Get EXIF Data and GPS Location of Images in Google Drive

When you upload your images to Google Photos, they also become available in Google Drive and you can these access these image files with Google Apps Scripts and the Google Drive API.

Here’s a little snippet that will show you how to get the GPS location data, capture date and EXIF information of any photograph in your Google Drive. You’ll need to enable the Google Drive service to access the file’s meta data. The same technique can used to get the size and duration of a video file that’s in your Drive.

function getFileMetaData(fileID) {
  var api = 'https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v2/files/' + fileID;

  var params = {
    method: 'get',
    contentType: 'application/json',
    headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer ' + ScriptApp.getOAuthToken() },
    muteHttpExceptions: true,
  };

  var meta = JSON.parse(UrlFetchApp.fetch(api, params).getContentText());

  Logger.log(meta.title); // File name
  Logger.log(meta.imageMediaMetadata); // Photo EXIF data like Camera, Date taken, Focal Length, Lens, etc.
  Logger.log(meta.imageMediaMetadata.location); // Photo Location coordinates
  Logger.log(meta.videoMediaMetadata); // Video Size and Length.
}

Amit Agarwal is a web geek, solo entrepreneur and loves making things on the Internet. Google recently awarded him the Google Developer Expert and Google Cloud Champion title for his work on Google Workspace and Google Apps Script.

Awards & Recognition

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Developer Expert title recogizing our work in Workspace

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional title for 5 years in a row

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator award for technical expertise

Want to stay up to date?
Sign up for our email newsletter.

We will never send any spam emails. Promise 🫶🏻