EXIF Viewer & Remover
Inspect and strip metadata from images.
Inspect every EXIF, GPS, and camera metadata tag embedded in your photos, then download a clean copy with the metadata stripped. Useful for privacy, file size, and removing location data before sharing.
About the EXIF Viewer & Remover
Every photo your phone takes is more than the pixels you see. Tucked into the file is a block of EXIF metadata that records when the photo was taken, what camera and lens were used, what settings were active, and — crucially — the exact GPS coordinates of the location. Most people never look at this data, and many people don't realize it's there. When you share a photo, you often share that metadata with it. The EXIF Viewer & Remover gives you a clear view of what's embedded and a one-click way to strip it.
Privacy is the most common reason to strip EXIF. GPS coordinates embedded in a photo of your home, your child's school, or your office can be extracted by anyone who receives the file. Most social media platforms strip EXIF on upload as a safety measure (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter all do), but plenty of other channels don't: email attachments, file uploads, direct messages, forums, dating apps, and most cloud storage shares keep the EXIF intact. If you're sharing a photo outside the big social platforms, stripping EXIF beforehand is the only safe assumption.
Beyond privacy, there are practical reasons to strip EXIF. Metadata can add 30–100 KB to a file — not huge per image, but meaningful across a website or a large batch. Some platforms also choke on certain EXIF tags or display them in unexpected places (for example, embedded titles or descriptions showing up as alt text). Removing the metadata removes that variability entirely.
The viewer side of the tool is just as useful. Photographers and forensic analysts use EXIF to verify capture details: which lens, what aperture, was flash fired, what was the GPS coordinate. Web developers use it to debug aspect-ratio issues caused by orientation flags. Journalists use it as one piece of provenance evidence. Seeing the full metadata table also makes the privacy case concrete — once you see your home GPS coordinates printed out as latitude/longitude, the abstract risk becomes very tangible.
Stripping EXIF does not change the pixel data. The tool re-packages the image without its metadata blocks but does not re-encode the pixels, so visual quality is identical to the original. The output is a clean copy you can share freely. Note that stripping EXIF is one-way: there's no recovery of the metadata from the cleaned file, so keep your originals if the metadata has value to you (timestamps for date organization, GPS for personal photo maps).
How to use the EXIF Viewer & Remover
- 1
Drop a photo in
Drag a JPG or supported image onto the tool. The tool reads metadata locally using a JavaScript EXIF parser.
- 2
Inspect the metadata table
Every embedded tag — camera model, lens, ISO, GPS coordinates, software, timestamps — is displayed in a sortable table.
- 3
Download a clean copy
Click Download stripped. The tool re-encodes the image without EXIF, GPS, IPTC, or XMP data while preserving pixel quality.
- 4
Verify with a second pass
Drop the stripped file back in to confirm the metadata table is now empty.
Features
- Full EXIF tag display, including GPS
- One-click metadata stripping
- Side-by-side original/stripped comparison
- Preserves pixel quality while removing metadata
- Reads JPG, JPEG, and TIFF metadata
- No upload — your photos never leave your browser
Common use cases
- Strip GPS coordinates from photos before posting publicly
- Remove camera and software fingerprints from images
- Reduce file size by trimming bulky XMP and IPTC blocks
- Audit which apps are writing metadata to your photos
- Clean photos before posting them to forums, dating apps, or marketplaces
- Verify a photo's capture details for journalistic or forensic purposes
Tips and best practices
Strip before sharing outside major platforms
Big social platforms strip EXIF for you. Email, messaging apps, file uploads, marketplaces, and most cloud sharing do not. If a photo is going anywhere other than Instagram/Facebook/Twitter, strip it first.
Keep the original if you use metadata for organization
Photo libraries (Apple Photos, Google Photos) use EXIF dates and GPS to organize your library. Strip a working copy to share, but keep the original intact for your library.
Check before posting screenshots too
Screenshots from some camera apps and editing tools embed EXIF including software versions and editing history. Running them through the EXIF Viewer first shows you what's actually in there.
Verify with a second pass
After stripping, drop the cleaned file back in. The metadata table should be empty. This catches edge cases where some apps embed metadata in non-standard places (XMP, IPTC sidecar data).
Pair with resize for maximum cleanup
Running a photo through the resizer also strips EXIF as a side effect of the re-encode. If you're going to resize anyway, that's already removing the metadata — no separate step needed.
Technical details
What's actually in EXIF
Common tags include: Camera Make/Model, Lens Make/Model, ISO, Aperture (f-number), Shutter Speed, Focal Length, Flash Fired, Date Taken, GPS Latitude/Longitude/Altitude, Orientation, Software, and Copyright. Some cameras and apps add custom tags, including user-generated descriptions and keywords.
EXIF vs IPTC vs XMP
EXIF is the standard for camera and capture metadata. IPTC adds journalism-oriented fields (caption, byline, location names). XMP is Adobe's flexible XML-based metadata that can include any of the above plus custom fields. A full strip removes all three blocks, which is what most privacy-conscious users want.
Why some files have no EXIF
PNG files can technically carry EXIF chunks but most software does not write them — PNG photos generally show an empty metadata table. Screenshots typically have no EXIF. Photos saved through 'Save As' from a browser have stripped EXIF already. The presence or absence of metadata depends on the source software.
Frequently asked questions
Does stripping EXIF reduce image quality?
No. Metadata stripping removes auxiliary tags but does not re-encode the pixel data, so the visual quality of the photo is identical to the original.
Does removing EXIF also remove GPS location?
Yes. GPS coordinates are stored inside EXIF, so a full strip removes location information along with the rest of the camera metadata.
Why do PNG files show no EXIF?
PNG can technically carry EXIF chunks but most software writes them only to JPG/JPEG/TIFF. If a PNG has no EXIF, the table simply renders empty.
Do social media platforms already strip EXIF?
Most major platforms do (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). Many smaller channels do not — email attachments, file uploads, forums, marketplaces, dating apps, direct messages, and cloud-shared links typically preserve EXIF. When in doubt, strip it.
Will stripping EXIF remove the date the photo was taken?
Yes — capture date is stored in EXIF. The file system's modification date is a separate thing and remains. If you rely on EXIF dates for photo organization, keep your originals intact and only strip copies you intend to share.
Can I strip EXIF in bulk?
The viewer is designed for inspecting one photo at a time. To bulk-strip a folder, run images through the resizer (which strips EXIF as a side effect) or the format converter — both produce metadata-clean outputs.
Is there metadata that survives EXIF stripping?
A full strip removes EXIF, IPTC, and XMP blocks. Some embedded fields outside those blocks (color profiles, custom proprietary chunks in PNG, certain camera-specific binary blobs) may persist. For absolute certainty, re-export the image through a clean format conversion.