos that already carry GPS keep their own location.
Recording keeps going. GPS works without cell service, and your iPhone saves every point on the phone first. Once the phone is back online, the points upload to your account and your Mac downloads them from there.
Yes, with LightGPX recording and Location set to Always. The screen can stay off in your pocket, and it works in airplane mode. If you force-quit the app, recording stops until you open it again, and LightGPX sends a notification when it thinks recording has stopped.
Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Leica, Panasonic, OM System, Pentax, Hasselblad and other cameras that save JPEG, HEIC, TIFF or their own RAW format. Your camera does not need GPS. Each photo needs its capture time and the camera's serial number in its metadata, and the Mac app lists any photo it couldn't place.
When you start recording, your iPhone shows a clock. Take one photo of it with each camera, any time during the trip. The Mac app reads that photo, works out how far each camera's clock is off, and matches every photo's corrected time to your track. A photo with no track close by in time is skipped, never guessed.
When you create or synchronize a project, the Mac app writes each matched photo's coordinates into its EXIF GPS fields. Photo editors that read EXIF GPS show the location; an editor that imported the photo earlier needs to reread its metadata. Photos that already had GPS keep it.
Lightroom Classic shows what its catalog holds and does not reread a photo file on its own. In the Library, select the photos and choose Metadata > Save Metadata to Files first. That saves your edits to a sidecar next to each RAW file, or into the JPEG, TIFF or DNG itself. Then choose Metadata > Read Metadata from Files to see the new locations. Reading replaces the catalog's metadata with the file's, so skipping the save step resets any edits that were not saved to files yet.
Yes, by default, and only their location. If a photo can't take it safely, LightGPX puts the location in a sidecar file next to it or leaves the photo untouched, and tells you. To keep every photo file unchanged, turn off Settings > General > Write GPS into photo EXIF.
Your GPS tracks live on your iPhone, on your Mac, and on the LightGPX server. The server copy is encrypted in transit and at rest, and other users cannot read it. We show no ads and we never sell your data. The privacy policy lists every service that handles it. To delete your account and erase your trips from the server, open Settings in the iPhone app, tap your account card, then Manage Account > Delete account.
LightGPX is in beta: iPhone through TestFlight, Mac by invitation. It needs iOS 26 and macOS 26. We invite people from the waitlist in small groups. Drop your email and we'll reach out.