Prevent the loss of EXIF using imageCache does not work I want to limit image dimensions on upload, but obviously the exif information gets lost then. I am using the imagecache actions module resp. the imagecache autorotate, which actually works fine when I don't restrict image dimensions on file upload.

How do I set a maximum image resolution on upload and keep the exif so that imagecache can rotate images afterwards?
Drupal (7 by itself, 6 via ImageCache) uses GD library. GD cannot handle EXIF, so if EXIF are ever kept during operations, it's more by accident than by design. If you need to keep EXIF, either avoid any processing based on GD (and that means any Drupal and ImageCache provided operations, both in Drupal 6 and 7), or save EXIF to text field on first upload, for example with EXIF Custom, and then add it back on download.