How to remove the location and EXIF data from photos

What EXIF data is and why the location matters

Most photos carry hidden information next to the picture. The most common kind is EXIF, a standard that cameras and phones use to record the date and time, the make and model of the camera, lens and exposure settings, the orientation, and often a small preview image. Some cameras add a serial number, and editing programs add their own XMP or IPTC data with the software name, the author, copyright notes, keywords or editing history.

When location services are on for the camera, phones also store GPS coordinates, usually precise to a few metres. That is useful in your own photo library, which can show your pictures on a map, but it can be a problem when the file is shared. A photo of something you are selling, taken at home, can give away your address; a series of photos can show where you live, work or go to school, and when.

Removing metadata does not change what is visible in the picture. Faces, house numbers, number plates, street signs and reflections stay, so crop or cover those separately. The file name and the dates your computer keeps for the file are not part of the picture data either.

Turn off the location when sharing from an iPhone

On an iPhone or iPad, the share sheet in the Photos app has an Options button at the top, under the name of the selected item. It opens a switch for Location, and turning it off removes the location from the copies you share in that step, for example by AirDrop, Messages or Mail. The setting applies to that share only and the photos in your library keep their location. The same screen offers All Photos Data, which controls whether other metadata and the editing history are included.

To stop the camera recording the location for new photos, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and choose Never. Photos you already took keep their location.

1. In the Photos app, select the photos and tap the Share button.
2. Tap Options at the top of the share sheet.
3. Turn off Location, then tap Done.
4. Choose how to share, for example AirDrop, Messages or Mail.

Android phones

On Android the options depend on the maker of the phone and the apps you use, so the names below may differ on your device. Most camera apps have a setting such as Save location or Location tags that you can turn off for future photos. Some gallery apps, including Samsung Gallery on many models, offer a choice to remove location data when you share. Google Photos has a setting for removing the location from items you share by link, but that does not cover every way of sharing, such as sending the original file. When in doubt, check the result with a metadata viewer before you rely on it.

Remove properties in Windows File Explorer

Windows has a built-in way to remove metadata from JPG files. In the file's Properties, on the Details tab, the link Remove Properties and Personal Information opens a dialog with two choices: create a copy with all possible properties removed, or remove selected properties from the file itself. It works on several selected files at once. It only removes properties that Windows knows how to edit, so for sensitive cases check the copy with another tool afterwards.

1. Right-click the photo in File Explorer and choose Properties.
2. Open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information.
3. Choose Create a copy with all possible properties removed, or tick the properties to remove, such as the GPS fields.
4. Click OK.

Remove the location on a Mac

In the Photos app on a Mac, select a photo and choose Image > Location > Hide Location, which hides the location in your library. When you export, choose File > Export and make sure Location Information is not ticked under the export options, so the exported copy has no GPS position.

For a single file in Preview, choose Tools > Show Inspector. Photos with a location have a GPS tab in the inspector, with a button to remove the location information. Exact menu names can differ slightly between macOS versions.

Remove metadata with exiftool

exiftool is a free command-line program for Windows, macOS and Linux that reads and writes metadata in almost every image format, including HEIC. The -all= option deletes all metadata it can write, and -gps:all= deletes only the GPS fields and leaves the date and camera details. By default exiftool keeps a backup of each original, named for example photo.jpg_original; add -overwrite_original if you do not want it.

Note that -all= also removes the colour profile and the orientation tag, which can make colours shift or a phone photo appear sideways. The third command below copies those two back from the original while deleting everything else. Run exiftool with just the file name first to see what a photo contains.

# Show all metadata, or only the GPS fields
exiftool photo.jpg
exiftool -gps:all photo.jpg

# Remove only the location
exiftool -gps:all= photo.jpg

# Remove everything, but keep the colour profile and orientation
exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile @ -icc_profile -orientation photo.jpg

# Remove all metadata from every image in a folder and its subfolders
exiftool -all= -r photos/

Do social networks remove it for you?

Many large social networks strip GPS and other EXIF data from photos they show publicly, but their rules are not always documented and can change, and the platform itself may still keep the data it received. Files sent by email, as documents in chat apps, through cloud storage links, or posted on many forums and marketplaces are often passed on unchanged with all their metadata. If the location matters, clean the file yourself before it leaves your device.

Remove metadata in your browser with FileReshape

FileReshape's Remove Image Metadata tool cleans JPG, PNG and WebP images in your browser. The files are read and cleaned on your own device and not uploaded, which matters when the point is to keep your location private. When you drop photos, the list shows what each file contains, such as the GPS position, camera model, serial number, date taken, software, author and whether there is a preview image. The location and anything that names a person are marked.

The tool removes all EXIF data, XMP and IPTC data, comments, embedded preview images and other program data. In a JPG, extra pictures stored after the main image, such as a depth map or the video of a motion photo, are removed too; in a PNG, the text fields and the time of the last change go. Two things are kept on purpose: the colour profile, so colours do not shift, and for photos the camera stored sideways, a single orientation tag so they still show upright.

The picture is not decoded and saved again. The compressed image data is copied unchanged, so a JPG loses no quality. Each clean copy gets _clean added to its name, for example IMG_2041_clean.jpg, and several files are downloaded together as a zip. Your originals are not changed.

HEIC photos from an iPhone are not supported by this tool. If you add one, it tells you to convert it with HEIC to JPG first, because the JPG that tool makes does not get the location or camera details. Compress Image and Resize Image also drop EXIF data from every image they save again; the exception is Compress Image handing back an original that could not be made smaller, which keeps its metadata.

1. Open Remove Image Metadata and drop your JPG, PNG or WebP photos in the box.
2. Check the list of what was found in each file; the GPS position and names are marked.
3. Click Remove metadata and download the clean image, or a zip with all of them.