# Remove metadata from a photo

> A phone photo can carry GPS coordinates (smartphone GPS is typically accurate to about 4.9 meters under open sky), the capture time to the second, the phone model and often a serial number. This tool cuts out the EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC, maker-note and Content Credentials blocks while copying the image data unchanged, then rereads the result and lists the kinds of metadata it still finds.

## What a photo says about you

When a camera or phone saves a picture, it writes a small dossier next to the pixels. Some of it is harmless, such as the exposure time. Some of it is not. GPS fields can place your front door on a map; GPS.gov puts typical smartphone accuracy at about 4.9 meters under open sky. Maker notes, a block each manufacturer formats its own way, often hold the body serial number, which ties every photo to the same device. The IPTC section can contain a caption, a byline, a copyright line and even the creator's contact details: street address, phone and email.

Editing apps add more. Many write XMP, an XML packet that can repeat the location as a city name, record which software touched the file and keep an edit history. Newer cameras and apps may attach Content Credentials, a signed record of who made the image and how.

You rarely see any of this, because galleries show the picture and hide the rest. The person who receives your file can read it with a free viewer in seconds.

## How to clean a photo

1. Leave **What to remove** on **Everything**, the default for this page.
2. Press **Choose files** or drop photos on the box. Several at once is fine.
3. Check the **Found in this file** panel on each card for the capture date, coordinates, phone or camera model, serial numbers and any names.
4. Read the **Removed** and **Left in the file** lines. After cleaning, the tool opened the new file and listed what it could still find in it.
5. Press **Download** for each photo, or **Download all (zip)** for a batch.

## Removed and kept

With **Everything** selected, the tool removes:

- EXIF: camera make and model, lens, exposure settings, the three EXIF date fields and the software name;
- the GPS directory: latitude, longitude, altitude, direction and GPS time;
- maker notes, including serial numbers stored there;
- XMP and IPTC: captions, keywords, creator, copyright, location names, edit history;
- Content Credentials (C2PA);
- JPEG comments and the small preview image embedded inside EXIF;
- PNG text chunks and the PNG modification time;
- whatever a JPEG stores after its main picture: the gain map of an Ultra HDR photo, a depth map, a full-size preview or the video half of a motion photo, reported together as extra images.

Two things stay on purpose. The **rotation flag** tells viewers to turn a portrait shot upright; without it, many phone photos would suddenly lie on their side. The **color profile** tells screens how to show the colors; without it, a wide-gamut photo can look dull. The rotation flag says nothing about you. The color profile is usually the standard one your camera, phone or editor wrote, and it normally holds a few words of its own: a description such as "Display P3" and a copyright line naming the company. A custom profile someone made themselves can name its creator there, and that text is kept with it. The result lists the profile under **Left in the file**, with a second entry when the profile holds text or data that a standard profile would not, and the [EXIF viewer](/exif-viewer/) shows the words inside it.

If you want to keep the date and camera details and lose only the place, switch to **Location only**. That mode is explained on the [remove location from a photo](/remove-location-from-photo/) page.

## Side effects to know about

Removing the data appended to a JPEG has visible consequences on some phones. A motion photo becomes a still photo, because its short video lived in that appended section. A photo with an HDR gain map will show in standard range on an HDR screen, because the map that brightened highlights is gone. The main picture itself is untouched, and a note on the result card tells you this happened.

An iPhone Live Photo is affected in another way. Its video is a separate file, tied to the still by an identifier inside Apple's maker notes; once those are removed, the two may stop pairing.

The output name gets "-clean" before the extension, so IMG_2041.JPG becomes IMG_2041-clean.JPG. Your original is never modified.

## Supported formats and limits

- **JPEG**: baseline and progressive files, the kinds phones, cameras and editors write.
- **PNG**: text chunks (tEXt, iTXt, zTXt), the eXIf chunk and the time chunk are dropped. One kind of text chunk is not: a chunk that carries a color profile stays, like every color profile.
- **WebP**: EXIF and XMP chunks are dropped and the header flags are corrected so the file stays valid.
- **HEIC**: handled in place; see [HEIC metadata](/heic-metadata/) for how Apple's format differs.

Camera RAW files (CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG) and GIF are not supported. A few rarer files are refused with a message and no download: JPEGs that use arithmetic coding or the hierarchical mode, JPEGs with markers in the picture data that do not belong to a picture, HEIC image sequences and animated AVIF files (both carry a movie), and HEIC files containing a box the tool does not know. Damaged or cut-short files are refused too, and the message does not yet say which case it was. If the picture still opens, save it as an ordinary JPEG and clean that.

Metadata is only half of what a photo reveals. A house number, a school logo or a screen in the background can say more than any GPS field. To cover parts of the picture, use [redact image](/redact-image/) before or after cleaning.

## What this tool cannot do

- **Look into the picture.** The compressed image data and the color palette are copied as they are and never examined. Whatever the camera saw is still there: a face, a street sign, a number plate, words on a screen. To cover those, use the [redaction tool](/redact-image/).
- **Take out the color profile.** The file's own profile stays so that colors look right, and the result lists it. A profile or another statement about color that sits inside a block being removed (inside the EXIF block, for instance) goes with that block, and the result then warns that colors may look different. If a profile holds text beyond what a standard one carries, such as a description, a copyright line or a device name, the result lists that as an item of its own, and the [EXIF viewer](/exif-viewer/) shows the text.
- **Remove the separate preview inside a HEIC.** That preview is an item of the file, not part of EXIF. It is kept, and the result lists it as an embedded preview image. A photo you cropped or edited on the phone may still carry the earlier preview, with the part you cut away. If that matters, export the photo as a JPEG and clean the JPEG with **Everything**: there the preview sits inside EXIF and goes with it.
- **Drop the camera and the names in Location only mode.** That mode keeps them by design; the page on [removing only the location](/remove-location-from-photo/) says exactly which fields.
- **Outsmart a photo crafted to deceive it.** A picture assembled on purpose to slip past the checks can get a few things through. In **Location only** mode, data deliberately encoded in the values that mode keeps can stay. Color or rotation details stored where no camera stores them can be lost or altered without the usual warning. A field blown up to an enormous size can hold up the **Found in this file** panel for seconds; the cleaned file is unaffected. The numbers in Photoshop's settings are not shown one by one there, though both modes drop that block whole.

A result that lists nothing as left means that nothing this tool checks for was found. It is not a promise that the file says nothing about you. Every limit is written down on the [methodology page](/methodology/#limits).

## Where your photo goes

It stays in this browser tab. The page opens the file you pick, removes the metadata from a copy in memory and gives you that copy as a download link. No part of the photo is transmitted, and nothing is kept once you close or reload the page.

## How the tool works

Image formats store metadata in labeled segments or chunks that sit beside the compressed image data. The cleaner walks through those segments, copies the ones that hold the picture and skips the ones that hold metadata. Because the compressed data is never decoded, there is no re-compression and no generation loss: the cleaned photo decodes to exactly the same pixels as the original. The rotation flag is rebuilt as a tiny EXIF block that holds nothing else.

The [methodology page](/methodology/) explains how the cleaning is tested and how you can check in your browser's developer tools that no upload happens.

## FAQ

### Is taking a screenshot of the photo just as good?

A screenshot drops most metadata, but it also lowers resolution, can capture parts of your screen and adds its own date. Cleaning the file keeps full quality and removes only the hidden fields.

### Why is my cleaned photo still rotated correctly?

The rotation flag is the one EXIF value kept. It holds a single number that tells viewers how to turn the image, and nothing about where or when it was taken.

### Does this remove the date the photo was taken?

Yes, with **Everything** selected. All three EXIF date fields, the GPS time and dates in XMP and IPTC are removed. If you need the date kept, choose **Location only**.

### Will the photo look different after cleaning?

The pixels are identical. It can still look different in two cases. A photo whose HDR gain map was removed shows in standard dynamic range on HDR displays. And a photo whose rotation or color information sat only in a removed block may show turned or with slightly different colors in some programs; the result carries a warning when that is the case.

### Can metadata come back after I clean a photo?

Not by itself. If you open the cleaned copy in an editor and save it again, the editor may write new fields, such as its own name or a new date. Clean the final version, after all editing is done.

### Does cleaning remove a watermark or a visible caption?

No. Anything drawn into the pixels stays. This tool removes data stored beside the image, not marks inside it.

## Sources

Checked 2026-10-11.

- [EXIF tag tables in the ExifTool documentation](https://exiftool.org/TagNames/EXIF.html)
- [IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1](https://www.iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-PhotoMetadata-2025.1.html)
- [IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide](https://www.iptc.org/std/photometadata/documentation/userguide/)
- [GPS.gov: GPS accuracy](https://www.gps.gov/gps-accuracy)
- [C2PA Technical Specification 2.4](https://spec.c2pa.org/specifications/specifications/2.4/specs/C2PA_Specification.html)

Last updated: 2026-10-17