Remove metadata and GPS location from a photo

What metadata does a photo contain?

Mostly EXIF, a block of tags the camera writes when it saves the picture. The exact list depends on the device and its settings, but a phone photo commonly carries:

• the maker and model of the phone or camera, and often the lens;
• the date and time the photo was taken, and when it was last modified;
• the GPS position (latitude, longitude, often altitude and direction) when location is turned on for the camera;
• the exposure settings and the software or firmware version;
• on some cameras, the serial number of the body or lens;
• a maker note: a private block in each manufacturer’s own format, which can hold more settings and identifiers;
• a small embedded thumbnail of the picture.

Editing apps can add more, usually as XMP: the software used, and with some apps the editing steps. A photo that went through several apps can carry traces of each of them.

The thumbnail deserves a word: it is a separate small image. Some tools update the photo without updating its thumbnail, so in some cases the thumbnail still shows the picture as it was before a crop.

Why does the GPS position matter?

Because it is precise. GPS tags in a phone photo can locate the shot to within a few metres: a photo taken in your garden or living room points to your home address. A handful of photos can show where you work, where your children go to school or when you are away.

PromptWipe shows the position it finds with five decimals (about a metre), so you see exactly what a stranger would. If the file has GPS tags it cannot read, it still tells you they are there.

What does PromptWipe remove, and what does it keep?

It removes the metadata and keeps everything you need to see the photo as it is. The image data is copied byte for byte, so there is no quality loss.

Removed:

• EXIF, including GPS, dates, device, serial numbers, the maker note and the thumbnail;
• XMP, IPTC and comments;
• Content Credentials (C2PA), if the camera or an app added them;
• extra images stored in the file: on Android, the HDR gain map of an Ultra HDR photo (the photo may then look less bright on an HDR screen) and the short video of a Motion Photo. The report tells you when this happens.

Kept:

• the picture, unchanged: no re-encoding, no resizing;
• the rotation: phones often store a photo sideways with a tag that says how to turn it. PromptWipe writes back a tiny EXIF block that contains that rotation and nothing else, so the photo is not shown sideways;
• the colour profile (its name is shown in the report, for example Display P3), so the colours do not shift.

Before offering the download, PromptWipe decodes the cleaned photo and checks it has the same dimensions as the original. The new file is named after the original with -clean added. A name like IMG_0001 or one with a date in it says something too: rename the file if needed.

Why not just take a screenshot or re-save the photo?

Both make a new image instead of cleaning the original. A screenshot only has your screen’s resolution and can catch other parts of the screen; re-saving in an editor re-compresses a JPEG, losing a little quality each time, and some editors copy the metadata into the new file anyway. Removing the metadata blocks directly keeps the photo exactly as it was.

How do I clean an iPhone photo (HEIC)?

PromptWipe does not read HEIC files yet. Export the photo as JPEG first, or set the iPhone to take JPEG photos: Settings › Camera › Formats › Most Compatible. New photos are then saved as JPEG, which PromptWipe handles.

If you would like HEIC support, use the “Request this format” link shown when the file is refused. PNG, JPEG and WebP files up to 50 MB are supported, one image at a time.

Don’t social networks remove the metadata anyway?

Many platforms and messaging apps re-encode photos on upload and often drop the metadata on the way, but it varies from one service to another and changes over time. You cannot see what they keep on their own servers either.

Other ways of sharing generally keep the original file, metadata included: an e-mail attachment, a file sent “as a document”, a cloud storage link, a forum or a marketplace listing that keeps the original. Cleaning the photo before it leaves your device is the surest way to know what you share.

Is my photo uploaded?

No. PromptWipe reads and cleans the file inside this page, on your device; no server receives images, and it keeps working offline once the page has loaded. See how it works to check it yourself, and the privacy page.

The same tool handles AI images: remove AI image metadata, the ComfyUI workflow, Stable Diffusion settings or Content Credentials.

Sources: tag reference of the ExifTool project, EXIF tags and GPS tags; Apple, Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices; Android, Ultra HDR Image Format and Motion Photo format.