How to Remove EXIF Data From Photos (iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac)

To remove EXIF data from a photo, open Remove EXIF Data in your browser, choose one or more photos, and download the clean copies. The tool first shows what each file reveals (GPS location, camera, date taken), then cuts the metadata out of JPEG, PNG and WebP files without re-compressing the image. Everything happens on your device; the photos are never uploaded.

Each platform also has its own built-in option: the iPhone share sheet can drop the location, Samsung Gallery can remove it when sharing, Windows has Remove Properties and Personal Information, and Preview on a Mac can delete the GPS tag. Most of these only remove the location, though, not the rest of the metadata. Below is what EXIF contains, why it matters and how each method works.

What EXIF data is, and what it reveals

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a standard maintained by CIPA for the information cameras and phones write into each photo, next to the image itself. Two other kinds of metadata, XMP and IPTC, are often added by editing software. A typical phone photo can include:

Metadata	Example	What it can reveal
GPS latitude, longitude, altitude	48.85837, 2.29448	The exact place the photo was taken, often your home
Date and time taken, time zone offset	2026-10-12 08:14:03, +02:00	When you were there, your daily routine
Camera make and model, lens	Apple iPhone 16 Pro, back camera	Which device you own
Camera or lens serial number (some cameras)	A unique number	That several photos came from the same camera
Software	iOS version, editing app	What you used to process the image
Exposure settings	1/120 s, f/1.8, ISO 64	Harmless, but useful to photographers
Embedded thumbnail and extra images	A small preview, depth map	Sometimes the uncropped original

You can see exactly what your own photo contains with EXIF Viewer: it lists every tag by group and shows the GPS position as coordinates, with an optional link to OpenStreetMap.

Why the GPS location is the real risk

Most metadata is harmless. The location is not. Phones record it by default when the camera has location access, and it is precise enough to point to a building. A photo of a new couch, a pet or a child taken at home and sent as a file can give that address to anyone who opens the file’s details, without any special skill.

The other fields matter less on their own, but they add up: the date and time show when you were somewhere, and a serial number can link photos posted under different names. If you also need to hide people in the picture, see how to blur a face in a photo.

The quick answer: remove EXIF data in your browser

Remove EXIF Data works the same on iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac and Chromebook:

1. Open the tool and choose, drop or paste one or more photos (JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC).
2. For each photo, read the Found line: GPS location, camera, date taken and the number of tags.
3. Check the Removed line, which lists what was cut out, for example EXIF, XMP, IPTC / Photoshop or Extra embedded images (MPF).
4. Tap Download clean photo, or download all of them as a ZIP.

How it works, per format:

• JPEG, PNG and WebP are cleaned at the byte level. The metadata segments or chunks are removed and the compressed image data is copied byte for byte, so the picture is identical and there is no quality loss. The ICC color profile is kept so colors don’t shift. In JPEGs from phones, the extra images some cameras append after the main picture (depth maps, HDR gain maps, each with its own EXIF) are removed too.
• Rotated photos. Phones often store rotation as an EXIF flag. Deleting it would show the photo sideways, so when a photo has one, the rotation is applied to the pixels and the image is re-saved in the same format at 95% quality (a WebP becomes a lossless PNG in browsers that can’t save WebP, such as Safari).
• HEIC photos from an iPhone are re-saved as JPG, which copies the pixels and nothing else.

If you only need a smaller file or a different format, the conversion tools also drop EXIF: re-encoding an image through the browser canvas, as the MDN documentation for toBlob describes, writes a new file from pixels only. Compress Image and HEIC to JPG work this way.

On iPhone: share without location

Apple documents this in its Personal Safety guide:

1. In Photos, select the photos and tap the Share button.
2. Tap Options at the top of the share sheet.
3. Turn off Location. “Location Not Included” appears above Options.
4. Share as usual.

The same guide explains how to remove the location from the photo itself (open it, tap More, then Adjust Location and No Location) and how to stop recording it: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera > Never.

Limits: the toggle has to be switched off each time you share, and it only covers the location. The camera model, the date and the other tags still go with the photo. Photos shared from other apps don’t offer the option.

On Android: camera settings, Samsung Gallery and Google Photos

• Stop recording the location. On Pixel phones, open the Camera app, go to Settings and turn off Save location, as explained in the Pixel Camera help. Other brands have a similar option in their camera settings, often called location tags.
• Samsung Gallery. On One UI 3.0 and later, select the photos, tap Share and turn on Remove location data before choosing the app, according to Samsung’s support page.
• Google Photos. Google states in How Google Photos protects your location data that albums, links and conversations shared from Google Photos don’t include location details unless you choose to include them, except with partner sharing. That covers sharing inside Google Photos, not a file you download and send elsewhere. Google also notes that a location recorded by the camera can’t be removed in the app, only estimated ones.

On Windows and Mac

Windows. Right-click the photo in File Explorer, choose Properties, open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. Choose Create a copy with all possible properties removed to keep the original, or select the properties to delete from the file itself. It works on common formats such as JPEG, but it is not always complete: users on Microsoft Q&A have reported it failing to remove GPS properties. Check the result in the Details tab or with EXIF Viewer.

Mac. Open the photo in Preview, choose Tools > Show Inspector (Command-I), open the More Info tab, then the GPS tab, and click Remove Location Info. Save the file. This removes the location only. In the Photos app, Apple’s guide above describes Image > Location > Hide Location for photos in your library.

Which method should you pick?

Method	Devices	Removes location	Removes camera, date, other tags	Changes the file
Remove EXIF Data	Any browser	Yes	Yes	Clean copy, image data unchanged (JPEG, PNG, WebP)
iPhone share Options	iPhone, iPad	Yes	No	Only the shared copy
Samsung share option	Galaxy phones	Yes	No	Only the shared copy
Windows Remove Properties	Windows	Usually	Partly	Copy or original
Preview Inspector	Mac	Yes	No	Original

To stop the problem at the source, turn off location for the camera. To clean photos you already have, use a tool that removes all metadata and check the result before you send it.

Do websites remove metadata when you upload?

Some do, but it is not something to rely on. Google Photos documents its sharing defaults, as above. Flickr, a photo community, keeps EXIF by default and lets you hide it in its privacy settings. Many large social networks don’t publish exactly what they keep or strip. In every case the original file, with its metadata, is sent to the service’s servers when you upload it. And email attachments, cloud drives and messaging apps that send photos as files usually deliver the file exactly as it is.

The safe habit is simple: check a photo with EXIF Viewer, clean it with Remove EXIF Data, and share the clean copy.