How to remove EXIF data from photos

You want to send a photo without also sending where and when you took it. Here's how to do that, and how to check that it worked.

The quick way, on any device (link to section)

This works in your browser on a phone or a computer. Files stay on your device, which is rather the point.

1. Drop your JPG, PNG or WebP photos on the page.
2. Keep the two default options. They keep colours accurate and photos the right way up, and neither holds personal data.
3. Press Clean. Each row tells you what it found and removed.
4. Download the cleaned copies. Your originals aren't changed.

What "lossless" means here (link to section)

Many tools remove metadata by re-saving the image, so the image gets recompressed and loses a little quality each time.

There's a better way. A JPG file is a set of labelled blocks, and the metadata lives in different blocks from the picture. You can leave the picture blocks alone and only drop the others. The result is pixel-for-pixel identical.

We also remove things that are easy to miss: embedded thumbnails, which are small copies of the photo that can outlive your edits, and data that phones add after the end of the image, such as preview images that carry their own metadata.

Built-in options (link to section)

Windows: right-click the file → Properties → Details → Remove Properties and Personal Information. Check the result, because it doesn't always remove everything.

macOS: Preview → Tools → Show Inspector → the GPS tab → Remove Location Info. This removes the location but leaves other details.

iPhone: in the share sheet, tap Options and turn off Location before sharing. This only applies to that share, and it doesn't change the original.

Always check the result (link to section)

Whichever method you use, confirm it. Open the cleaned file in a viewer, not the original.

What this can't do (link to section)

Removing metadata only removes metadata. A street sign, a house number or a face is part of the picture. Use Redact image or Blur faces for those.