Hi David,

please watch that video to see a description for a bug:
https://www.markus-drueck.de/public/jAlbum/Videos/jAlbum%20Core/index.html#img=Video_2026-04-08_191720.mp4

Thanks, Markus

Thanks David for looking into this. First result is that things have now gone totaly wrong/havoc. I'm busy right now, will come back later with more details.

A little tricky. There is an old version (2018) of exiftools.exe in Windows buried deep in the Program Files (x86) folder, and using that one does work.

But downloading the latest version, one gets an executable called exiftools(-k).exe. That doesn't work. In theory, simply renaming the file should work - in fact, that's what the instructions tell you to do for command line use. But planting the rnamed executable in jAlbum produces a failure to write the coordinates:

java.io.IOException: Failed to update GPS coordinates. Exit code: 1
	at net.jalbum.locationeditor.JLocationPanel.updateVideoCoordinates(JLocationPanel.java:455)
	at net.jalbum.locationeditor.JLocationPanel.save(JLocationPanel.java:316)
	at net.jalbum.locationeditor.JLocationPanel.setAlbumObject(JLocationPanel.java:194)
	at se.datadosen.explorer.JEditPanel.fireEditingAlbumObject(JEditPanel.java:1425)
	at se.datadosen.explorer.JEditPanel.setAO(JEditPanel.java:481)
	at se.datadosen.explorer.JAlbumExplorer.setExplorerView(JAlbumExplorer.java:4388)
	at se.datadosen.explorer.JEditPanel$8.actionPerformed(JEditPanel.java:393)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$5.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$5.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

The fix is to copy the distributed exiftools(-k).exe to the jAlbum config/bin folder, and rename it to exiftool.exe. But then you also need to copy the distributed exiftools_files folder to the jAlbum config/bin, as well. Then, it all appears to be working properly. The coordinates are stored, and a skin can extract them to produce a map in the album.

It's not happy with non-MP4/MOV videos, however. Feeding it an M2TS produces an error message. For those, a user should probably just let jAlbum produce an MP4 from it, then replace the original M2TS in the project with the MP4 version, and geotag that one.

The fix will be available in the next release. I don't know what video formats are supported really. Check with the docs for exiftool.

OK, will do.

Edited by: RobM on 10 Apr 2026, 17:25
It can read from quicktime ‘only if not written to Keys, ItemList or UserData)
QuickTime:GPSCoordinates’. First table on https://exiftool.org/geolocation.html#Read
Under ‘Writing Geolocation Information‘ section.

To use exiftool without re-encoding the video you can use

-overwrite_original -GPSLatitude=12.345678 -GPSLatitudeRef=N -GPSLongitude=98.765432 -GPSLongitudeRef=W 

with the GPSLongitudeRef=W or E

'The -overwrite_original option in ExifTool allows you to modify a file's metadata without creating a backup of the original file. This means the original file will be replaced with the modified version, so use it carefully.'

In Windows, the MP4 in the project directory gets a new modified date, so the core reprocesses it.