Remove EXIF data

Read everything a photo says about itself, then take it out: the camera, the date and often the exact spot you were standing. The picture itself is not re-saved.

No uploads
No sign-up
No file limit
No watermark

What a photo is quietly carrying

Every photo a phone or a camera takes has a block of notes written inside the file, beside the picture rather than in it. The dull parts are the exposure and the focal length. The parts worth knowing about are the make, model and sometimes the serial number of the device, the date and time to the second, the name of whoever the camera was registered to, and the latitude and longitude of where you were standing, to about five metres, whenever location is switched on for the camera.

That block travels with the file. Post the photo to a large social network and most of it is usually stripped on the way in. Attach it to an email, send it as a file in a chat, put it on a website, upload it to a marketplace listing, hand it over on a memory stick, and every word of it arrives with the picture.

Nothing here is re-encoded

This is the part most tools get wrong, because getting it wrong is easier. The simple way to strip metadata is to decode the picture and save it again, which takes three lines and quietly costs a fresh round of JPG compression every single time, plus whatever colour profile the file had.

A JPG is not one lump: it is a list of blocks, and the notes live in blocks of their own. So this walks the list, copies every block that is part of the picture across untouched and drops the rest. The compressed image data that comes out is the same bytes that went in, at the same width and height, with no generation loss at all. A PNG is the same story with chunks instead of blocks, and a WebP the same again, with its table of contents corrected on the way out so the file still describes itself honestly.

The two things worth keeping

Not everything in there is about you. The colour profile says how the numbers in the file should be turned into colours on a screen, and throwing it away can visibly shift them. The orientation tag is what turns a phone photo the right way up, because the sensor wrote it sideways and the tag is the correction; remove it and a portrait photo is shown on its side. Both are kept by default and both have a tick box. Untick them and the file comes out with nothing in it but the picture.

What it will not do

It does not read HEIC, which is what an iPhone saves by default unless it has been told otherwise. HEIC keeps its metadata woven through the container rather than parked beside the picture, and a half-right answer there is worse than an honest no. Send iPhone photos through the HEIC to JPG converter instead, which leaves the metadata behind as part of converting.

It also does not change the picture to hide anything visible in it. A street sign, a house number or a reflection is part of the photograph, and no metadata tool touches that. If you want fewer identifying things in the frame, the background remover takes the whole background out.

Guides that go further

Part of transparent pngs, explained. What each format is, when to use it, and what to do when a file will not open.

Questions

What is EXIF data?

It is a block of notes a camera writes inside the picture file. A phone photo typically carries the make and model of the phone, the lens, the exposure, the date and time to the second, the software that last touched it and, if location is switched on for the camera, the latitude and longitude where you stood. A photo that has been through an editor often also carries the editor's name, a caption, a star rating and a small thumbnail copy of an earlier version.

How do I remove EXIF data from a photo?

Drop the photo on this page. It lists what the file contains, removes it and gives you a Save button, all in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account and there is no limit on how many files you do at once.

Does removing the metadata reduce the quality?

No, and that is the main thing that separates this from most of the tools that do it. A JPG is a list of blocks and the metadata sits in blocks of its own, so this copies every other byte across untouched. The compressed picture that comes out is the same bytes that went in, at the same width and height. Tools that decode the picture and save it again (which is the easy way to write one) cost you a fresh round of JPG compression every time.

Does it remove the GPS location?

Yes. The location is the reason most people arrive here, so the page names it before it takes it out: any file that carries coordinates is flagged in the list, and the coordinates themselves are shown so you can see what was in there. They are shown on this page and nowhere else, because the file never leaves your device.

Why does it keep the colour profile and the rotation?

Because neither is about you. The colour profile says how to read the colours, and removing it can shift them on some screens. The rotation tag is what turns a phone photo the right way up, and without it a picture taken sideways is shown sideways. Both are ticked by default and both can be unticked, in which case everything goes.

Which formats does it work on?

JPG, PNG and WebP. HEIC, the format an iPhone uses by default, is not handled here: its metadata is woven through the container rather than parked beside the picture, and a half-right answer there would be worse than an honest no. Run an iPhone photo through the HEIC to JPG converter on this site instead, which leaves the metadata behind as it converts.

Do social networks strip it for me?

Usually, but not always, and not everywhere. The large networks remove most of it when you post, though what they strip has changed more than once and what they keep for themselves is a separate question. What is not stripped is anything sent directly: a photo attached to an email, dropped into a chat as a file rather than an image, put on a website, uploaded to a marketplace listing or handed over on a memory stick still carries everything.

How can I see what a photo contains before I strip it?

This page shows it. Drop a file and it lists the camera, the lens, the dates, the software, the captions and the location, with how many bytes each takes, before anything is removed. On Windows you can also right-click a file and look at Details in Properties, and on a Mac you can open it in Preview and choose Tools then Show Inspector, though both show less than this does.

Can I do a whole folder at once?

Yes. Drop as many files as you like: each is read and cleaned in turn, and Save all puts every cleaned copy into one ZIP. There is no cap on the number or the size, because there is no server doing the work and so nothing to pay for.

Is it safe to use a website for this?

It depends entirely on whether the website uploads your file, and most of them do: you are handing a stranger the very photo whose location you were worried about. This one does not have a server that could receive a picture. Check it the same way you should check any of them: load this page, switch your browser to offline, and clean a file anyway.

Your files never leave this device

Most online converters upload every file to a server, convert it there and keep it for a while. Here your browser decodes and encodes the picture itself, so there is nowhere for the file to go. You can check it: load this page, switch the browser to offline, and convert a file. How to check a site is not uploading your photos.