How to check and remove photo metadata
- Drop in a photo. Tap the box or drag in one or more images. JPEG, PNG and WebP are fully supported; HEIC can be inspected and converted.
- Read the report. The tool translates the raw tags into plain findings: location, capture time, device, editing software, identity fields, and provenance marks.
- Remove the metadata. One tap strips it. JPEGs are cleaned losslessly — the image data is untouched. You can keep the color profile so colors don't shift.
- Verify and download. The cleaned file is inspected again so you can see it comes back clean, then downloads with a -clean suffix.
What it does
- Reads EXIF, XMP, IPTC and GPS data and explains it in plain English
- Shows the exact map location a photo would reveal
- Detects C2PA Content Credentials and common AI-generator signatures
- Removes metadata from JPEGs losslessly — pixels stay bit-identical
- Re-checks the cleaned file and shows you the proof
- Everything runs on your device; photos are never uploaded
What photo metadata actually contains
When a phone or camera saves a photo, it writes two things: the picture, and a block of structured data about the picture. That second block — EXIF, plus often XMP and IPTC — records GPS coordinates, the exact second of capture, the device make and model, lens details, exposure settings, and sometimes the owner's name, a copyright string, or the serial number of the camera body. Editing apps add their own entries on top, so a file can quietly document its whole history: taken on this phone, at this address, edited in this app, on this date.
None of this is visible in the image itself. It travels with the file when you email it, post it on a forum, attach it to a listing, or share it from a cloud drive at original quality. Some platforms strip metadata on upload; many don't, and few say so.
How the removal works
A JPEG file is a sequence of labelled segments. Metadata lives in its own segments (APP1 for EXIF and XMP, APP13 for IPTC, APP11 for Content Credentials, COM for comments), separate from the compressed image data. This tool walks the file byte by byte and drops the metadata segments while copying everything else through untouched. The pixels are not decoded, not recompressed, and not altered in any way — which is why the cleaned JPEG looks identical, because it is identical where it counts.
PNG and WebP store metadata differently, so those are cleaned by re-encoding through a canvas: effective, but it rebuilds the file rather than editing it in place. After any clean, the tool re-reads the output and shows you the empty report — proof, not promise.
When to check a photo
- Before selling something online with photos taken at home
- Before sharing photos of documents, IDs, or anything tied to your identity
- Before posting on forums, marketplaces, or anywhere a stranger can download the original
- After exporting from an editor, to see what the editor added
Photos of paperwork deserve special care: a photographed document is still a document, and its metadata says where it was photographed. If you keep documents on your phone, a private vault like Paperlock keeps them out of your camera roll in the first place — this tool is for the copies that have to leave your device.
Remove photo metadata on iPhone
To remove photo metadata on iPhone, start in the Photos app. Open the photo, tap the ⓘ button (or swipe up), tap Adjust next to the map, and choose No Location. That deletes the GPS coordinates from that one photo in your library. It does not touch the rest — the device model, lens, capture time and any editing history stay — and you repeat it per photo.
When you are sharing rather than cleaning, use the share sheet instead. Tap Share, then tap Options at the top of the sheet, and turn off Location; turn off All Photos Data as well if it is shown. That strips the shared copy only — your original keeps everything, which is usually what you want.
Does iPhone remove metadata when sharing?
The iPhone does not remove metadata when sharing unless you ask. Mail, Messages and AirDrop send the full file, location included, until you turn it off in Options — and you do that each time. Many social networks strip metadata on upload, but not all, and none promise it, so don't rely on that for anything sensitive. The tool on this page strips everything, including HEIC straight from the camera, losslessly, and shows you first what the photo was about to reveal.
How to look at the metadata of a photo
You do not need special software to look at the metadata of a photo. On an iPhone, open it in Photos and tap ⓘ: the panel shows the camera and lens, resolution, file size, the capture date and a map with the location if there is one. On a Mac, open the photo in Preview and choose Tools → Show Inspector; the ⓘ tab lists the basics, and the EXIF and GPS tabs show the raw fields, with a button that opens the coordinates in Maps. On Windows, right-click the file and choose Properties → Details.
Those built-in views are short on purpose. They skip the XMP and IPTC blocks, which is where editing history, a copyright string, a creator name or a Content Credentials marker tend to live. The tool above reads every field it can find — EXIF, XMP, IPTC, GPS and provenance markers — and explains each in plain English, so you see what a stranger with the file would see before you decide whether to remove it.
Remove metadata from a photo on Mac
There is no one-click way to remove metadata from a photo on Mac with the built-in apps. Preview's Inspector shows the EXIF and GPS tabs but cannot delete them. The Photos app comes closest: select the photo, choose File → Export → Export 1 Photo…, and untick Location Information (and Title, Keywords and Description if you prefer) before saving. That drops the GPS data from the exported copy but keeps the camera details and the rest — and Export Unmodified Original skips all of it and hands out the file exactly as the camera wrote it, every field intact.
For a full clean, open this page in Safari or Chrome on your Mac and drop the photos in. JPEGs and HEICs are cleaned losslessly — the metadata sections are removed from the container and the pixels are never decoded or recompressed, so the picture is byte-for-byte what it was. You can keep the colour profile so nothing shifts, and the tool re-reads the cleaned file to show you it came back empty.