Photo Metadata Viewer & EXIF Remover

About Photo Metadata Viewer & EXIF Remover

Open a JPG, PNG or WebP and the tool reads the EXIF, XMP, comments and PNG text chunks directly from the bytes, then groups them into camera, shot settings, date and time, GPS and software. Values that can identify a person or place (author, original capture time, body and lens serial numbers, unique image ID, GPS) are flagged as sensitive.

Removal does not re-encode the image. It cuts out the segments and chunks that hold metadata, so not a single pixel changes. By default it keeps the ICC color profile and the orientation value, because removing those can shift colors or make the photo appear rotated.

What EXIF actually contains

EXIF is maintained by CIPA, the Japanese Camera & Imaging Products Association. It embeds a whole TIFF structure inside a JPEG. The current version, Exif 3.0 from 2023, was the first to allow UTF-8 text. Before that, text fields were meant to be ASCII, which is why Windows stores author names in separate UTF-16 tags such as XPAuthor, and why this tool can show two author fields (Artist and XP Author).

A typical phone photo carries make and model, which of the phone's cameras was used, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, original capture time, software version and, if location access is on, GPS. Mirrorless and DSLR cameras often add body and lens serial numbers. A serial number links different photos to the same camera, so for anything posted anonymously it matters as much as location.

DateTimeOriginal is local time with no time zone. The zone lives in separate tags such as OffsetTimeOriginal, added in Exif 2.31, and not every device writes them. The GPS date and time stamps, on the other hand, are in UTC. Comparing the two can reveal the time zone where the photo was taken.

Reading GPS values, and how precise they are

EXIF stores latitude and longitude as three rational numbers (degrees, minutes, seconds), with N/S and E/W in separate reference tags. The tool converts them to decimal degrees and links to a map. One second of latitude is about 31 m (roughly 100 ft), and the fourth decimal place of a degree is about 11 m. Phone GPS is usually recorded at least that precisely, so a photo taken at home can point to the building.

Some photos also carry altitude and the compass direction the camera faced. In an apartment block, altitude hints at the floor. Indoors, the fix may come from cell towers and Wi-Fi and be tens of meters off, which is still close enough to find a street.

Information outside EXIF

XMP is Adobe's XML-based metadata. It records the editing app and history, original document IDs, and on phones, motion-photo and depth data. IPTC (stored in Photoshop's APP13 block) holds the photographer, copyright notice, caption and keywords, and is standard in news photography. PNG files keep keyword/value pairs such as Author or Software in tEXt and iTXt chunks.

EXIF can also contain a separate small JPEG thumbnail. If an editor does not regenerate it, the thumbnail can still show the picture before it was cropped or blurred. If you see an embedded thumbnail group, check that it matches the main image.

What this tool does not read

HEIC (the iPhone default) is read-only here: EXIF, GPS and XMP are shown, but removal happens in the Metadata Cleaner, which handles many more formats. RAW files do not open here. Manufacturer MakerNote blocks are mostly undocumented, so their values are not decoded, but they are removed along with the rest of EXIF.

Worked examples

How to use it

1. Drop in or choose a photo.
2. Check the sensitive flags and the GPS map link.
3. Choose whether to keep the ICC profile and orientation, then remove metadata and download.
4. Re-scan the cleaned file to confirm nothing remains.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• What Your Photos Say About You: EXIF, XMP, IPTC and Location Privacy