Remove EXIF Data and Location from Photos

Photos from phones and cameras carry hidden metadata: the exact GPS location where the picture was taken, the date and time, the phone or camera model and sometimes its serial number. This tool shows you what your photo contains and gives you a clean copy without it, so you can share pictures without giving away where you live.

How to remove EXIF data and location from a photo

  1. Choose a photo (JPG, PNG or WebP) or drop it on the box.
  2. See what was found: location with a map link, camera, date taken, software and other metadata blocks.
  3. Download the clean photo. The tool checks the new file again and confirms that no EXIF, GPS, XMP or IPTC data is left.

Does removing metadata reduce quality?

For most JPG photos, no. The tool removes the metadata sections from the file and copies the image data byte for byte, so the picture is identical, just a few kilobytes smaller. The one exception is a photo that is stored sideways and relies on its EXIF “orientation” tag to display upright, which many phone photos do. Removing that tag would make it appear rotated, so in that case the photo is re-saved at high quality (92%) with the rotation applied, and the tool tells you. PNG files are re-saved losslessly.

What is removed

  • EXIF: GPS location, date and time, camera make and model, lens, serial number, software, author and copyright fields.
  • XMP and IPTC: editing history, captions, keywords and contact details added by apps such as Lightroom or Photoshop.
  • Comments embedded in the file.

The colour profile is kept so colours look the same. Want to see every field before you remove it? Open the photo in the EXIF and Metadata Viewer.

When should you remove photo metadata?

Large social networks usually strip location data from the photos they show publicly, but many other ways of sharing keep the original file with all its metadata: email attachments, cloud links (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud), photos sent as a “document” or file in chat apps, marketplace listings, forums and your own website. Clean a photo first when it was taken at home, at your children’s school or anywhere you would not want a stranger to find.

Stop your phone adding location to new photos

  • iPhone: Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera › Never. To remove location from a single photo while sharing, tap Options at the top of the share sheet and turn off Location.
  • Android: open the Camera app’s settings and turn off “Save location” (sometimes called “Location tags” or “Geo-tagging”).

Frequently asked questions

Is my photo uploaded to remove the data?

No. Everything happens in your browser. That matters for this tool in particular: uploading a photo to remove its location to a server would defeat the purpose.

Will my photo still be the right way up?

Yes. If the photo depends on its orientation tag, the rotation is applied to the image itself before the tag is removed.

Can I remove metadata from iPhone HEIC photos?

Most browsers cannot open HEIC. Share the photo as JPG (“Most Compatible”) first, then clean it here, or turn off Location in the iPhone share sheet as described above.

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