---
title: How does PhotoStructure populate the Where tag?
url: https://photostructure.com/guide/places/
description: How PhotoStructure builds the Where tag from GPS coordinates and location metadata
date: 2026-04-14
keywords: geolocation, tags, metadata, settings
---


PhotoStructure's **Where** tag root is populated automatically from
GPS coordinates and location metadata in your files. There is no
internet round-trip and no third-party geocoding API — everything
happens locally using the geo database bundled with
[ExifTool](https://exiftool.org/geolocation.html).

## 🛰️ Reverse-geocoding from GPS

When a file has `GPSLatitude` and `GPSLongitude`, ExifTool resolves
the coordinates against its bundled offline geo database (covering
~115,000 cities worldwide, population 2,000+) and produces these synthetic fields,
which PhotoStructure reads first:

- `GeolocationCountry`
- `GeolocationRegion` _(state / province)_
- `GeolocationSubregion` _(county / district)_
- `GeolocationCity`

This means even photos that only have raw GPS coordinates — no city,
no country in their metadata — still get a full `Country/State/City`
hierarchy under Where.

## 🏷️ Falling back to explicit location metadata

If the geocoded fields aren't available (or you've disabled
ExifTool's geolocation), PhotoStructure falls back to whatever
explicit location strings are in the file. The full priority list
is:

| Hierarchy level | Fields tried, in order                                                                       |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Country         | `GeolocationCountry`, `Country`, `LocationShown.CountryName`, `LocationCreated.CountryName`  |
| State           | `GeolocationRegion`, `State`, `LocationShown.ProvinceState`, `LocationCreated.ProvinceState` |
| County          | `GeolocationSubregion`, `County`                                                             |
| City            | `GeolocationCity`, `City`, `LocationShown.City`, `LocationCreated.City`                      |
| Location        | `Location`, `LocationShown.SubLocation`, `LocationCreated.SubLocation`                       |

The full priority list is configurable via the `tagGeoSynonyms`
setting, and the hierarchy template via `tagGeoTemplate` (default:
`Country / State / County / City / Location`).

## 🌳 Hierarchical place tags

Place tags are hierarchical, like all PhotoStructure tags. A photo
geocoded to Paris will appear under
`Where / 🇫🇷 France / Île-de-France / Paris`. You
can browse from the country level down, or jump straight to a city
via search. See the
[hierarchical tag guide](/guide/whats-a-hierarchical-tag/) for more
on how nested tags work.

Country flag emojis are added by default (`tagGeoCountryFlags`). The
sub-city **Location** level only appears when the file itself carries
explicit sublocation metadata — GPS reverse-geocoding stops at the
city level.

## ❓ Photos missing from Where

If a photo has no GPS data and no explicit location metadata, it
won't appear under Where — there's nothing to derive a place from.

If the photo _does_ have GPS but still doesn't appear, it may be more
than 25 km from the nearest city in ExifTool's database — the default
`tagGeoMaxDistanceKm` threshold. You can raise that limit in settings,
or set it to `0` to disable the distance check entirely.

A few options if you want untagged photos to appear under Where:

- **Geotag in your photo editor.** Apple Photos, Adobe Lightroom,
  digiKam, and others can write GPS into the file or its sidecar.
- **Use a GPX track.** Tools like
  [GeoSetter](https://geosetter.de/en/) and `exiftool` can match
  photo timestamps to a GPS track recorded on your phone.
- **Manually add city/country metadata** to the file's XMP sidecar.

After geotagging, resync and the photos will appear under Where.

## 💡 Tips

- **No internet required.** ExifTool's geo database is offline. Your
  GPS coordinates are never sent to a third party.
- **Resyncing works.** Adding GPS or location metadata and resyncing
  will reorganize the photo under Where automatically.
- **Disable geocoding** by setting `tagGeo` to `false`. This skips
  the geolocation pipeline entirely, so photos only appear under
  **Where** if they carry explicit `Country`, `City`, etc. metadata.

## See also

- [ExifTool geolocation documentation](https://exiftool.org/geolocation.html) — technical details on the bundled geo database
- [Hierarchical tags](/guide/whats-a-hierarchical-tag/) — how nested place tags are organized
- [Keywords](/guide/keywords/) — how other location-related metadata becomes searchable