What is EXIF data and why should I remove it?

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is metadata written into a photo file alongside the pixels. On a phone it normally includes the GPS coordinates where the shot was taken, the camera model and lens serial number, the exact date and time, and the software version. None of it is visible when you look at the picture, and all of it travels with the file when you send it.

Does stripping metadata reduce the image quality?

For a PNG, no — the export is lossless and the pixels come back identical. For a JPG there is a small cost: the image is re-encoded at quality 95, which is one extra generation of JPEG compression. It is not visible in normal viewing, but it is not literally the same pixel data, and repeatedly stripping the same JPG over and over would eventually show. Strip once, from the original, and you will never notice it.

Will the file size change?

Usually a little, sometimes a lot. Removing the metadata and any embedded thumbnail takes a few dozen kilobytes off. Re-encoding can push the size either way — a heavily compressed JPG re-saved at quality 95 can come out larger than it went in. WEBP and TIFF files are exported as PNG, which can be considerably bigger. The picture is unchanged either way.

Does it remove the colour profile too?

Yes. The canvas export drops the embedded ICC profile along with everything else. For the overwhelming majority of photos this makes no visible difference, because they are already sRGB. If you are working with wide-gamut images intended for print, strip a copy rather than your master.

Do social platforms already strip EXIF for me?

The big ones generally do, because they re-encode everything you upload. Plenty of other places do not — direct file transfers, cloud storage links, email attachments and some forums and marketplace apps often pass the original file straight through. Behaviour changes without announcement, so the only reliable answer is to test the specific platform yourself: upload a photo, download it back, and drop the downloaded copy into this tool to see what survived.

Does this work on screenshots and edited photos?

Yes. Any image carrying metadata is fair game — JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP and TIFF are all supported. Screenshots rarely hold GPS data but often carry device, software and timestamp fields. A photo that has already passed through a messaging app may have been partially cleaned already; anything left behind gets removed.

Can stripped metadata be recovered from the clean file?

No. The clean copy is built fresh from the pixels, so the metadata was never written into it — there is nothing to recover. Your original file is untouched on disk, though, so if you meant to destroy the metadata entirely, delete or replace the original once you have the clean copy.

Do my photos get uploaded to a server?

No. Reading the metadata and writing the clean copy both happen inside your browser tab, on your own device. Nothing is transmitted, and closing the tab discards the file.

Remove EXIF Data from Photos — Strip or Edit GPS

The photo you posted knows where you live

You list something on Marketplace and photograph it on your kitchen table. A buyer saves the picture, opens the metadata, and reads off the coordinates of your kitchen — accurate to within a few metres — before either of you has sent a message.

Nothing about that requires skill or special software. The coordinates are sitting in the file, written there by your phone, in a documented public format that any browser or free viewer can read in about two seconds. The photo looks completely ordinary. That is the entire problem: there is no visible sign that any of it is there.

What's actually inside a typical phone photo

The Filesmith EXIF tool listing metadata from a phone photo: 58 fields found, including camera make and model, three separate timestamps, lens details and GPS coordinates — One ordinary photo, straight off a phone: 58 separate fields — twice what the table above lists. Camera make and model, the exact lens, three timestamps, and the GPS coordinates of wherever it was taken. Every one of them travels with the file.

Drop any photo into the tool above and you will see its real contents. A representative set looks like this:

Field	Example	Risk
GPS latitude / longitude	`45.5017° N, 73.5673° W`	HIGH
GPS altitude	`28.4 m`	HIGH
Date & time taken	`2026:03:15 08:42:11`	MED
Camera make & model	`Apple iPhone 15 Pro`	MED
Lens serial number	`0x00D93F…`	MED
Software version	`iOS 18.3.1`	LOW
Exposure, ISO, aperture	`1/120s · f/1.8 · ISO 64`	LOW

The GPS fields are the obvious danger. The quieter ones matter too, and they compound. Timestamps across a set of photos map out a routine — when you are at home, when you are not. The lens serial number is effectively a device fingerprint: post under two unrelated accounts and the same serial links them. Many photos also embed a small preview thumbnail, which in older software occasionally survived cropping and showed the uncropped original.

When it's worth doing

Not every photo needs this. These are the cases where it genuinely counts:

Selling things online — the item was almost certainly photographed at your address
Posting regularly from one place — individually harmless, collectively a map of your life
Photos of children — home and school coordinates ride along in the file
Protest and event photos — location plus timestamp places specific people somewhere specific
Rental and property listings — confirms an exact address you may have deliberately kept vague
Anything sent anonymously — device fingerprinting is how anonymous sources stop being anonymous

Don't assume the platform did it for you

The large social networks generally do strip metadata, mostly as a side effect of re-encoding every upload rather than out of concern for you. Plenty of other routes don't: direct file transfers, cloud storage links, email attachments, and various forums and marketplace apps frequently hand over the original file byte for byte.

The catch is that this behaviour changes quietly, differs between a platform's app and its website, and often differs again depending on whether the recipient views the photo or downloads it. Any list of "platforms that strip EXIF" is out of date the moment it's published.

So don't take anyone's word for it — including this page. Test the specific route you care about, once:

1

Post a photo you know has GPS in it Check it in the tool above first so you know what should be there.
2

Download it back from the platform Save it the way a stranger would — the downloaded file is what actually matters, not what you uploaded.
3

Drop the downloaded copy into this tool Whatever it lists is what everyone who saves that photo can read.

Two minutes, and afterwards you know rather than assume. Worth repeating occasionally for anywhere you post often.

How the stripping works — and what it costs

The clean copy isn't produced by deleting tags out of your file. The image is drawn onto a blank HTML canvas and exported fresh. The canvas holds nothing but pixels — it has no concept of EXIF — so the file that comes out was simply never given any metadata to carry. There is no residue and nothing to recover.

That approach is clean, but it isn't free, and most tools won't tell you this:

JPGs are re-encoded at quality 95. One extra generation of JPEG compression, invisible in normal viewing — but it is not bit-identical, so work from your original rather than stripping the same file repeatedly.
PNGs come out lossless. Identical pixels, no compression cost at all.
WEBP and TIFF are exported as PNG, since that's the safe lossless target. Expect a noticeably larger file.
The ICC colour profile goes too. Irrelevant for ordinary sRGB photos, worth knowing if you handle wide-gamut images for print.
File size can move either way. Dropping metadata and the embedded thumbnail saves space; re-encoding a heavily compressed JPG at quality 95 can add more than it saves.

Your original file is never modified — the clean version downloads alongside it with _clean added to the name. If the point was to get rid of the metadata for good, remember to deal with the original afterwards.

Turn it off at the source too

Stripping is the fix for photos you already have. To stop new ones recording location:

iPhone: Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera › Never. There's also a per-share control that's easy to miss — in the share sheet, tap Options at the top and switch Location off before sending.

Android: open the camera app's settings and turn off "Save location" or "Store location" — the wording varies by manufacturer.

Neither replaces stripping. Camera settings do nothing for the thousands of photos already in your library, they don't touch the camera fields or the device serial, and settings get switched back on by app updates and new phones without telling you. Treat the camera setting as a baseline and the strip as the thing you actually rely on.

What this doesn't hide

Metadata is only the invisible half. The pixels themselves give away plenty: a house number, a street sign, a distinctive view from a window, a reflection in a mirror or a pair of glasses, a screen with something readable on it. Nothing in a metadata strip touches any of that, and it's often easier to spot than a coordinate pair.

Faces are the other half. If there are people in the shot who didn't agree to be posted, run it through the Face Blur tool as well — blur the faces first, then strip the result, so the file you end up sharing is clean in both senses.

Strip or Edit EXIF Metadata