negative GPS values are written as positive

[elewis2]

Example
Issue the command:
-GPSLatitude=24.0 -GPSLatitudeRef=S -GPSLongitude=31.76 <some file.mp4>
updates the file, however the file is assigned GPS location 24.0 north and 31.76 east. The north latitude is incorrect; it should be south. I have tried variants of the command as -gpslatitude= and using "South" instead of S. Command still does not work. I also tried an arbitrary location for places in the western hemisphere. Assigned latitude is always east, even if specifying W or "West". (In case, east is fine and expected as I did not specify E!).
Exiftool version: 12.71
System: Mac M1 Professional
OS Version: Sonoma 14.2.1.

[StarGeek]

There are no reference tags in a video file.  When writing GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude, and GPSAltitude, you include the direction. This is because you are writing to XMP tags instead of the EXIF GPS tags.  EXIF tags in a video are non-standard, so you can't create them in a video. So you would use:
exiftool -GPSLatitude=-24.0 -GPSLongitude=31.76 file.mp4

Example

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C:\>exiftool -all= -P -overwrite_original -GPSLatitude=-24.0 -GPSLongitude=31.76  Y:\!temp\Test1.mp4
    1 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -gps* Y:\!temp\Test1.mp4
[XMP-exif]      GPSLatitude                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00" S
[XMP-exif]      GPSLongitude                    : 31 deg 45' 36.00" E
[Composite]     GPSLatitudeRef                  : South
[Composite]     GPSLongitudeRef                 : East
[Composite]     GPSPosition                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00" S, 31 deg 45' 36.00" E
Additionally, video files have their own GPS tag which includes all three coordinates.  For that you would write
exiftool -GPSCoordinates="-24, 31.76, 10" file.mp4

An easier command which will write to the EXIF GPS tags as well as the XMP GPS tags as  needed would be to write the Composite:GPSPosition tag.  In this example you can see that it wrote the correct data to both an MP4 and a jpeg

Code Select Expand

C:\>exiftool -all= -P -overwrite_original -GPSPosition="-24.0, 31.76"  Y:\!temp\Test1.mp4 y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
    2 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -gps* Y:\!temp\Test1.mp4 y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
======== Y:/!temp/Test1.mp4
[XMP-exif]      GPSLatitude                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00" S
[XMP-exif]      GPSLongitude                    : 31 deg 45' 36.00" E
[Composite]     GPSLatitudeRef                  : South
[Composite]     GPSLongitudeRef                 : East
[Composite]     GPSPosition                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00" S, 31 deg 45' 36.00" E
======== y:/!temp/Test4.jpg
[GPS]           GPSVersionID                    : 2.3.0.0
[GPS]           GPSLatitudeRef                  : South
[GPS]           GPSLatitude                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00"
[GPS]           GPSLongitudeRef                 : East
[GPS]           GPSLongitude                    : 31 deg 45' 36.00"
[Composite]     GPSLatitude                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00" S
[Composite]     GPSLongitude                    : 31 deg 45' 36.00" E
[Composite]     GPSPosition                     : 24 deg 0' 0.00" S, 31 deg 45' 36.00" E
    2 image files read
The video GPSCoordinates still has to be written separately.

[wywh]

If this is years old Photos.app .xmp issue (or similar) you might fix that nonstandard .xmp with:

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exiftool -P -overwrite_original -XMP-exif:All= -tagsFromFile @ -XMP-exif:All '-XMP-exif:GPSLongitude<${XMP-exif:GPSLongitude#}${XMP-exif:GPSLongitudeRef#}' '-XMP-exif:GPSLatitude<${XMP-exif:GPSLatitude#}${XMP-exif:GPSLatitudeRef#}' *.xmp
Then use this to copy .xmp to images:

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exiftool -m -overwrite_original_in_place -ext jpg -ext heic '-IPTC:CodedCharacterSet=UTF8' -tagsFromFile %d%f.xmp '-AllDates<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-ExifIFD:OffsetTime*<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-XMP-photoshop:DateCreated<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-EXIF:All<XMP-exif:All' '-GPS:GPSLatitudeRef<Composite:GPSLatitudeRef' '-GPS:GPSLongitudeRef<Composite:GPSLongitudeRef' '-XMP:All<XMP:All' '-IPTC:ObjectName<XMP-dc:Title' '-IPTC:Caption-Abstract<XMP-dc:Description' '-EXIF:ImageDescription<XMP-dc:Description' '-IPTC:Keywords<XMP-dc:Subject' '-FileCreateDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-FileModifyDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' .
...and this to copy .xmp to movies:

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exiftool -m -overwrite_original_in_place -api QuickTimeUTC=1 -ext mp4 -ext m4v -ext mov -tagsFromFile %d%f.xmp -api QuickTimeUTC=1 '-AllDates<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-Track*Date<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-Media*Date<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-Keys:CreationDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-Keys:GPSCoordinates<$XMP:GPSLatitude#, $XMP:GPSLongitude#' '-Keys:Title<XMP-dc:Title' '-Keys:Description<XMP-dc:Description' '-Keys:Keywords<XMP-dc:Subject' '-FileCreateDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-FileModifyDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' .
https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=12634.msg68327#msg68327

- Matti