How to Remove Metadata from Photos

Photos can reveal where and when they were taken. Learn what EXIF, GPS and XMP metadata contain, how to check a photo and how to remove metadata before sharing.

What photo metadata is

Every photo taken with a phone or camera carries hidden information alongside the pixels. This metadata is stored in standard blocks inside the file, and most of it is written automatically without you noticing.

• EXIF data records technical details: camera or phone make and model, lens, exposure settings, the date and time the photo was taken, the image orientation and the software used to edit it.
• GPS data, part of EXIF, can record the latitude, longitude and altitude of the place where the photo was taken, often accurate to a few meters.
• XMP data is often added by editing software and can include editing history, ratings, the author’s name and copyright details.
• IPTC data is used mostly by photographers and news organizations for captions, keywords, credits and contact information.

Some cameras also store an owner name or the camera’s serial number, and many files include a small embedded preview thumbnail.

Why metadata matters for privacy

Metadata is useful when you organize your own library: it lets photo apps sort by date and show pictures on a map. When you share a photo with strangers, the same information can reveal much more than you intended. A picture of a new sofa, posted on a marketplace with GPS data intact, can show exactly where you live. A series of photos with timestamps can reveal a daily routine. Device details can connect photos posted under different accounts.

Some large social networks strip metadata from images they display publicly, but practices vary between services and between upload methods, and you cannot easily confirm what any service does with the original file. Photos sent as email attachments, shared through cloud storage links, posted on forums or sent as documents in messaging apps often keep their metadata in full. The only reliable approach is to remove metadata yourself before the photo leaves your device.

Step 1: Check what a photo contains

Before you remove anything, it is worth seeing what is there. The Image metadata viewer reads the EXIF, GPS, XMP and IPTC blocks in your browser and shows them in a table, along with the file name, size, type and dimensions.

1. Open the Image metadata viewer and drop a photo onto the page.
2. Read through the table. Look for GPS latitude and longitude, the date and time, the device make and model, and any names or copyright fields.
3. If you want a record, copy the metadata or download it as a JSON file.

Step 2: Remove the metadata

1. Open the EXIF metadata remover and drop in your photo, or up to 20 photos at once.
2. For JPG and WebP photos, set the Quality slider. A value around 85% to 92% keeps the image visually identical for most uses.
3. Compare the original and result previews.
4. Download the cleaned photo, or select Download ZIP for a batch.

How the removal works

Instead of editing individual tags, the EXIF metadata remover decodes the photo into plain pixels and encodes a brand-new image file from them. The new file contains the picture and nothing else, so EXIF, GPS, XMP and IPTC data are not carried over, including tags that a tag-by-tag editor might miss and the embedded preview thumbnail.

JPG and WebP files are saved in the same format, and PNG files stay PNG. Other formats, such as GIF, BMP or AVIF, are saved as PNG. Because JPG and WebP are lossy formats, re-encoding them involves a small amount of compression, which is why the tool offers a Quality setting. PNG output is lossless, so no detail is lost. As with all tools on this site, processing happens in your browser and the photos are never uploaded.

Browsers apply a photo’s orientation tag when they display it, so a cleaned photo normally keeps the way up you saw in the preview. If a photo still appears sideways, rotate it with the Image rotator before sharing.

Step 3: Verify the result

Open the downloaded file in the Image metadata viewer. A cleaned photo shows only its basic file information, such as name, size, type and dimensions, along with the message that no embedded metadata was found. Checking takes a few seconds and confirms the file you are about to share is clean.

More ways to protect your privacy

• Turn off location tagging in your phone’s camera settings if you rarely need it. Your photo app can still sort by date without it.
• Rename files before sharing. File names can contain dates, names or project details.
• Look at the picture itself. Removing metadata does not hide house numbers, street signs, license plates, documents or reflections visible in the photo.
• Use the Image blur tool or crop the image to hide sensitive details that are part of the picture.
• Keep your originals. Metadata is useful in your own archive; remove it only from the copies you share.

Frequently asked questions

Does removing metadata reduce photo quality?

PNG output is lossless. JPG and WebP are re-encoded at the quality you choose, and at high settings the difference is not visible in normal viewing.

Can I remove metadata from many photos at once?

Yes. Add up to 20 photos, with up to 100 MB in total, and download the cleaned files individually or as one ZIP.

Is GPS data removed too?

Yes. GPS coordinates are stored in the EXIF block, which is not carried over to the new file. You can confirm this in the Image metadata viewer.