Photo metadata: view the file and clear it

Photo metadata is the text a camera, a phone, or an editor stores beside the pixels: who made the file, when, where, and sometimes whether a generator or a signing tool attached a credential. Image metadata is the same family of records on any still, including a PNG or a WebP that never came from a camera. Drop the file above and press Inspect only. The picture is not uploaded, and the free clean is not used until you press Clean.

What photo metadata is made of

A still image is pixels plus optional side records. The pixels are the picture. The side records are what people mean when they ask what a photo is “saying” about itself. They can name the camera, the clock, the lens, a caption, a copyright line, a GPS fix, or a signed manifest. They are not a description we infer from the scene. If a tag is missing, this reader does not guess a place, a camera, or an author.

Different containers put those records in different slots. A JPEG uses segments between the start of the file and the compressed scan: APP1 for the EXIF block and often an XMP packet, APP13 for IPTC inside a Photoshop image-resource block, APP11 for a C2PA JUMBF box. A PNG uses chunks: eXIf, iTXt or tEXt, and caBX for a Content Credentials manifest. A WebP uses its own chunks for EXIF, XMP, and C2PA. HEIC can carry the same camera and GPS ideas as a JPEG, inside the HEIF box. The reader on this page looks for the categories it knows. It does not print every private maker field a camera buried in MakerNotes.

That limit matters. A shutter count, when a body writes one, usually lives in MakerNotes. This page will not show that number. The camera shutter count checker runs ExifTool in the browser for the bodies it can verify. A full tag dump is still a local ExifTool command:

exiftool -a -G1 -s photo.jpg

Sharing the original file sends that photo metadata with it. A social app may later keep, drop, or replace those records when it stores its own copy. The file on your camera roll is the one this page can read.

EXIF, IPTC, XMP, C2PA, and GPS

Five names cover almost every question people ask. They overlap. GPS is usually nested inside EXIF. An AI source type can sit in IPTC, in XMP, or in both. A C2PA manifest can be announced from XMP and stored as its own box. The table is what this site’s reader and cleaner actually do with each one. It is not a promise that every file contains every row.

On HEIC, AVIF, GIF, TIFF, and BMP, every metadata field this cleaner lists is removed in any mode. AI only does not mean “leave the camera block” on those formats.

EXIF is the camera block. It is where make, model, lens, exposure, ISO, and the capture clock usually live. Software that last saved the file is often there too, which is why a phone picture can say the camera model and an exported file can say the editor. IPTC is the news-caption family: creator, headline, keywords. On a JPEG it often sits in APP13. XMP is XML, usually RDF, in a packet that can duplicate IPTC and can also store a generator name or a pointer to Content Credentials.

C2PA is not a caption and not a watermark. It is a signed manifest. On JPEG it is a JUMBF box in APP11. On PNG it is a caBX chunk. On WebP it is a C2PA or caBX chunk. The signature says who assembled that manifest. Removing it from the file does not delete a copy a cloud service may still hold, and it does not stop a platform from labelling the upload later. The longer explanation is what Content Credentials are. The check that only looks for the manifest line is check for C2PA.

GPS is a privacy record, not a picture style. When latitude and longitude parse, the card shows the numbers and waits. Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and Show map run only after you click. They receive the coordinates, not the photo. If those tags are missing, the card says there are no GPS coordinates. It does not guess a place from buildings or a skyline. The longer GPS page is the photo location finder.

Image metadata on a phone, a camera, and an AI file

The same words hide three different files. Image metadata on a phone snapshot, a camera JPEG, and a generated PNG do not match. Read the file you have. Do not assume the other two.

A phone

A phone with location services on for the camera usually writes a GPS fix into the original. Outdoors that fix can be tight enough to name a building. Altitude and the direction the lens faced, when the phone stored them, make the point smaller. The EXIF block often names the phone as the camera, plus the capture time. Many phone pictures have little or no IPTC until an app or a desktop editor adds a caption.

iPhone originals are often HEIC. This page can read HEIC, including GPS and camera fields the location reader can decode. See remove metadata from HEIC. Android camera files are often JPEG. Google Photos can show a location and still refuse to remove a fix the camera wrote. That limit is on remove EXIF data on Android.

A camera

A camera JPEG usually has a richer EXIF block: make, model, lens, aperture, shutter, ISO, focal length, and the clock. GPS is present only if that body, or a phone or accessory paired with it, wrote a fix. Many cameras have no GPS at all. MakerNotes can be large. This reader does not decode them into a field list.

IPTC and XMP show up when a person or an app wrote them. Lightroom and similar tools can add a creator, a copyright line, and, if Content Credentials were enabled on export, a C2PA manifest on a picture that a person actually photographed. That case is Lightroom Content Credentials. A caption you want a client to keep is a reason to read the report before you clear everything.

An AI download

A generated file may have no camera block and still carry image metadata that names the tool. ChatGPT and DALL·E downloads can include a C2PA manifest. Newer Gemini and Imagen exports can too. Firefly and a Photoshop Generative Fill export can carry Content Credentials. Midjourney downloads sometimes have IPTC and a prompt, and often have no C2PA manifest. A Stable Diffusion PNG can store a parameters text chunk. ComfyUI can store a prompt and a workflow. Those are file records. Each generator has its own page: ChatGPT, Gemini and Imagen, Firefly, Generative Fill, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and ComfyUI.

SynthID and TrustMark are not in that list. They sit in the pixels. This reader cannot show them, and a clean cannot remove them. A file with no AI row may still be generated. A screenshot, a re-save, or a previous clean often drops the records. Empty is a scan result. The page that draws that line is check if image is AI.

What you give away if you share the original

The practical risk is the original file, not a thumbnail a chat app already recompressed. GPS can show where you were when the shutter closed. The capture time plus a home address in a caption can narrow that further. A camera serial, when it is in a tag this reader does not even print, is still in the bytes until a strip removes the block that holds it. Creator and copyright lines are the opposite problem: a delivery sometimes needs them. Read the rows, then decide.

Clearing photo metadata does not change how a JPEG, PNG, or WebP looks. Those formats lose metadata segments. The image data is not recompressed, and the dimensions stay the same. A visible watermark drawn into the picture stays, because it is pixels. A platform label is not a tag in your file. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and X can still mark an upload after the After list is empty.

How to view it on the web, on Windows, on a Mac, and on a phone

Use the card at the top when you want one list for GPS, camera, XMP, IPTC, C2PA, and AI markers. The steps are the same on a laptop and in a mobile browser:

1. Drop the still, or pick it from the file dialog. The file stays in the tab.
2. Press Inspect only. Nothing is written, and no download appears.
3. Open the field report. GPS, when present, can open a map only after you ask.
4. If a row is fine to share, send the original. If it is not, continue to the clean step below.

Windows File Explorer can show a slice on the Details tab of Properties. The removal link there is documented by Windows Central and How-To Geek as Remove Properties and Personal Information. How-To Geek also reports that the “all possible properties” copy does not clear every record. We have not run that dialog. Treat it as a lead, then read the copy with this page or with ExifTool. The write-up is Mac and Windows.

On a Mac, Apple’s Preview guide describes Tools, then Show Location Info, for the GPS section of a photo. Third-party notes describe a Remove Location Info control in that same Inspector. Those steps are about location. They are not described as removing camera, XMP, IPTC, or C2PA fields. We have not run macOS ourselves. Preview is the wrong tool if you need the whole list.

On an iPhone, Photos can show location and can leave location out of a shared copy. Apple’s guide “Manage location metadata in Photos” covers the Camera switch and Adjust Location. The Share sheet’s Location option is about the copy you send, and it does not claim to remove camera details or a C2PA manifest. Open this page in Safari if you want the file itself read. Steps for that browser are on remove AI metadata on iPhone.

On Android, the gallery info sheet is often a short EXIF view. It is not a C2PA test. Google’s help says you cannot edit or remove a location the camera wrote automatically, and that a share from Google Photos can still show that location. Clean a copy, then share the download from Files. Details are on Android. Viewing image metadata in the browser avoids trusting the gallery line.

How to delete the records you do not want to share

Deleting image metadata here means removing categories, not editing one tag. Pick the mode that matches the rows you saw, then read the After list before you download.

1. Leave All metadata selected when the whole side record should go. Switch to EXIF / GPS when the job is location and camera, or to AI only when you want to keep camera EXIF on a JPEG, PNG, or WebP.
2. Press Clean one file free. The same press writes a new file in the tab and scans those bytes again.
3. Read the After column. Download only when it matches what you meant to remove. The name ends in -cleaned.
4. If you want a second opinion, drop that download and press Inspect only again, or run exiftool -a -G1 -s on it locally.

One image is free, shared with the other tools on this site. Inspect does not spend it. A folder is Pro and returns one ZIP. The paywall is the same card the homepage uses. This page does not add a quota. PDF files use remove metadata from a PDF. Word and Office files use remove metadata from a Word document. Video is not supported. The command-line counterpart, including the flags this site tested so a JPEG keeps rotation and colour, is ExifTool -all=.

How this page differs from the metadata viewer and the EXIF page

Three URLs share one cleaner. They do not answer the same question.

• This page is the map of the records: what EXIF, IPTC, XMP, C2PA, and GPS are, what a phone, a camera, and a generator tend to write, and how to look on the web or with the operating system you already have.
• The metadata viewer is the field table itself: grouped keys, a map when GPS parses, and the note that the list is not an ExifTool dump. Use it when you already know you want the report.
• EXIF data is only the camera block: make, model, lens, exposure, and GPS. It hides AI only, and it will not rewrite a HEIC. Send a HEIC clean to the HEIC page.
• View image metadata online is the earlier category report, with a measured run on six synthetic files. This page does not repeat that table.

The guide index by format and device is remove image metadata. A folder write-up is the bulk EXIF remover.

Questions

Does viewing the file upload it?

No. Inspect runs in your browser. The bytes stay on the device. A map loads only if you press Show map, and then only the coordinates go to OpenStreetMap, not the picture.

Does the report list every tag?

No. It lists the keys this reader parsed, grouped into GPS, camera and EXIF, XMP, IPTC, C2PA, and AI markers. MakerNotes and a full ExifTool -a dump are not printed. The report says so.

Does inspecting use the free clean?

No. Inspect only does not create a download and does not use the one free clean. Cleaning one image does. A folder is Pro and comes back as one ZIP.

Can I change a single field and leave the rest?

No. This tool does not write one tag at a time. You pick a mode. All metadata clears the categories the report lists. AI only clears C2PA and known AI records on JPEG, PNG, and WebP and can leave camera EXIF and GPS. EXIF / GPS clears camera fields, location, IPTC, and XMP, and also drops C2PA.

Will a phone, Windows, or a Mac show the same list?

Not always. Photos, Preview, File Explorer, and Google Photos each show a slice. A gallery “no info” line is not a C2PA test. This page reads the file you drop. We have not run the Windows or macOS dialogs ourselves.

Does a clean copy stay the same format?

JPEG, PNG, and WebP are cleaned in place. The image data is not recompressed. A JPEG keeps Orientation so a portrait stays upright. AVIF comes back as a JPEG or a PNG, which is a re-encode. GIF and BMP stay GIF and BMP. TIFF comes back as a PNG, or stays a TIFF when a PNG would drop pages, colour, or layout.

Does an empty report mean the picture is safe to share?

It means this reader found none of those keys. A watermark in the pixels, such as SynthID, is not in the report. A platform can still label an upload. A cloud copy of a Content Credentials manifest, if one was published, is not inside this file.