[BUG] Geti removes EXIF data

[whittenator]

🧩 Issue type

Bug 🐞

📄 Description

All of the images I upload have EXIF data(camera-type, location, etc.) but if I export the dataset I am noticing that the EXIF data is completely removed. As an example using the "exiftool" on a particular image before uploading it:

xifTool Version Number         : 12.76
File Name                       : 10-23-23-SWIR-2-CLIPPED_0.png
Directory                       : /home/twhitten/Development/xod-dataset-registry/object-detection/raw/xod-drone-bird-swir-v1.0.0
File Size                       : 272 kB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2026:01:08 15:12:17+00:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2026:01:08 15:14:50+00:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2026:01:08 15:12:17+00:00
File Permissions                : -rw-rw-r--
File Type                       : PNG
File Type Extension             : png
MIME Type                       : image/png
Image Width                     : 768
Image Height                    : 576
Bit Depth                       : 8
Color Type                      : RGB
Compression                     : Deflate/Inflate
Filter                          : Adaptive
Interlace                       : Noninterlaced
XMP Toolkit                     : Image::ExifTool 13.33
Subject                         : project=XOD, camera_name=Controp_SpeedER, camera_type=SWIR, weather=clear, time_of_day=afternoon, is_synthetic=false, source_video=s3://drone-armor-xod/raw_videos/Speed-ER/SPTF/10-23-23/SWIR-2.mp4
Exif Byte Order                 : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
Y Cb Cr Positioning             : Centered
GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
GPS Latitude Ref                : North
GPS Longitude Ref               : West
Image Size                      : 768x576
Megapixels                      : 0.442

After exporting the dataset I am seeing this:

ExifTool Version Number         : 12.76
File Name                       : 10-23-23-SWIR-2-CLIPPED_0.png
Directory                       : /home/twhitten/Downloads/xod-swir-det-dataset/obj_train_data
File Size                       : 271 kB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2026:01:08 18:18:14+00:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2026:01:08 18:21:33+00:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2026:01:08 18:20:49+00:00
File Permissions                : -rw-r--r--
File Type                       : PNG
File Type Extension             : png
MIME Type                       : image/png
Image Width                     : 768
Image Height                    : 576
Bit Depth                       : 8
Color Type                      : RGB
Compression                     : Deflate/Inflate
Filter                          : Adaptive
Interlace                       : Noninterlaced
Image Size                      : 768x576
Megapixels                      : 0.442

It would be nice if it left the existing EXIF data alone and only edited EXIF sections it needs to.

📋 Steps to reproduce (if applicable)

No response

💻 Expected behavior

No response

🖼️ Screenshots, video recordings or logs

No response

📦 Geti version

2.13.0

Hardware

Intel CPU, Nvidia 5080 GPU

🖥️ Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04

Browser (if applicable)

Chrome

Python Version (if relevant)

No response

➕ Additional context

No response

[BeanBagKing]

@whittenator I noticed that there's some re-encoding going on with dataset exports. Check and see if you download a single image or export the entire project if EXIF data is retained. I just thought it might be relevant to see if EXIF is being stripped from all images on upload, or if it's being stripped as part of the re-encoding/export, but is actually retained and visible when downloading via other methods.

#1672

[whittenator]

@whittenator I noticed that there's some re-encoding going on with dataset exports. Check and see if you download a single image or export the entire project if EXIF data is retained. I just thought it might be relevant to see if EXIF is being stripped from all images on upload, or if it's being stripped as part of the re-encoding/export, but is actually retained and visible when downloading via other methods.

#1672

Apologies for the delay, it looks like if I download a single image the Exif data is actually there but it's a .jfif image:

ExifTool Version Number         : 13.33
File Name                       : images_Controp-SpeedLR-SWIR_2025-12-11T19-05-22_UTC_0003009391.jfif
Directory                       : .
File Size                       : 45 kB
Zone Identifier                 : Exists
File Modification Date/Time     : 2026:01:23 13:51:44-05:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2026:01:23 13:51:44-05:00
File Creation Date/Time         : 2026:01:23 13:51:43-05:00
File Permissions                : -rw-rw-rw-
File Type                       : JPEG
File Type Extension             : jpg
MIME Type                       : image/jpeg
JFIF Version                    : 1.01
Exif Byte Order                 : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
X Resolution                    : 1
Y Resolution                    : 1
Resolution Unit                 : None
Y Cb Cr Positioning             : Centered
GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
GPS Latitude Ref                : North
GPS Longitude Ref               : West
XMP Toolkit                     : Image::ExifTool 12.76
Subject                         : project=XOD, camera_name=Controp_SpeedLR, camera_type=SWIR, weather=clear, time_of_day=noon, is_synthetic=false
Image Width                     : 1280
Image Height                    : 1024
Encoding Process                : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample                 : 8
Color Components                : 3
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling            : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
Image Size                      : 1280x1024
Megapixels                      : 1.3

[whittenator]

@whittenator I noticed that there's some re-encoding going on with dataset exports. Check and see if you download a single image or export the entire project if EXIF data is retained. I just thought it might be relevant to see if EXIF is being stripped from all images on upload, or if it's being stripped as part of the re-encoding/export, but is actually retained and visible when downloading via other methods.
#1672

Apologies for the delay, it looks like if I download a single image the Exif data is actually there but it's a .jfif image:

ExifTool Version Number         : 13.33
File Name                       : images_Controp-SpeedLR-SWIR_2025-12-11T19-05-22_UTC_0003009391.jfif
Directory                       : .
File Size                       : 45 kB
Zone Identifier                 : Exists
File Modification Date/Time     : 2026:01:23 13:51:44-05:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2026:01:23 13:51:44-05:00
File Creation Date/Time         : 2026:01:23 13:51:43-05:00
File Permissions                : -rw-rw-rw-
File Type                       : JPEG
File Type Extension             : jpg
MIME Type                       : image/jpeg
JFIF Version                    : 1.01
Exif Byte Order                 : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
X Resolution                    : 1
Y Resolution                    : 1
Resolution Unit                 : None
Y Cb Cr Positioning             : Centered
GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
GPS Latitude Ref                : North
GPS Longitude Ref               : West
XMP Toolkit                     : Image::ExifTool 12.76
Subject                         : project=XOD, camera_name=Controp_SpeedLR, camera_type=SWIR, weather=clear, time_of_day=noon, is_synthetic=false
Image Width                     : 1280
Image Height                    : 1024
Encoding Process                : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample                 : 8
Color Components                : 3
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling            : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
Image Size                      : 1280x1024
Megapixels                      : 1.3

Wait a sec, it looks like the JPEG images that were uploaded are keeping the EXIF data but the PNG images are the ones being stripped. Because if I download the same image in the example that I originally showed it no longer has the EXIF data either:

ExifTool Version Number         : 13.33
File Name                       : 10-23-23-SWIR-2-CLIPPED_0.png
Directory                       : .
File Size                       : 271 kB
Zone Identifier                 : Exists
File Modification Date/Time     : 2026:01:23 13:55:20-05:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2026:01:23 13:55:20-05:00
File Creation Date/Time         : 2026:01:23 13:55:19-05:00
File Permissions                : -rw-rw-rw-
File Type                       : PNG
File Type Extension             : png
MIME Type                       : image/png
Image Width                     : 768
Image Height                    : 576
Bit Depth                       : 8
Color Type                      : RGB
Compression                     : Deflate/Inflate
Filter                          : Adaptive
Interlace                       : Noninterlaced
Image Size                      : 768x576
Megapixels                      : 0.442