How to Remove Location and EXIF Data From Photos

Photos taken on phones often contain hidden EXIF metadata, including the date and time, the device model and, if location services are on, the exact GPS coordinates where the photo was taken. To remove it, you can turn off location in your camera app for future photos, use your phone's "remove location" option when sharing, or re-save the photo through a tool that re-encodes it. ToolMany's image tools re-encode images in your browser; when we tested the Image Compressor with a GPS-tagged photo, the output contained no EXIF data at all.

What EXIF data can reveal

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data is stored inside JPEG and some other image files. Depending on the device and settings, it can include:

• GPS latitude and longitude, often accurate to a few metres;
• the date and time the photo was taken;
• the phone or camera make and model;
• camera settings (exposure, focal length, flash);
• sometimes the software used to edit it, and the image's orientation.

For a photo of your home, your child's school or your car, the GPS data can reveal a location you did not mean to share.

Do social networks remove it?

Many large social networks and messaging apps strip location data from photos when they publish or compress them, but practices differ and change over time, and some services keep the data on their own servers even when they do not show it. Files sent as documents or original-quality attachments, by email, cloud links or "send as file" options, usually keep their metadata intact.

So the safe assumption is: if you send the original file, the metadata goes with it.

How to check a photo for location data

• Windows: right-click the photo → Properties → Details. Look for a GPS section with latitude and longitude.
• Mac: open the photo in Preview → Tools → Show Inspector → the (i) tab; a GPS tab appears if there is location data.
• iPhone: open the photo in Photos and swipe up, or tap (i); a map shows where it was taken.
• Android: in Google Photos or the gallery app, open the photo and swipe up or tap Details; a location appears if it is stored.

Method 1: Stop adding location in the first place

The simplest long-term fix is to stop the camera recording location:

• iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → set to Never.
• Android: open the Camera app → Settings → turn off Location tags, Save location or similar (the wording varies by manufacturer).

You lose the ability to see your photos on a map, which some people enjoy. A middle ground is to keep location on and remove it when sharing.

Method 2: Remove location when sharing

Recent phone software can strip location at the moment you share:

• iPhone: select the photo, tap Share, then Options at the top, and turn off Location.
• Android (Google Photos): some versions have a setting to remove geolocation when sharing by link. Check your app's sharing settings.

This leaves your own copy unchanged, with its location intact.

Method 3: Re-save the image without metadata

When a photo is redrawn and saved as a new image, the editing tool decides which metadata to copy. Browser-based tools that work by drawing the image onto a canvas and exporting it, as ToolMany's do, write only the pixels, not the original EXIF.

1. Open the photo in the Image Compressor, the Image Resizer or the Image Converter.
2. Process and download it.
3. Check the downloaded file using the steps above. It should show no GPS section and no camera details.

We test this automatically: our test suite creates a JPEG containing camera details and GPS coordinates, runs it through the Image Compressor, and checks the result. The downloaded file had no EXIF block at all. Other tools and apps behave differently; some deliberately keep metadata, so always check.

One side effect: EXIF also stores the photo's orientation. Modern browsers apply the orientation before re-saving, so the result normally looks the right way up, but check that the photo is not rotated.

Which photos to clean before sharing

Remove location data before you:

• post photos of your home, garden or street, for example in a sale listing;
• share photos of children, especially at school, clubs or home;
• send photos to strangers, such as buyers on marketplaces;
• publish photos on a personal blog or website;
• share photos taken at a place you would rather keep private.

Also look at the photo itself. House numbers, street signs, car number plates, letters on a table and reflections in windows can reveal as much as GPS data. Crop or cover them with the Image Editor if needed.

A quick routine before posting a photo

1. Check the photo's details for a location.
2. If there is one, share with location turned off, or re-save the photo through a re-encoding tool.
3. Check the new file's details again.
4. Look at the picture itself for addresses, signs and plates.

What about PDFs and documents?

PDFs and office documents carry their own metadata, such as the author name, the software used and creation dates. That is separate from photo EXIF. If you build a PDF from images with Image to PDF, the images are re-encoded into the PDF, but check your document software's options for the author field.