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How to Remove EXIF Data and Location From a Photo (Free, No Upload)

Say you are selling an old pram on a local marketplace. You take the photo in the hallway, because the light is good there, and post it. The picture shows a pram. The file can also show where your hallway is.

Phone cameras can write a small block of notes into every photo, called EXIF. It can hold the time, the phone model and, when location is on, GPS coordinates. You won't see any of it by looking at the picture.

To remove EXIF data and location from a photo, send a clean copy. On iPhone, tap Share, then Options, and turn off Location. On Windows, open Properties, then Details, then Remove Properties and Personal Information. To strip EXIF from a JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC photo in your browser with no upload, use NixRey's Remove EXIF tool.

The picture is not the whole file

A photo file carries more than the picture. Anyone who gets the file can read what the camera wrote into it. That might be the date and time, the phone or camera model, the software, and the exact spot it was taken.

Apple says this plainly in its personal safety guide. When photos with location metadata are shared, "the people you share them with may be able to access the location metadata and learn where it was taken."

Most of the time that is harmless. It matters when the place is your home, your child's school, or somewhere you would rather a stranger didn't know about.

One thing EXIF removal can't do is change what the picture shows. A street sign, a house number or a school logo in the frame is still in the frame. For those, use Blur Image on the visible detail as a separate step.

The fastest way: strip EXIF in your browser, with no upload

Many online EXIF removers ask you to upload the photo first. So the file you were trying to protect, location and all, goes to someone else's server before it comes back clean.

Remove EXIF does the work in the browser you already have open. The photo is not sent to a NixRey server, and the privacy policy says the same. There is no account.

  1. Open Remove EXIF. Drop one photo or a batch, or paste from the clipboard. JPG, PNG, WebP and HEIC are accepted.
  2. Read the warning at the top of Preview. It lists GPS, device, timestamps and software when the photo has them, before anything is removed.
  3. Pick an Export format: Original, JPEG, PNG or WebP. Leave Keep orientation upright on, so a photo taken sideways doesn't land on its side once the rotation note is gone.
  4. Press Strip all EXIF, then download the clean photo, or download a batch as a ZIP.
  5. Drop the download back in. CLEAN means no EXIF was detected in that file.

Original keeps the same kind of file when the strip allows it. An upright JPEG loses its EXIF without the picture being squeezed again, so there's no quality loss. JPEG, PNG and WebP make a new file of that type and re-encode it after the strip. Pick one of those when the place you're sending to asked for a format. HEIC can't stay HEIC in the browser, so it comes out as a JPEG.

The download is a new file. The photo you started with is still on your device, EXIF and all. If you stripped the wrong one, the original is still there.

If your browser can't read a HEIC photo, convert it with HEIC to JPG first, then come back. That stays on the device too.

How to remove location on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac

Every system has a built-in option. Most of them deal with location, or with one shared copy, and they're worth knowing.

iPhone and iPad. To share without location, select the photos in Photos, tap Share, then Options, and turn off Location. "Location Not Included" shows above the Options button. To remove the location from the photo in your library, open it, tap the info button, then Adjust Info, Adjust Location, No Location. Both steps are from Apple's personal safety guide.

That switch is about location. Apple's iPhone guide notes that sharing a photo includes metadata "such as date and time, location, device, and captions." Turning off Location leaves the rest of that list alone.

Android. Camera apps differ by brand. Look in your camera app's settings for a location or geotag option. Google Photos has its own location settings for each shared album, link and conversation, and partner sharing always includes location. Two lines from Google's help page are worth knowing. Those settings don't apply to photos you share outside Google Photos, such as when you download and email them. In that case "the original location your device saved shows." And if the camera added the location, Google Photos can't remove it.

Windows 10 and 11. In File Explorer, right-click the photo and choose Properties, then the Details tab, then Remove Properties and Personal Information. Choose "Create a copy with all possible properties removed", or tick the fields you want gone. Microsoft's tip was written for Windows 7, and How-To Geek shows the same dialog on Windows 11. Microsoft notes that the copy loses all the properties Windows can change "based on the file type", so open the copy's Details tab to check it before you send it.

Mac. In the Photos app, select the photos, then choose Image, Location, Hide Location. That's Apple's step for photos in your library, from the same personal safety guide.

These are good for a quick share. When you want a copy with the EXIF stripped and checked, use Remove EXIF.

Editing a photo doesn't clean it

People often assume that a photo they've changed is a new photo with no history. It isn't always.

We tested this on our own tools. A test photo with GPS went through NixRey's Flip Image and Compress Image, and both downloads still had the same GPS coordinates. When we ran the compressed copy through Remove EXIF, the GPS was gone.

Flip and Compress keep camera details on purpose, so a photographer doesn't lose them, and they show a warning when the photo carries GPS. That's the right call for them. It also means a flip or a smaller file says nothing about the location.

So treat stripping EXIF as its own step, and do it last. Crop, flip, compress and mark the photo first. Then strip the exact file you're about to send. A blur or a watermark changes what people see, not the hidden notes, so don't count on either to take the location out. With editors from anyone else, the same rule applies. Don't assume an edit cleaned the photo. Check it.

Does Instagram or WhatsApp remove it for you?

We don't know, and we won't guess. When we looked, we found no official page from Meta or WhatsApp that clearly says what happens to EXIF in a post, a message or a file attachment.

What we do know is that any app starts with the file you hand it. If you strip the EXIF before you send, you don't have to wonder what happens next.

Before you send a photo: a 30-second checklist

  1. Strip the EXIF with Remove EXIF or a built-in option above.
  2. Check the copy. Drop it back into Remove EXIF and look for CLEAN, or open its details on your computer.
  3. Look at the picture itself. Blur house numbers, number plates and faces that shouldn't travel.
  4. Send the clean copy, not the original.
  5. Optional: stop new photos picking up location. On iPhone, go to Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, Camera, and choose Never. Apple lists this step in its personal safety guide.

FAQ

Does removing EXIF lower photo quality? Not for an upright JPEG with Original export. Remove EXIF takes the EXIF out without re-encoding, so there's no quality loss. If Keep orientation upright is on and the photo has a rotation tag, it's re-encoded once at high quality. PNG and WebP exports re-encode after the strip.

Can I remove EXIF from PNG, WebP or HEIC? Yes. Remove EXIF accepts JPG, PNG, WebP and HEIC. HEIC works when your browser can read it, and it comes out as a JPEG, because HEIC can't stay HEIC in the browser. If your browser can't open it, convert it with HEIC to JPG first.

Does turning off Location on iPhone remove all the metadata? No. The Location switch under Share and Options covers location for the copy you share. Apple's iPhone guide says sharing includes metadata such as date and time, location, device and captions. Turning off Location takes out the location. The rest can still go with the photo.

Do I have to upload my photo? No. The strip runs in your browser, and the photo is not sent to a NixRey server. There is no account. The privacy policy says the same.

Is my original photo changed? No. You download a new, clean file. The original stays on your device exactly as it was, EXIF included, so you can strip it again if you picked the wrong one.

How do I know it worked? Drop the downloaded file back into Remove EXIF. CLEAN means no EXIF was detected in that file. Check the file you're actually about to send, not the original.

Can I clean several photos at once? Yes. Add a batch, press Strip all EXIF, then download one at a time or all of them as a ZIP. Your device's memory sets the practical limit.

Related tools

Before a photo leaves your device, open Remove EXIF. It takes a few seconds, and the location stays with you.

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