Image Metadata Viewer
View EXIF, IPTC, and XMP metadata hidden in any photo — then strip it before sharing.
100% in your browser — your photo never leaves your device
How To View and Remove Image Metadata
Step 1
Upload a JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, or TIFF photo. The metadata is parsed entirely in your browser — the file is never uploaded.
Step 2
Review the metadata table: camera make and model, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, timestamp, plus GPS coordinates if present.
Step 3
Click "Remove Metadata" to scrub every field, then "Download" to save the cleaned photo. Safe to share — no location, no device info, no timestamps.
What Is Image Metadata?
Image metadata is information embedded inside a photo file by your camera or phone the moment the picture is taken. It travels invisibly with the image — you don't see it in the picture, but it's there inside the file, readable by anyone who has the original.
The four formats you'll encounter:
| Format | Stands For | What's Inside |
|---|---|---|
| EXIF | Exchangeable Image File Format | Camera make & model, lens, capture settings (ISO, aperture, shutter), timestamp, GPS coordinates |
| IPTC | International Press Telecommunications Council | Photographer credits, copyright, keywords, location names (added by editing software) |
| XMP | Extensible Metadata Platform | Adobe-side data — editing history, ratings, tags |
| ICC Profile | International Color Consortium | Color space info (sRGB, Adobe RGB, Display P3) for accurate color reproduction |
JPG, TIFF, HEIC, and most raw files (CR2, NEF, ARW) always carry EXIF. PNG and WebP can carry it optionally. Screenshots usually have no metadata.
What Information Does a Photo Store?
When you snap a photo with a modern phone, the file can contain:
- Camera info — make (Apple, Samsung, Canon), model, firmware version, body serial number
- Lens info — focal length (e.g. 26 mm), lens model, maximum aperture
- Capture settings — ISO (e.g. ISO-400), aperture (e.g. f/1.8), shutter speed (e.g. 1/120 s), exposure compensation, metering mode, white balance, scene mode
- Date & time —
DateTimeOriginal(when the shutter clicked), create date, modify date - GPS coordinates — latitude, longitude, altitude, if location services were on
- Orientation — portrait / landscape tag (how the phone was held)
- Editing software — if you edited the photo, the editor's name (Lightroom, Photoshop, Snapseed) is often stamped in
Some Android phones log over 100 metadata fields per photo. Even a basic iPhone photo typically carries 30+ fields.
Why Remove Metadata From Photos?
When you share a photo — by email, messaging app, or upload to a website — the metadata goes with it by default. This can leak:
- Your home address — GPS coordinates can pinpoint your location within a few meters
- Your device — telling strangers which phone or camera you own, and indirectly its price tier
- Your routine — multiple photos' timestamps reveal when you're typically home or away
- Your editing history — software names, sometimes even before/after snapshots stored as metadata thumbnails
- The original of a cropped screenshot — some apps keep the uncropped version as a metadata thumbnail
If you've ever emailed a photo to a stranger, sold something on a marketplace, posted to a forum, or shared with a community you don't fully trust, removing metadata first is a one-second habit worth picking up.
How To View Metadata on Any Device
Quickest — Use This Page
Upload the photo above. Your photo never leaves your browser — parsing happens locally via JavaScript. You'll see every metadata field in under two seconds.
On iPhone & iPad (iOS)
- Open the Photos app
- Tap the photo
- Swipe up from the bottom, or tap the (i) info button
- Scroll through the metadata: camera, settings, location, date
On Android (Samsung, Pixel, OnePlus, etc.)
- Open Google Photos (or your default gallery app)
- Tap the photo
- Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right, or swipe up
- Select Details (or "Info")
On Mac
- Open the photo in Preview
- Press Cmd + I (or Tools → Adjust Inspector)
- Click the (i) tab — scroll for camera info, GPS, and capture settings
Alternatively: right-click the file in Finder → Get Info → More Info section.
On Windows
- Right-click the photo in File Explorer
- Choose Properties
- Open the Details tab — the full metadata list appears
How To Remove Metadata
With This Tool (Recommended)
- Upload the photo above
- Click Remove Metadata
- Click Download — the saved file has all metadata stripped, pixels unchanged
The whole process runs in your browser. The file is never uploaded to a server, and no intermediate copy is kept.
iPhone & iPad Workarounds
iOS doesn't expose a "strip all metadata" option, but several routes effectively do it:
- AirDrop strips metadata by default when sharing to other Apple devices
- Mail strips metadata when sending (since iOS 13)
- Messages offers an "All Photos Data" toggle when sharing — turn it off to strip
- For full control over what gets stripped, use this tool
On Android
Some gallery apps (Google Photos, Samsung Gallery) have a "Remove location data" toggle before sharing — but only strips GPS, not other fields. To remove everything, use this tool or a dedicated app.
On Mac
- Open in Preview → File → Export → uncheck the metadata boxes
- Or use Image Capture's "Remove metadata" option when importing
- Or simply drop the file here
On Windows
- Right-click the photo → Properties → Details tab
- Click "Remove Properties and Personal Information" at the bottom
- Choose which fields to strip (or all)
What Gets Removed vs What Stays
Removed by this tool
- ✓ EXIF — camera, lens, capture settings, timestamps
- ✓ IPTC — photographer credits, keywords, copyright
- ✓ XMP — Adobe editing data, ratings, tags
- ✓ ICC color profile
- ✓ GPS coordinates — latitude, longitude, altitude
- ✓ Embedded thumbnail (some cameras embed a small JPEG preview as metadata)
Preserved
- ✓ The image pixels themselves (one re-encode pass, near-lossless)
- ✓ The file name
- ✓ Image dimensions
Note on Orientation: if the original photo used an EXIF Orientation tag (some cameras store rotation as a tag rather than rotating the actual pixels), the cleaned file's pixels are written as captured. We're working on preserving orientation automatically via createImageBitmap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is removing metadata from a photo safe?
Yes. Removing metadata does not affect the picture itself — only the invisible information embedded around the pixels. The image still looks identical. The only side effect is that an EXIF Orientation tag (used by some cameras to mark a photo as portrait) is also removed; if the original relied on it, the cleaned file's pixels are written as captured.
Does removing metadata reduce image quality?
Minimally. The cleaned image is re-encoded once through the browser's canvas pipeline. JPG output uses quality 0.95 (near-lossless) and PNG output is fully lossless. Pixel dimensions are preserved exactly.
Do Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter strip metadata automatically?
Facebook and Instagram strip metadata on upload. Twitter strips metadata on the public feed. WhatsApp strips metadata by default in most regions. However, when you send a photo directly to another person via email, messaging, or file transfer, the metadata usually survives. That is where removing it first matters most.
Can metadata be recovered after it's removed?
No. When the file is re-encoded, the metadata chunks are physically gone from the bytes. There is no undo. Keep an original copy if you need to preserve the metadata for your own archive.
What's the difference between EXIF, IPTC, and XMP?
EXIF holds technical capture data written by the camera (make, model, ISO, aperture, GPS). IPTC holds editorial data added by photographers (caption, byline, copyright, keywords). XMP is a modern extensible format, often added by Adobe tools (Lightroom, Photoshop) to record editing history. This tool removes all three.
Should I keep metadata on photos I'm storing locally?
Yes. For your own archive, metadata is valuable — it lets you search by camera, sort by date, and find photos by location. Only strip metadata when you're about to share a photo externally.
Does this tool work offline?
The page itself needs to load once (HTML + JS + the exifr library). After that, all metadata parsing happens locally — you could disconnect from the internet and the tool would still work for any photo you've already loaded.
What file types are supported?
JPG / JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC / HEIF (iPhone photos), and TIFF. The exifr library handles all of these. RAW formats (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG) are partially supported — basic EXIF works, but some manufacturer-proprietary fields may not parse.