What a photo can reveal
Phones and cameras store far more than the picture. EXIF holds the exact GPS coordinates, the time to the second, the device model and serial-style identifiers, lens settings and often a small copy of the original image that survives cropping. XMP and IPTC add editing history, keywords, captions and author fields. All of it travels with the file when you email it, sell it or post it on a site that keeps metadata.
What is removed and what stays
Removed
- GPS coordinates, altitude and location timestamps
- Camera make, model, lens and capture settings
- Date and time fields, editing software names
- Embedded thumbnails in EXIF and JFIF headers
- XMP, IPTC, Photoshop blocks, comments and PNG text
- Content Credentials and other provenance records
- Stray bytes appended after the end of the image
Kept on purpose
- The encoded pixels, exactly as they were
- The ICC color profile, so colors do not shift
- The EXIF orientation flag, so the photo stays the right way up
- PNG color and transparency chunks, and pixel density
- For WebP, the alpha channel and the extended header
Format notes
Scroll sideways to see all columns →
| Format | Where metadata lives | Handled |
|---|---|---|
| JPEG | APP1 (EXIF, XMP), APP2 (ICC), APP11 (C2PA), APP13 (IPTC), COM | Yes, all metadata segments |
| PNG | eXIf, tEXt, zTXt, iTXt, tIME and caBX chunks | Yes, including compressed text |
| WebP | EXIF and XMP chunks flagged in the VP8X header | Yes, header flags are updated |
| HEIC, AVIF, TIFF, RAW | Various boxes and tags | Not yet; export to JPEG first |
When the lossless button is unavailable
The tool refuses to guess. If a file has conflicting EXIF blocks, an unknown PNG chunk, an animated sequence, an HDR gain map or a damaged color profile, lossless cleaning is disabled and the reason is shown. Re-encoding still works and produces a metadata-free file, at the cost of a fresh compression pass.
Your images are processed inside your browser, with no upload endpoint and no account. Checking, cleaning and converting all happen on your device. Read how your privacy is protected.
Questions people ask
Does removing EXIF rotate my photo?
No. The orientation flag is rebuilt in a minimal EXIF block, so viewers keep showing the photo the right way up. If you re-encode instead, the rotation is baked into the pixels and no flag is needed.
Will colors change?
No. The ICC profile is copied unchanged on the lossless path. The re-encode path converts to sRGB, which is what web browsers and social apps display anyway.
Can I process many photos at once?
Yes. Add up to 20 files, up to 20 MB each and 100 MB per batch, press Strip all, then download them one by one or as a single ZIP.
Does Instagram keep EXIF data?
Instagram, Facebook, X and most large platforms strip EXIF on upload but read it first. Removing it yourself protects you on sites that keep it, in emails and in file transfers, and prevents the platform from acting on AI or location signals during upload.