When the iPhone camera has access to your location, it writes the coordinates of where you stood into every photo. That is how the Photos app can show your pictures on a map. It also means that anyone who gets the original file can read the same coordinates, which matters when the photo was taken at home, at your kids' school, or anywhere you would rather not pin on a map for a stranger.

There are three fixes, and they do different jobs. One removes the location from a single share. One removes it from the photo in your library. One removes everything hidden in the file, not just the place. If you want to check first whether a photo has a location at all, see how to see where a photo was taken on an iPhone.

Fix 1: turn Location off when you share

This is the quickest way, and it leaves your own copy alone. Apple's Personal Safety User Guide gives these steps:

  1. Open the Photos app (or the camera roll from the Camera app) and select one or more photos.
  2. Tap the Share button.
  3. Tap Options at the top of the share sheet.
  4. Turn off Location.
  5. Check that Location Not Included now appears above the Options button.
  6. Share the photos as usual, with Messages, Mail, AirDrop or another app.

While you are in Options, leave All Photos Data off. Apple's guide explains that this switch shares the original file with its edit history and metadata, which is the opposite of what you want here.

The switch only covers that one share. The next time you share, check it again.

Fix 2: remove the location from the photo itself

If a photo should never carry its location, change it in your library. Apple's steps:

  1. Open the photo and tap the Info button.
  2. Tap Adjust Info, then Adjust Location.
  3. Tap No Location.

Apple's iPhone User Guide also offers Revert, which brings back the original date, time or location. That is useful if you change your mind, and it is a hint that your library still remembers the original. So for a photo you are about to send to someone you do not know, use Fix 1 or Fix 3 as well.

To change a batch, tap Select in your library, tap the photos, and follow the same steps. On a Mac, Apple's guide says to select the photos in Photos and choose Image > Location > Hide Location.

Fix 3: strip every hidden detail, not just the place

The location is only one item in a photo's metadata. A file can also record the exact date and time, the phone model and lens, the editing software, and sometimes a name, a copyright line or a camera serial number. Apple's sharing guide lists date and time, location, device and captions among the metadata that goes along with a shared photo.

The photo metadata checker and remover on this site shows all of it in plain English first, including the exact spot on a map, then removes it:

  • JPEG: the metadata sections are dropped and the picture data stays byte-for-byte identical, so there is no loss of quality.
  • HEIC from an iPhone: the metadata is blanked in place, so the photo stays a HEIC of the same size with the same pixels.
  • PNG and WebP: these are re-encoded, which strips everything but can change the file size.

It runs in your browser. The photo is read in the page's memory and is not uploaded; the only network request loads the open-source reading library. After cleaning, the tool checks the new file again and shows you what is left.

If you are shrinking a photo for an online form anyway, the resize photo to KB tool has the same side effect: it writes a fresh JPEG with no EXIF block, so the GPS coordinates are not in the copy.

Stop new photos from saving a location

If you would rather your photos never record where you were, Apple's guide says to go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and choose Never. Location data can only be collected when the Camera has access to Location Services.

The trade-off is that you lose the map of your trips and searches like "photos from Lisbon". A middle path many people choose: leave it on, and use Fix 1 every time a photo leaves your phone.

Special cases worth knowing

  • Reference mode photos (iPhone 18 Pro). Apple's Reference Image article warns that if you share a Reference mode photo before its reference image has been developed, it may include sensitive information about your device, such as the serial number, and the full image frame regardless of zoom. Open the photo in Photos to develop it first, or leave the Reference Image switch off in Options.
  • Google Photos. Google's help page says you can remove a location you added or one Google estimated, but not one your camera added. Remove it on the phone before uploading.
  • Photos of documents. A snapshot of a passport, a lease or a medical letter can carry your home coordinates next to your name. For documents, a PDF is often the better thing to send; sharing documents securely from an iPhone and sending important documents by email cover how.
  • Selling things online after a move. Listing furniture from your new place? The moving house checklist is a good moment to switch the Camera's location off or get into the Fix 1 habit.

What these steps cannot do

Removing metadata does not change what is in the picture. A house number, a street sign, a school logo or the view from a window can give away a place on their own, and no setting removes them. Crop or retake the photo if the background says too much.

It also does not reach copies that are already out there. If you posted a photo with its location last year, cleaning your copy today does not change the one someone else downloaded.

Steps follow Apple's iPhone User Guide and Personal Safety User Guide as published in September 2026, and Google Photos Help. Menu names can shift between versions.