How to remove location and camera data from a photo before posting
Published
Open Photo metadata (EXIF) viewerOpen Remove location from photo and add the photo. Location is already selected, so a copy without the GPS position and place names is made straight away; press Download clean copy and share that copy. To remove the camera model, serial numbers and everything else too, switch to Everything.
Steps
- Open Remove location from photo. It is the photo metadata viewer set to remove the location only.
- Add the photo: a JPG, PNG or WebP.
- Check the Location group. The position the photo carried is shown struck through. Camera, date and the rest stay as they were.
- To take out more, switch to Everything, or to Choose and tick fields such as the camera's serial number.
- Press Download clean copy.
- Post or send the clean copy, not the original.
Location only, or everything
| Choice | Removed | Kept | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | GPS latitude, longitude and the related GPS fields, plus place names such as city or country | Date, camera, settings, the rest | Sharing family and holiday photos where the date is useful |
| Everything | All EXIF, XMP and IPTC metadata | The colour profile and, if the photo needs it, an orientation tag | Selling items online, posting from home, sending to strangers |
| Choose | The fields you tick (private ones start ticked) | The rest | When you want, say, the date but not the phone model |
The picture itself is not re-encoded in any of these: the image data is copied byte for byte, so quality is unchanged.
When location travels with your photo
A phone camera with location turned on writes the spot where you stood into every photo, often to within a few metres. A picture taken at home tells anyone who opens the file where you live.
Whether that reaches other people depends on how the photo travels:
- Posted in a social app. Many apps remove location when you post, and some keep it. Cleaning first means you do not depend on either.
- Sent as a file. An email attachment, a cloud storage link or a chat app's "send as document" option usually delivers the photo exactly as it left the phone, location included.
- Uploaded to a listing or a forum. Practice varies from site to site. Clean the copy first.
Camera data is a quieter giveaway
The camera maker and model say which phone you own. A body or lens serial number, which some cameras write, links every photo from that device together, even ones posted under different names. If you post photos from more than one account, remove the serial numbers with Choose or Everything.
Stop new photos recording the place
- iPhone: Settings, Privacy and Security, Location Services, Camera, then Never.
- Android: open the camera app's settings and turn off location tags. The name of the setting varies by phone maker.
Photos you already took keep their location until you clean them.
What metadata cleaning does not cover
The picture itself can show where you are: a street sign, a house number, a car's number plate, a school logo, the view from a window. Cover or blur those areas before posting. For faces, see how to hide a face in a photo.
HEIC and AVIF photos can be read here but not cleaned; convert them to JPG first.
Questions
What exactly is removed with Location?
The GPS position (latitude, longitude and the related GPS fields) and any place names such as city or country written by an editing app.
Will removing the location change the photo?
No. The photo is not re-encoded. Only the location fields are left out of the file.
Can I change the location instead of removing it?
Yes. In the photo metadata viewer, choose Edit and type a latitude and longitude, or empty the field to remove it.
Is my photo uploaded to remove the location?
No. The photo is read and cleaned in your browser and never leaves your device.
Photo metadata (EXIF) viewer
See a photo's camera, date and GPS data, then remove or edit it without re-encoding.
Open Photo metadata (EXIF) viewerRelated tools
- Remove location from photo: Take the GPS position out of a photo and keep the date and camera details.
- Blur image: Blur faces, plates or any area with a box or brush, or the whole photo.