Metadata is the information a photo carries about itself: when it was taken, on what, with which settings, and often where. You never see it in the picture, but phones, computers and websites read it all the time. Seeing it yourself takes a few seconds, and it is worth doing before you send a photo to someone you do not know.
Every system shows a slightly different slice of it, so below are the steps for an iPhone, a Mac, Windows and Google Photos, and then the way to see everything at once. If you want the complete list right now, drop the file into the free photo metadata checker. It explains each field in plain English and runs in your browser, so the photo is not uploaded.
On an iPhone: the Info panel in Photos
Apple's iPhone User Guide gives these steps:
- Open the Photos app and tap the photo.
- Swipe up, or tap the Info button (the "i" in a circle).
- Read the panel. Depending on the photo, it shows the device that took it, the date and time, camera data such as the lens, shutter speed and file size, and where it was taken, with a map.
The same panel can show a caption, people and pets Photos recognized, who shared the photo with you, and which albums it is in. Tap Adjust next to the date or the location to change them; Apple also offers Revert to go back to the original values.
The location part has its own guide: how to see where a photo was taken on an iPhone.
On a Mac: Preview's Inspector
Apple's Preview guide says to open the image in Preview and click the Info button in the toolbar to open the Inspector window. The General info tab shows basics such as file size and resolution; the More info tab shows the image's details in different formats and where a photo was taken. To see the location on a map, choose Tools > Show Location Info; if that item is gray, the image has no location data.
In the Photos app on a Mac, select a photo and click the Info button for the same kind of summary you get on the iPhone.
On Windows: file Properties
In File Explorer, right-click the photo, choose Properties, and open the Details tab. You see the camera maker and model, the date taken, the dimensions, exposure settings and, when present, GPS latitude and longitude. The bottom of the tab has a link to remove properties and personal information from a copy of the file.
In Google Photos
Open the photo and select Info. Google Photos shows the date, the camera details it found and a location. Be careful with that last one: Google's help page says Google Photos can estimate a location from landmarks and your other photos, so a place shown there is not always one the camera recorded. It also says a location added by your camera cannot be edited or removed inside Google Photos.
See every field at once
The built-in panels show a friendly selection. The file can hold more: author names, copyright lines, camera and lens serial numbers, the editing software, keywords, and provenance records. The photo metadata checker reads all of it and sorts the findings by how much they reveal:
- Location: the exact coordinates, with a link to the spot on OpenStreetMap.
- When: the capture time, and a note if the file was modified later.
- Device and software: the phone or camera, lens, and the apps that touched the file.
- Identity: author, copyright, owner name and serial numbers, if present.
- Provenance: a C2PA Content Credentials marker or a known image generator's name. See whether metadata can show a photo is AI-generated for what those flags can and cannot tell you.
It handles JPEG, HEIC from an iPhone, PNG and WebP, and it can also remove the metadata, losslessly for JPEG and HEIC.
The three formats, briefly
You will see three names in metadata tools:
| Format | What it usually holds |
|---|---|
| EXIF | What the camera recorded: device, lens, exposure, date and time, GPS coordinates |
| XMP | A flexible format, originally from Adobe, used by editing apps for edits, keywords and ratings |
| IPTC | Descriptive and rights fields used by news and photo agencies: captions, creator, copyright, locations shown |
The IPTC describes its Photo Metadata Standard as the most widely used standard to describe photos, and says the modern version uses Adobe's XMP technology, now an ISO standard. For the deepest look, the IPTC also points to ExifTool, a widely used free program for reading and writing metadata.
Why it is worth a look
Metadata is useful to you: it puts your photos in order, on a map and in search. It is just as readable to anyone who gets the original file. Apple's own guide on sharing notes that a shared photo includes its metadata, such as date and time, location, device and captions, unless you change the options first. A photo of a document can carry your home coordinates next to the name on the page, so check before you send. Sharing documents securely from an iPhone covers the safer ways, the international travel documents checklist is a good moment to tidy photos of tickets and passports, and finding text in your photos helps you pull the paperwork out of your camera roll first.
What metadata cannot tell you
- It can be changed. The iPhone lets you edit the date, time and location of any photo, and desktop editors can rewrite the rest. Treat it as the file's own claim.
- Missing is not suspicious by itself. Many apps strip metadata on upload, and screenshots never had camera data.
- It is not in the picture. Removing metadata does nothing about a street sign or a house number in the background.
Steps follow Apple's iPhone User Guide and Preview User Guide, and Google Photos Help, as published in 2026. Menu names can change between versions.