Image EXIF Viewer & Remover
Inspect what your photos reveal, then strip the GPS coordinates
Click or drop a photo here
JPEG and other common image formats. Your photo is never uploaded.
Last updated: 2026-10-11
About this tool
Photos taken on a phone carry an EXIF metadata block by default: camera model, capture time, and — most importantly — GPS coordinates accurate to within a few metres. Post one to a marketplace, a forum, or a work group chat and that block travels with it. Anyone can read your home address straight out of the file. This tool first shows you exactly what is in there, converting the raw GPS values into readable decimal degrees so the risk is concrete rather than abstract. Then a single button produces a new file with the entire EXIF segment removed at the byte level, leaving the pixels completely untouched. Everything happens locally in your browser; the photo is never uploaded.
Features
GPS coordinates made readable
EXIF stores location as degree/minute/second fractions such as 39/1, 54/1 and 813/1000. Showing those raw numbers helps nobody. This tool converts them to decimal degrees so you can immediately recognise whether the location is your own home.
Distinguishes "no GPS" from "not a real fix"
Many devices write an all-zero GPS record to mean "no fix obtained". This tool reports that as "no valid location" rather than displaying 0,0 — a point in the Gulf of Guinea that only causes confusion.
Removal deletes the whole segment
Clearing strips the entire APP1/EXIF segment from the JPEG rather than blanking individual fields, which would leave the structure and remaining fields behind.
Pixel data is never touched
Only metadata segments are affected. The compressed image data is copied byte for byte, so quality and file contents stay exactly as they were.
Full field listing
Beyond GPS you get make, model, lens, exposure time, aperture, ISO, focal length, white balance, flash and capture time — useful for working out whose device took a picture.
Enum values translated
Codes like 0/1/2 become "auto exposure" and "manual exposure" instead of leaving you to guess at raw numbers.
How to use
- 1
Choose a photo
Upload a JPEG and the EXIF segment is parsed immediately.
- 2
Review the findings
Look at the GPS section first: coordinates present means the image can be traced to a location.
- 3
Strip the metadata
Click "Remove EXIF" to produce a new file with no metadata block.
- 4
Download the new file
Save the cleaned photo. Your original is never modified.
Options
- Image
- JPEG is supported. Formats such as PNG carry no EXIF and are reported as such.
- Byte order
- Shows II (little-endian) or MM (big-endian), useful when diagnosing odd values.
- GPS location
- Decimal degrees, the original DMS fractions, and the sign for south/west.
Common use cases
- Checking whether a marketplace listing photo exposes your address
- Finding out which device and what time a photo came from
- Clearing metadata from screenshots before sharing in a group chat
- Verifying whether a site really does strip location data as it claims
- Seeing what you are about to delete before you delete it
FAQ
Questions you may have about this tool
How precise is the location in EXIF?
When a phone has a GPS fix it is typically accurate to 5–10 metres — enough to identify a specific building. And because EXIF records the coordinates at the moment of capture, a photo taken at home effectively contains your home address. That is why it is worth a check before sharing an original file.
Why does my photo say "no valid location"?
Two possibilities. Either location permission was off at capture time, or the camera app was configured not to record position. Alternatively the device wrote an all-zero GPS record meaning "no fix" — a common convention. This tool treats that as "no valid location" rather than reporting the coordinates 0,0, which would place the photo off the coast of West Africa and mislead you.
Does removing EXIF reduce image quality?
No. A JPEG is a sequence of metadata segments interleaved with compressed image data; EXIF is one self-contained segment. Removal skips that segment and copies everything else verbatim. Not a single byte of compressed image data changes, so quality is unaffected. It also means processing speed is bounded only by file copying — no re-encoding takes place.
Does PNG have EXIF?
Standard PNG does not carry EXIF. It has its own text chunks (tEXt/iTXt) that can hold similar information, but the structure is entirely different. When given a PNG this tool says so explicitly rather than returning an empty result and letting you assume there was nothing sensitive inside.
Why does EXIF disappear after sending a photo through messaging apps?
Because those platforms re-encode or recompress images to save storage and bandwidth, and that process generally does not carry the original EXIF across. Images saved from such platforms therefore lack capture data — that is platform behaviour, not a fault in your device. Note the flip side: not every channel strips metadata. Original-file transfers, cloud drive shares and email attachments often preserve it in full.
Why are some GPS coordinates negative?
Because EXIF stores location as a magnitude plus a direction letter: N/S for latitude and E/W for longitude. Southern latitudes and western longitudes become negative when converted to decimal degrees, matching the convention used by mapping software so you can paste the value straight into a map. For example -33.8667 is roughly 33.87 degrees south.
The cleaned file ended up larger?
It should normally be smaller, since a whole segment was removed. But if the original EXIF segment was tiny (just a camera model string, say) and the rewrite needs to recreate a little structure, the size can shift by a few bytes. What actually drives file size is always the GPS block that got deleted.
Can anyone tell that EXIF was removed?
No. The result is a standard JPEG containing no EXIF, indistinguishable from one shot with location recording switched off. Do bear in mind that visible content is not metadata: a street sign or house number in the frame is part of the picture, and removing EXIF will not help there — that needs cropping or masking.