11-places
Places and the map
Iris reads GPS data from your photos automatically — most modern phones, action cameras, and a lot of dedicated cameras record latitude, longitude, and altitude inside each photo. On top of that, you can teach Iris about places that matter to you by giving them names.
Two kinds of location
| Kind | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| GPS coordinates | Embedded in the photo file by the camera at capture time |
| Named locations | Created by you — a name and a radius around a point on the map |
GPS coordinates power the Map view automatically. Named locations power the Places section of the sidebar and the Where section of the Inspector.
Named locations
A named location is a name plus a center point plus a radius. Any photo taken inside the radius is associated with the location. So you might create:
- Home — your house, 50 meters radius
- Yosemite Valley — center point in the valley, 5 kilometers radius
- Grandma's house — her house, 50 meters
- Tokyo — city center, 20 kilometers
You don't have to be exhaustive. Iris is happy with just the places that matter to you; everything else stays as raw coordinates.
Creating a location
- Select Places → Locations from the sidebar.
- Right‑click anywhere on the map and choose Add New Location
- In the dialog, enter a name. Use the the slider to set a radius.
- Click Save.
Or
- Select an item (that has a GPS coordinate) in the Grid or List view.
- Open the Summary inspector panel. (The first tab in the right sidebar.)
- Click the "..." button below the map and choose Add New Location to create a new location using the item's coordinates.
Iris immediately associates every existing photo within the radius with this location. Any future photos taken in the radius will be associated automatically.
Note: It's OK to have overlapping locations. For example, you might have a location named "Long Island" with a large radius and another location within it named "Home" with a small radius.
Editing or deleting a location
Right‑click the location in the sidebar:
- Edit Location… — change name, center, or radius.
- Delete — remove the location. Photos remain in your library; they just lose the named association.
The Places sidebar section
Click any named location in the sidebar to browse every item captured there.
Right‑click a location for the edit / delete options above.
Locations Map
At the top of the Places section is a special node called Locations Map. Clicking it opens a full‑screen map showing every named location at once.
This is the best way to:
- Sanity‑check that your locations are placed where you think they are.
- See how your library covers the world geographically.
- Spot duplicates ("Home (Old)" and "Home (New)" near each other).
Map view in the content area
Switching the content area to Map view (⌘2) plots every item in the current sidebar selection on an interactive map.
What you see depends on what's selected:
- All Items — every geotagged photo in your library, clustered.
- A year — all the places you went that year.
- A person — everywhere that person has been photographed.
- A chapter — the geographic shape of that narrative.
- etc.
Cluster behavior
Photos near each other are grouped into clusters with count badges. As you zoom in, clusters break apart. Click any cluster or pin to filter the content area below to items at that location.
Photo trails
When zoomed in, you can toggle Photo Trails on the map view. Iris will draw connecting lines between consecutive photos — a "photo trail" you can follow through space and time. This works beautifully for road trips, hikes, or any travel narrative.
When a photo has no GPS
If a photo's file contains no GPS data:
- It won't appear in Map view.
- It won't appear under any named location.
You can give a photo location data by editing it in another app (one that supports writing EXIF GPS). Iris itself does not modify your files.