Photos location labeled with wrong landmark. Adjusting location does not work.

Question

Level 1

8 points

Photos location labeled with wrong landmark. Adjusting location does not work.

When I take a photo, it is often labeled incorrectly.

For example I took a photo of Riverside Church. It is labeled “Columbia University”

So I go to Adjust Location and type Riverside Church into the search, and then select the correct Riverside Church at 490 Riverside Drive from the list.

Alas, Apple disagrees and reverts to the “Columbia University” label.

If Apple, in its paternalistic wisdom, is not going to let me edit the location data of my own photos, they could at least get it right!

Any fix for this latest annoyance would be greatly appreciated.

iPhone SE

Posted on Sep 6, 2025 02:04 PM

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Answer 1

muguy

Level 10

90,326 points

Sep 6, 2025 02:20 PM in response to danbob

You may need to enable precise location for use. But, Columbia University is the largest known entity nearby so it may always default to Columbia University. This is often the case with old neighborhood designations (Town of Lake, which shows on some of my locations despite not existing for 150 years) or cities that have alternate ZIP Codes with nearby cities.

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Answer 2

danbob Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 6, 2025 02:27 PM in response to muguy

Thanks. Precise location is on.

I understand what you’re saying. In my case Columbia owns pretty much the whole neighborhood. (Although Riverside Church is a national landmark in its own right)

The problem is that when I manually adjust the location , my change doesn’t stick.

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Answer 3

Sep 6, 2025 09:41 PM in response to danbob

I guess Apple uses some worldwide database like below and those are not always correct (or what the local user knows or wants) so they are occasionally updated to fix the most glaring errors.

https://www.geonames.org/

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Answer 4

Sep 7, 2025 08:14 AM in response to danbob

danbob wrote: … They have the correct name, as it appears in the list as a choice when I search.

I don't think that Matti was meaning that this was the actual database that Apple uses. I'll bet there are a bunch out there, and probably Apple has built its own. We've seen some crazy things.

It seems like when Maps was new, Apple had a special place to report these things, but I can't find it. So let Apple know here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

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Answer 5

Sep 7, 2025 12:25 PM in response to danbob

danbob wrote: Allowing users to name their own locations would be nice though,

I agree-- I'd like to name my house "My Home," and maybe Mom's house, and stuff like that. That's a good idea for the Feedback site.

Feedback - Photos - Apple

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Answer 6

danbob Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2025 05:19 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Thanks. They have the correct name, as it appears in the list as a choice when I search.

The problem is that choosing the correct name doesn’t get saved.

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Answer 7

danbob Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2025 10:06 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks. I am not trying to submit anything to Apple maps

I am just trying to adjust the location of a photo

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Answer 8

danbob Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2025 10:15 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

To be clear, I am trying to save a location adjustment to a photo in the Photos app.

My changes are not saved.

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Answer 9

Sep 7, 2025 10:34 AM in response to danbob

The name of the location is not what Photos remembers; it's the latitude and longitude. So when Photos goes to the Lookup Table, it is getting the wrong name. This can only be fixed by Apple.

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Answer 10

danbob Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2025 10:59 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard. That makes sense.

Allowing users to name their own locations would be nice though, especially since Apple’s Lookup table is so full of garbage.

Thanks again for the explanation!

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