Problem setting exif data for an image

I created a MSMutableDictionary category to help save geotag and other metadata to an image. Check out my blog post here:

http://blog.codecropper.com/2011/05/adding-metadata-to-ios-images-the-easy-way/

The following blog post is where I got my answer when I had issues with modifying and saving Exif data Caffeinated Cocoa. This works on iOS.

Here is my test code for writing Exif and GPS data. It pretty much a copy and paste of the code from the above blog. I am using this to write exif data to a captured image.

NSData *jpeg = [AVCaptureStillImageOutput jpegStillImageNSDataRepresentation:imageDataSampleBuffer] ;

CGImageSourceRef  source ;
    source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData((CFDataRef)jpeg, NULL);

    //get all the metadata in the image
    NSDictionary *metadata = (NSDictionary *) CGImageSourceCopyPropertiesAtIndex(source,0,NULL);

    //make the metadata dictionary mutable so we can add properties to it
    NSMutableDictionary *metadataAsMutable = [[metadata mutableCopy]autorelease];
    [metadata release];

    NSMutableDictionary *EXIFDictionary = [[[metadataAsMutable objectForKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary]mutableCopy]autorelease];
    NSMutableDictionary *GPSDictionary = [[[metadataAsMutable objectForKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary]mutableCopy]autorelease];
    if(!EXIFDictionary) {
        //if the image does not have an EXIF dictionary (not all images do), then create one for us to use
        EXIFDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
    }
    if(!GPSDictionary) {
        GPSDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
    }

    //Setup GPS dict


    [GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:_lat] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude];
    [GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:_lon] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude];
    [GPSDictionary setValue:lat_ref forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
    [GPSDictionary setValue:lon_ref forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
    [GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:_alt] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude];
    [GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithShort:alt_ref] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitudeRef]; 
    [GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:_heading] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSImgDirection];
    [GPSDictionary setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%c",_headingRef] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSImgDirectionRef];

    [EXIFDictionary setValue:xml forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifUserComment];
    //add our modified EXIF data back into the image’s metadata
    [metadataAsMutable setObject:EXIFDictionary forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary];
    [metadataAsMutable setObject:GPSDictionary forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary];

    CFStringRef UTI = CGImageSourceGetType(source); //this is the type of image (e.g., public.jpeg)

    //this will be the data CGImageDestinationRef will write into
    NSMutableData *dest_data = [NSMutableData data];

    CGImageDestinationRef destination = CGImageDestinationCreateWithData((CFMutableDataRef)dest_data,UTI,1,NULL);

    if(!destination) {
        NSLog(@"***Could not create image destination ***");
    }

    //add the image contained in the image source to the destination, overidding the old metadata with our modified metadata
    CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(destination,source,0, (CFDictionaryRef) metadataAsMutable);

    //tell the destination to write the image data and metadata into our data object.
    //It will return false if something goes wrong
    BOOL success = NO;
    success = CGImageDestinationFinalize(destination);

    if(!success) {
        NSLog(@"***Could not create data from image destination ***");
    }

    //now we have the data ready to go, so do whatever you want with it
    //here we just write it to disk at the same path we were passed
    [dest_data writeToFile:file atomically:YES];

    //cleanup

    CFRelease(destination);
    CFRelease(source);

SWIFT 5:

It took me a week of scoping around to gather all the pieces into working code.

This will save an UIImage to JPEG temp file with GPS metadata:

let image:UIImage = mImageView.image! // your UIImage

// create filename
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy.MM.dd-HH.mm.ss"
let now = Date()
let date_time = dateFormatter.string(from: now)
let fileName:String = "your_image_"+date_time+".jpg" // name your file the way you want
let temporaryFolder:URL = FileManager.default.temporaryDirectory
let temporaryFileURL:URL = temporaryFolder.appendingPathComponent(fileName)

// save the image to chosen path
let jpeg = image.jpegData(compressionQuality: 0.85)! // set JPG quality here (1.0 is best)
let src = CGImageSourceCreateWithData(jpeg as CFData, nil)!
let uti = CGImageSourceGetType(src)!
let cfPath = CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(nil, temporaryFileURL.path as CFString, CFURLPathStyle.cfurlposixPathStyle, false)
let dest = CGImageDestinationCreateWithURL(cfPath!, uti, 1, nil)

// create GPS metadata from current location
let gpsMeta = gCurrentLocation?.exifMetadata() // gCurrentLocation is your CLLocation (exifMetadata is an extension)
let tiffProperties = [
    kCGImagePropertyTIFFMake as String: "Camera vendor",
    kCGImagePropertyTIFFModel as String: "Camera model"
    // --(insert other properties here if required)--
] as CFDictionary

let properties = [
    kCGImagePropertyTIFFDictionary as String: tiffProperties,
    kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary: gpsMeta as Any
    // --(insert other dictionaries here if required)--
] as CFDictionary  

CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(dest!, src, 0, properties)
if (CGImageDestinationFinalize(dest!)) {
    print("Saved image with metadata!")
} else {
    print("Error saving image with metadata")
}

And here is the GPS metadata extension (from https://gist.github.com/chefren/8b50652d67c397a825619f83c8dba6d3):

import Foundation
import CoreLocation

extension CLLocation {

    func exifMetadata(heading:CLHeading? = nil) -> NSMutableDictionary {

        let GPSMetadata = NSMutableDictionary()
        let altitudeRef = Int(self.altitude < 0.0 ? 1 : 0)
        let latitudeRef = self.coordinate.latitude < 0.0 ? "S" : "N"
        let longitudeRef = self.coordinate.longitude < 0.0 ? "W" : "E"

        // GPS metadata
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude as String)] = abs(self.coordinate.latitude)
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude as String)] = abs(self.coordinate.longitude)
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef as String)] = latitudeRef
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef as String)] = longitudeRef
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude as String)] = Int(abs(self.altitude))
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitudeRef as String)] = altitudeRef
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSTimeStamp as String)] = self.timestamp.isoTime()
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSDateStamp as String)] = self.timestamp.isoDate()
        GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSVersion as String)] = "2.2.0.0"

        if let heading = heading {
            GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSImgDirection as String)] = heading.trueHeading
            GPSMetadata[(kCGImagePropertyGPSImgDirectionRef as String)] = "T"
        }

        return GPSMetadata
    }
}

extension Date {

    func isoDate() -> String {
        let f = DateFormatter()
        f.timeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "UTC")
        f.dateFormat = "yyyy:MM:dd"
        return f.string(from: self)
    }

    func isoTime() -> String {
        let f = DateFormatter()
        f.timeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "UTC")
        f.dateFormat = "HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS"
        return f.string(from: self)
    }
}

That's it!

You can now use activityViewController to save the temp image (using temporaryFileURL) to photos album, or save it as a file, or share it to other apps, or whatever you want.

I tried Steve's answer and it works, but I think it's slow for large images because it's duplicating the entire image.

You can set the properties directly on the CMSampleBuffer using CMSetAttachments. Just do this before calling jpegStillImageNSDataRepresentation

CFDictionaryRef metaDict = CMCopyDictionaryOfAttachments(NULL, imageSampleBuffer, kCMAttachmentMode_ShouldPropagate);
CFMutableDictionaryRef mutable = CFDictionaryCreateMutableCopy(NULL, 0, metaDict);

NSMutableDictionary * mutableGPS = [self getGPSDictionaryForLocation:self.myLocation];
CFDictionarySetValue(mutable, kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary, mutableGPS);

// set the dictionary back to the buffer
CMSetAttachments(imageSampleBuffer, mutable, kCMAttachmentMode_ShouldPropagate);

And the method getGPSDictionaryForLocation: can be found here:

Saving Geotag info with photo on iOS4.1