EXIF Viewer & Remover (Free, No Upload)
See exactly what your photos reveal — GPS location, camera, dates — and strip it losslessly, 100% in your browser. Your photos never leave your device.
Drop files here
Drag & drop, click to browse, or paste (Ctrl+V) — JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, AVIF. Up to 100 files at once.
How do I check the EXIF data of a photo?
Drop the photo into the tool above and its EXIF data appears instantly, grouped so it makes sense: camera (make, model, lens, serial numbers), shot settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, flash), date & time taken, GPS location with a map link, image details (dimensions, orientation, colour profile), and creator & rights fields from IPTC/XMP. Everything is parsed locally in your browser with the exifr engine — the file is never uploaded, which matters, because uploading a photo to check whether it leaks your location would leak it to the checker. If GPS coordinates are found, the tool raises a red warning before anything else, with a one-click jump to the remover.
TL;DR
- View: drop, browse or paste a photo — EXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP shown in plain-language groups, with a Google Maps link for GPS.
- Remove: metadata segments are cut out byte-by-byte — lossless, no re-encode, no quality loss — and the cleaned file is re-scanned to prove 0 fields remain.
- Private: 100% in your browser, no upload, no account. Works for JPEG, PNG and WebP removal; viewing also covers HEIC, TIFF and AVIF.
- Batch: up to 100 photos at once, with a per-file GPS summary.
Can someone find my address from a photo?
Yes — when a phone has location enabled, every photo stores the GPS coordinates of where it was taken, accurate to roughly 3–5 metres outdoors. Anyone who receives the original file can read those coordinates with any EXIF viewer and drop them into a map. This is not theoretical: in December 2012 a magazine published a photo of John McAfee while he was on the run, and the untouched iPhone GPS data in the file gave away the resort where he was staying; he was arrested two days later. In another well-known case, a cropped photo posted online still contained its EXIF thumbnail — a miniature of the uncropped original — revealing what the crop was meant to hide. This viewer flags all three risks at a glance: GPS coordinates, camera serial numbers, and embedded thumbnails.
How to remove EXIF data (step by step)
- Add one photo — or a whole batch — with the drop zone above.
- Check the summary: if GPS shows ⚠ Yes, the file reveals where it was taken.
- Open the Remove metadata tab and click Remove.
- Read the proof panel: which segments were removed, how many bytes, and the re-scan result — 0 metadata fields remain.
- Download the cleaned file (named photo-noexif.jpg) and share that copy instead of the original.
Two details separate a careful strip from a sloppy one. First, the orientation tag: phone photos rely on it to display the right way up, so this tool writes back a minimal orientation-only segment — without it, cleaned photos can come out sideways. Second, the ICC colour profile is kept by default (you can untick it): it contains no personal data, and deleting it can make colours shift on wide-gamut photos.
Does removing EXIF data reduce image quality?
Only if the tool re-encodes. Many “removers” quietly draw your photo onto a canvas and save it again: the metadata disappears, but the JPEG is compressed a second time, the colour profile is dropped, and the file often grows. This tool never decodes the image. It parses the JPEG, PNG or WebP container, removes the metadata segments (JPEG APP1/APP13, comments; PNG eXIf/tEXt/tIME chunks; WebP EXIF and XMP chunks), and copies the compressed image data byte-for-byte. Identical pixels in, identical pixels out — quality loss is exactly zero, and the before/after panel shows the file size difference is only the metadata itself (usually a few KB).
This tool vs upload-based EXIF tools
| Property | This tool | Typical upload-based tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where your photo goes | Nowhere — parsed in your browser | Uploaded to their server (one popular viewer keeps files for 24 hours) |
| Removal quality | Lossless byte-level strip; pixels byte-identical | Often canvas re-encode — JPEG quality loss |
| Proof it worked | Cleaned file is re-scanned; “0 fields remain” shown | Take their word for it |
| Batch limit | 100 files at once, free | Commonly capped at 5–20 files, or paywalled |
| Account / cost | Free, no signup | Free tiers with limits; paid plans to lift them |
Does WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram strip EXIF data?
For the copies other people see, mostly yes: Facebook and Instagram strip EXIF — GPS included — from displayed images (they keep the originals on their own servers). WhatsApp strips metadata when a photo is sent as a photo, but preserves the full EXIF when the same file is sent as a document — a trap that catches many people. And several channels strip nothing at all: iMessage, AirDrop, email attachments and Google Drive / Dropbox / iCloud links all deliver the original file with its GPS intact. If a photo's location is sensitive, strip it yourself first — don't rely on the app you happen to send it through.
Does a screenshot have EXIF data?
No camera EXIF, and no GPS. Screenshots are freshly rendered images, so they typically carry only their dimensions, sometimes a capture date and the name of the software that made them. The entire “where and with what camera” half of EXIF simply isn't there — and a screenshot of a photo doesn't inherit the photo's metadata either. Add a PNG above and the viewer shows an honest note about this instead of a confusing empty result. Note that a PNG file can technically hold an EXIF chunk — photos exported from some editors do — which is why the remover strips PNG eXIf and text chunks too.
Related tools
iPhone photo in HEIC? Convert it first with the HEIC to JPG Converter, then strip the JPG here. To shrink a cleaned photo for sharing, use the Image Compressor. Our older Remove Image Metadata tool also cleans photos, by re-exporting them — fine for quick jobs, but the lossless stripper on this page is the better choice when quality matters.
FAQs
How do I check the EXIF data of a photo?+
Drop the photo into the viewer above (or paste it with Ctrl+V). It is read instantly in your browser — nothing is uploaded — and the metadata is grouped into camera, shot settings, date & time, GPS location, image details, and creator/rights fields. You can also export the full list as JSON or CSV.
Can someone find my address from a photo?+
Yes, if the photo contains GPS EXIF data and they receive the original file. Phone GPS is accurate to about 3–5 metres in open sky — enough to identify a house. This has happened publicly: a 2012 magazine photo of John McAfee on the run still had its iPhone GPS coordinates in the EXIF, which located him. Sending the file by email, iMessage, AirDrop or a cloud link keeps the EXIF intact, so check and strip it first with the remover above.
How do I remove EXIF data from photos?+
Add the photo above, open the "Remove metadata" tab, and click Remove. The tool cuts the EXIF, XMP, IPTC, GPS and comment segments out of the file byte-by-byte — the image itself is never re-encoded — then re-scans the cleaned file to prove 0 metadata fields remain. Download the cleaned copy (it gets a "-noexif" name) and share that instead of the original.
Does a screenshot have EXIF data?+
No camera EXIF and no GPS. A screenshot is a freshly rendered image, not a camera capture, so it normally holds only dimensions, sometimes a capture date and the software that made it ("Snipping Tool", "Screen Capture"). A screenshot of a photo does not inherit the photo's EXIF either — one reason screenshots are a crude but effective way to share a photo without its location.
Does WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook strip EXIF data?+
Mostly, for public posts — with traps. Facebook and Instagram strip EXIF (including GPS) from the copies they display, though they keep the originals internally. WhatsApp strips metadata when you send a photo as a photo, but preserves the full EXIF, including GPS, when the same file is sent as a document. iMessage, AirDrop, email attachments and Google Drive/Dropbox links do not strip anything. If it matters, strip it yourself before sending.
Does removing EXIF data reduce image quality?+
Not with this tool. There are two ways to remove metadata: re-encoding (drawing the photo to a canvas and saving it again) destroys a generation of JPEG quality and discards the colour profile; byte-level stripping — what this tool does — deletes only the metadata segments and copies the compressed image data byte-for-byte, so the pixels are identical and quality loss is zero.
Why does my photo have no EXIF data at all?+
Common reasons: it was downloaded from Facebook, Instagram or a chat app (they strip the public copies), it is a screenshot or an edited export saved without metadata, the camera app had location off and wrote minimal tags, or it is a PNG/WebP graphic that never had camera data. The viewer above shows an honest note for these cases instead of an empty table.
Can EXIF data be edited or faked?+
Yes — easily. Free tools like ExifTool can change or delete any field, including GPS coordinates and dates, in seconds. Treat EXIF as a helpful clue, never as proof: a timestamp or location in a photo is only as trustworthy as the person who last handled the file.
How accurate is EXIF location data?+
Very. The coordinates stored are the phone's GPS fix at capture: typically accurate to 3–5 metres outdoors under open sky and 10–15 metres in dense urban areas. That is precise enough to identify a specific home or apartment, which is why the viewer above raises a red warning whenever GPS is found.
Can I remove EXIF data from HEIC photos?+
You can view HEIC metadata here (iPhone photos included), but HEIC cannot be stripped losslessly in a browser — its metadata lives inside the HEIF container rather than in removable segments, and this tool will tell you that honestly instead of silently re-encoding your photo. The workaround: convert the HEIC to JPG with our HEIC to JPG converter, then strip the JPG here.
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