Privacy
Remove metadata from an image
This is the thorough version. Where the EXIF remover targets the camera record, this one clears every removable block the file carries - EXIF, XMP, IPTC, comments and embedded text - and reports honestly on the one thing it deliberately leaves behind.
As with every ImageUtility tool, the file is rewritten on your own device.
How to remove metadata from an image
- Drop an image onto the upload area, or as many as you want cleaned at once.
- See every metadata block the file currently contains.
- Choose whether to keep the colour profile, then remove the rest.
- Download the cleaned image and check the before-and-after list.
Supported formats
This tool accepts JPG, PNG and WebP files. Everything is decoded by your own browser, so the formats available depend on what your browser can open - which for HEIC in particular varies between Safari and other browsers.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly gets removed?
EXIF including GPS, XMP packets, IPTC records, JPEG comment segments and PNG text chunks. The results panel lists each block by name along with how many bytes it occupied, so the answer for your specific file is on screen rather than being a promise made by this page.
Why is the colour profile kept by default?
Because it is the one block whose removal changes what you see. An ICC profile carries no information about you, and stripping it from a wide-gamut photo can visibly shift the colours. It is offered as a separate choice so the decision is yours and is never made silently.
Can you promise the image contains nothing identifying afterwards?
No, and no honest tool can. Metadata blocks can be cleared, but the pixels themselves may still show a face, a street sign or a screen, and some cameras leave sensor noise patterns that forensic analysis can match. What this tool guarantees is the removal of the specific blocks it names.
Does the filename get cleaned too?
No. The file keeps a name derived from the one you supplied, because silently renaming someone's file is worse behaviour than leaving it alone. If the name itself carries a date or a place, rename it before sharing - the privacy checker flags this when it spots a date in a filename.
Which formats can be cleaned?
JPG, PNG and WebP, because those are the containers this tool can safely rewrite. Other formats are refused outright rather than being run through a process that might damage them or silently fail to remove anything.
Guides
- What your photos reveal about youMost phone photographs contain GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres, plus the camera model and a timestamp. Removing the metadata deletes all of that. It does not change what is visible in the picture itself.
- Image metadata, explainedEXIF holds camera, settings, timestamp and often GPS coordinates. GPS is the field that matters most, because it can place you at an address. Removing metadata deletes those fields; it changes nothing about what the picture itself shows.
Related tools
- Remove EXIF DataBatchStrip EXIF and GPS from a photo without recompressing it.
- Image Privacy CheckerBatchFind out what a photo discloses before you share it.
- Image Metadata ViewerInspect every metadata block in an image: EXIF, XMP, IPTC, colour profile and text records.
- EXIF ViewerSee the camera, date and GPS location stored inside a photo.
Looking for something else? Browse all ImageUtility tools.