Pairing

You'll need three things:

• An iPhone running iOS 17 or newer.
• A Sony α body with a Bluetooth radio. (Most α7-, α9-, α1-, and FX-series bodies from 2018 onward have one. Older bodies don't — check the compatibility list.)
• The camera firmware your model expects. We test against the latest manufacturer firmware; older firmware sometimes works but isn't guaranteed.

Download from the App Store and open it.

On first launch the app asks for two permissions. Both are required.

1. Bluetooth. Used to talk to the camera. Tap Allow. The app uses Bluetooth Low Energy only — it does not connect to or stream from any non-camera device.
2. Location · While Using the App. Pick this option first. Geotag Alpha will prompt for Always after you've done a successful pair, when iOS knows the app is being used legitimately. Granting Always later increases iOS's trust in the prompt.

On your camera, three settings need to be in the right state before pairing. The first two are required; the third is the one most people miss.

1. Enable Bluetooth. MENU → Network → Bluetooth → set Bluetooth to ON.
2. Enable Location Info Link. MENU → Network → Loc. Info. Link Set. → set Location Info Link to ON. (Some newer bodies have this on a different menu page or skip it entirely.)
3. Disable Cnct while Power OFF. MENU → Network → Cnct./PC Remote → set Cnct while Power OFF to OFF.

For per-model menu paths, Sony's own support article covers most bodies.

Geotag Alpha pairs through the camera's stock Bluetooth flow — there is no proprietary handshake. On the camera, navigate to MENU → Network → Bluetooth and select the Pairing menu item. The exact wording varies between bodies; Sony's support article covers per-model paths.

With the camera in pairing mode, open Geotag Alpha and tap Pair camera. The screen shows the camera prep checklist and a "Discovered cameras" list. Your body will appear within a few seconds. Tap it, then tap Pair with {camera name}.

Confirm the pairing request when the camera prompts. The app shows "Camera paired successfully!" and you can return to the home screen.

On the home screen the camera row should show a green Connected label and a recent "Location updates" count under Statistics. Take a frame.

To confirm GPS landed in EXIF:

1. Import the frame into Lightroom, Capture One, or Photos.
2. Open the metadata panel and look for the GPS fields.
3. Or, from the command line, run exiftool -GPS:All your-frame.ARW.

From the home screen tap Pair camera and repeat the pairing flow. Each body lives as its own row in the camera list with its own connected/standby status.

The phone will push the same coordinate stream to every connected camera. Pairing additional bodies does not measurably increase battery cost.

Most modern Sony bodies will accept a clock and/or time-zone update from the phone over Bluetooth. This is useful when you fly somewhere — the camera's clock can be kept in sync with your phone automatically, so your file timestamps line up with where the photo was taken.

Tap a camera and toggle Time Correction (sync the camera's clock) and/or Time Area Correction (sync the time zone). Both run on camera startup and are marked beta in-app — the camera ignores the request if its firmware doesn't support it.

Once paired, Geotag Alpha continues running in the background — you don't need to keep the app open. In practice that means:

• You can lock your phone, slip it in a pocket, and keep shooting. GPS pushes continue.
• If the phone goes out of Bluetooth range, the camera keeps shooting normally without GPS until you're back in range. The connection then resumes automatically.
• After a reboot, just open the app once and it reconnects to your camera.

Open the camera's row in the app and tap Forget Camera. The camera must be disconnected first. To complete the removal, also tap Forget this Device on the camera in iOS Settings → Bluetooth.