EXIF Viewer & Remover — See and Strip Photo Metadata
See every piece of metadata in a photo, from camera and settings to GPS location and serial numbers, and remove it without recompressing.
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This free EXIF viewer shows the hidden metadata in a photo and removes it. Drop in a JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP or TIFF and you see the camera and lens, exposure settings, the date and time it was taken, the editing software, and, if the phone recorded it, the exact GPS location, with a link to the spot on OpenStreetMap. Fields that identify you, your home or your device, such as GPS coordinates, camera serial numbers and owner names, are highlighted.
Remove metadata cleans the file without recompressing it. For JPEG, PNG and WebP the tool cuts the EXIF, XMP, IPTC and text blocks out of the file and leaves the image data byte for byte unchanged, so there is no quality loss, then re-scans the result to confirm nothing is left. HEIC and TIFF cannot be edited this way in a browser, so they are re-encoded and the page says so. The photo never leaves your device, which is the point: uploading a photo to a website to strip its location hands that website the location.
How to use
- Choose or drop a photo. A sample phone photo with GPS and a serial number is loaded so you can see what the tool shows.
- Read the summary and the red Privacy risk fields: location, serial numbers, names.
- Expand any section (EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC) for every field, or tick Show only flagged fields.
- Choose whether to keep the colour profile and orientation (both recommended), then click Remove metadata.
- Check the confirmation, which re-scans the cleaned file, and download it.
Frequently asked questions
What is EXIF data?
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is metadata a camera or phone writes into each photo: make and model, lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focal length, date and time, orientation, and often GPS coordinates, altitude and the camera's serial number. Editing software adds its own name and edit history, usually as XMP, and agencies add captions and credits as IPTC. None of it is visible in the picture itself.
Can a photo reveal my location?
Yes, if location services were on for the camera app, which is the default on most phones. The GPS latitude and longitude are typically accurate to a few metres, enough to identify a house. Major social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and X strip location from uploaded photos, but email attachments, messaging apps that send files as documents, cloud share links, marketplaces and many forums and websites keep it. Check before you share a photo taken at home.
How do I remove EXIF data from a photo?
Upload the photo here and click Remove metadata, then download the clean copy. On a JPEG this removes the EXIF, XMP and IPTC segments and comments without re-encoding the image. On Windows you can also use Properties, Details, Remove Properties and Personal Information; on iPhone, tap Options in the share sheet and turn off Location before sending; on Android, the share sheet in Google Photos has a similar option for location.
Does removing metadata reduce image quality?
Not here, for JPEG, PNG and WebP. The metadata lives in separate blocks of the file, so they can be removed without touching the compressed image data; the cleaned file is the same picture, slightly smaller. Many online removers re-save the image instead, which recompresses a JPEG and loses quality each time. HEIC and TIFF files are re-encoded here because browsers cannot rewrite those containers, and the tool tells you when that happens.
Why does my photo appear rotated after removing EXIF?
Phones often store the image sideways and set an EXIF Orientation flag telling viewers to rotate it. Remove that flag with the rest of the metadata and the photo displays sideways. This tool keeps orientation by default: it writes back a tiny EXIF block containing only the rotation flag, which holds no personal information. Untick Keep orientation if you need a file with no EXIF at all.
Can I see EXIF data on HEIC photos from an iPhone?
Yes, viewing works for HEIC in every browser because the metadata is read directly from the file. Removing it needs the image to be decoded, and only Safari can decode HEIC. In Chrome, Firefox or Edge, convert the photo to JPG with the image converter first, then strip the JPG here, or open this page in Safari.
What each kind of metadata can reveal
• GPS (GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude, GPSAltitude, GPS time): where the photo was taken, to within a few metres. The most sensitive field by far, especially for photos taken at home or of children.
• Serial numbers (BodySerialNumber, LensSerialNumber, InternalSerialNumber): tie photos to one physical camera. They can link an anonymous account to photos posted under your name, and are used to trace stolen cameras.
• Names (Artist, OwnerName, Copyright, XMP creator, IPTC by-line): whatever was typed into the camera or editing software settings.
• Dates and times (DateTimeOriginal, offsets): when, and in which time zone, the photo was taken. Combined with a series of photos, a routine.
• Device and software (Make, Model, Software, lens): the phone model and operating-system version. Mostly harmless, but part of a fingerprint.
• Thumbnails and edit history: the EXIF thumbnail is a small copy of the image taken before editing. A photo cropped to remove something can still contain the uncropped thumbnail; removing EXIF removes it.
How lossless removal works
A JPEG file is a sequence of tagged segments. EXIF and XMP sit in APP1 segments and IPTC in APP13, ahead of the compressed image data. The remover walks every segment, including the tables between the scans of a progressive JPEG, drops APP1, APP13, comments and vendor APP blocks, keeps the JFIF header, the Adobe APP14 marker (needed to decode CMYK images) and optionally the ICC colour profile, and copies everything else byte for byte. Data after the end-of-image marker, where some phones store depth maps, previews or motion-photo video, is dropped too, because it carries its own metadata.
PNG metadata lives in tEXt, zTXt and iTXt text chunks (XMP uses iTXt), the eXIf chunk and the tIME timestamp. Each chunk carries its own checksum, so removing whole chunks leaves the rest of the file valid. In WebP, the EXIF and XMP chunks are removed and the header flags and size are updated.
The colour profile is kept by default because it contains no personal data and removing it can shift colours on photos shot in Display P3 or Adobe RGB. After cleaning, the file is parsed again with the same reader used for viewing, and the result says how many fields remain.
Related free tools
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- Image Compressor — Shrink images by quality or to a target size, optionally cap the dimensions, and download smaller JPG or WebP files. Batch, in your browser.
- Image Converter — Convert between AVIF, HEIC, TIFF, PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, BMP and SVG. Most conversions never leave your browser.
- Image Resizer — Shrink images by percentage, exact pixel dimensions, or a target file size like 500 KB — all in your browser.
- Image Cropper — Crop images to any size or aspect ratio in your browser — square, 16:9, 4:3, or freeform.