Location can sit in several places inside one photo: the EXIF GPS directory, XMP, IPTC place-name fields, Content Credentials, and sometimes a second image appended to a JPEG. In its default Location only mode, this page clears the GPS directory, removes those other blocks, the maker notes, captions and comments, and takes out the EXIF entries it does not recognize, while the capture date, camera model and EXIF copyright fields stay.
Where a photo hides its location
Most people know about the GPS coordinates. Fewer know that a photo can state its location several times over, in different formats:
- The EXIF GPS directory: latitude, longitude, altitude, the direction the lens faced, speed and a UTC timestamp. This is what phones write when the camera has location access.
- XMP: editors and photo libraries often copy the coordinates into XMP, and may add a city or country name.
- IPTC: caption fields such as City, Sublocation, State and Country, often filled in by photo management software.
- Content Credentials: a signed record can include camera and place details if the device or app chose to add them.
- Maker notes: a manufacturer's private block, which can hold more than settings.
- Appended images: some JPEGs carry an extra image or a motion-photo video after the main picture, each able to carry its own metadata.
Remove only the first and you may still be sharing the town, the street or the exact point through one of the others. This page treats all of them as location data.
How to remove the location
- Check that What to remove shows Location only, the default on this page. The hint below it says it removes GPS and anything that can name a place, and keeps the date, camera and settings.
- Choose or drop your photos. You can add many at once.
- Look at Location in the Found in this file panel to see the coordinates that were in each file.
- Read the note under the two lists: it names what this mode took out and says that dates, camera details and serial numbers stay. Then check the Left in the file line.
- Download the photos one by one or as a zip.
What Location only removes and keeps
| Removed | Kept |
|---|---|
| GPS directory (cleared in place) | DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and the other EXIF dates |
| XMP block | Camera make and model, lens, exposure settings |
| IPTC block | The EXIF serial-number tags (body and lens), if your camera writes them |
| Content Credentials | EXIF Artist, Copyright, owner and photographer names |
| Maker notes | Rotation flag, color profile, a PNG's modification time |
| Captions, titles, keywords and comments (EXIF description and comment fields, PNG text, JPEG comment), which can name a place | The small preview picture inside EXIF, when it is a picture and nothing more |
| EXIF entries that are not on the tool's list of kept entries, such as a phone maker's private tags, or that are not written the way the list expects | The software name |
| Data placed behind a JPEG's main picture (gain map, depth map, motion video) | The image itself, byte for byte |
Two of those choices deserve a word. Maker notes go because they are opaque and could carry anything, including a serial number; the main EXIF serial tag, if present, stays because this mode promises to keep camera details. XMP and IPTC go in full, because splitting a place name out of a caption is guesswork; if you had a caption you wanted, it will be gone.
Inside EXIF, an entry stays only when the tool knows what it is, by its tag number and by what it holds. Phone makers' private tags and blocks nested inside EXIF go, listed in the result as vendor-specific or unrecognized data, or under captions when they hold text; XMP or IPTC copies stored there count as captions too. An entry under a number that is not on the list goes, whatever it holds, and so does a listed entry whose type or count differs from what the list expects; a kept number that spells letters is treated as text and goes too. A preview picture carrying metadata of its own is removed too. A damaged EXIF block, one that cannot be read from first byte to last, is not edited: it is removed whole, the Removed line lists camera and settings (EXIF), and the date and camera model go with it.
One exception to the Kept column. When a photo's EXIF data is laid out in a way that is not on the tool's list of ordinary layouts, a list built from photos of cameras, phones and editing software (directories chained or nested unusually, or a picture sharing bytes with another entry), Location only does not try to keep anything precise inside it. That EXIF block is cleaned as Everything cleans it: the rotation stays, the date and camera details go, the color profile stays, and the result says so in a note. Of the 738 photos from 44 camera makes and 33 programs we tested, 12 are handled this way: 7 straight from 6 camera models, and 5 re-saved by 5 programs. Photos downloaded from Google Photos and photos passed through WeChat or WhatsApp were not among those we tested.
If you would rather lose everything, switch to Everything. The difference is explained on the remove metadata from a photo page.
When to keep the date
Some situations need a trustworthy timestamp but no address:
- an insurance claim showing damage on a certain day;
- a photo contest that checks entries were taken during the contest period;
- a dispute with a landlord or contractor about when a problem appeared;
- a marketplace listing where buyers ask how old the photos are.
In each case you want to show when, not where. That is what this mode is for.
Stop new photos from recording a location
Cleaning fixes the photos you already have. To stop the camera writing coordinates in the first place, turn off its location permission. The steps differ by phone: see remove location from a photo on iPhone or on Android. Photos taken before you change the setting keep their coordinates until you clean them.
The location the metadata cannot hide
A photo can give away a place through what it shows: a street sign, a house number, a car's plate, a distinctive view from a window. Removing metadata does nothing about that. Cover those details with redact image before you post.
What this tool cannot do
- Hide who took the photo, in this mode. Location only leaves the camera's make and model, the software name and the lens fields where they are, and it leaves the owner, artist and copyright fields too. That is what the mode is for. When one of those name fields is filled in, the result lists owner names under Left in the file, and a filled body or lens serial number is listed there as well. Choose Everything to remove them.
- Change what is in the frame. Pixels and palettes are never opened, so a landmark, a house number or a shop sign still gives the place away. The redaction tool can cover them.
- Remove the color profile. In both modes it is kept and listed, along with any text in it that a standard profile would not have.
- Remove the preview item of a HEIC. It is kept and listed as well. After an edit on the phone, that preview can be older than the photo and show the scene before you cropped it.
If nothing is listed as left, read that as "nothing this tool looks for was found". The list of limits says what it does not look for.
Where your photo goes
Your photos are read and cleaned inside this browser tab. The page sends neither the files nor the coordinates it finds to any server; the location you see in the panel is shown to you and no one else. When you close the tab, the copies in memory are released.
How location removal works
In a JPEG, the GPS directory sits inside the EXIF block. Rather than rebuild the block, the tool overwrites the GPS directory's entries in place, so all other EXIF offsets stay valid and the date and camera tags survive untouched. The maker-note data is blanked the same way, and the free-text tags (description, title, comment, keywords, subject, user comment) are taken out of their directories altogether, as are tags missing from the tool's list of known ones. XMP, IPTC and Content Credentials live in their own segments, which are dropped whole. HEIC files get the same treatment on their Exif item without changing the file length. The compressed image is never decoded.
The methodology page describes the test files used and how you can confirm, from your own browser, that nothing is uploaded.
FAQ
Does "Location only" remove the place name in my caption?
Yes. Captions and comments can name a place, so this mode clears them wherever they sit: XMP and IPTC are removed whole, the EXIF description, title, keyword, subject and comment tags are taken out (the author tag stays, like the other author fields), and PNG text chunks and JPEG comments are dropped. Copy any caption text you want to keep before cleaning.
Will apps still show my photo on a map?
Not from the cleaned file. Map views in gallery apps read the GPS fields, which are now empty. Your photo library may still remember the place from the original, so share the cleaned copy, not the library item.
Is the camera serial number removed in this mode?
Serial numbers in maker notes are removed. A serial number in the main EXIF SerialNumber or LensSerialNumber tag stays, because this mode keeps camera details, and the result names it under Left in the file so you do not miss it: the same number is in every photo that camera or lens takes. Choose Everything to remove it too.
Can someone work out the location from the date and camera alone?
Not from the date and the camera alone. They could combine the date with other information, such as your social posts from that day. Think about what else is public before you share.
What happens to a motion photo?
The video part is stored after the main JPEG and is removed, so the result is a still photo. An Ultra HDR photo loses its gain map the same way and shows as an ordinary photo. Both keep their date and camera details. An iPhone Live Photo's video is a separate file, and the identifier that pairs it with the still sits in Apple's maker notes, which this mode empties, so the two may no longer pair.
I removed the location on my phone already. Do I need this?
It depends on what the phone's option covers and whether an editor later copied the place into XMP or IPTC. Drop the shared copy here: the Found in this file panel shows whether the tool still finds a location in it, and the file on your phone stays as it is either way.
Sources
Checked 2026-10-11.
- GPS tag definitions in ExifTool's EXIF table
- IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1 (Location Created, City)
- C2PA Specification 2.4 (metadata assertions with GPS)
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