PRIVACY

How to remove EXIF data from photos without losing quality

Step-by-step: strip EXIF, GPS and other metadata from JPEG, PNG and WebP photos without re-compressing them, and check that nothing else changed.

10 October 2026 · 5 min read

Removing EXIF data is the simplest way to stop a photo from revealing where it was taken, which device took it, and when. The catch is that many tools do it by opening the photo and saving it again, which re-compresses the image and can lose quality and colour accuracy. This guide shows how to remove the metadata and keep every pixel.

Re-saving versus removing

A JPEG is compressed. When a program opens it and saves a new JPEG, it compresses the picture again, and each round loses a little detail. Some tools also drop the colour profile, so colours shift on wide-gamut screens. A lossless tool never decodes the picture. It reads the file's structure, copies the blocks that hold the image exactly as they are, and leaves out the metadata blocks. The image you get back is bit-for-bit the image you put in.

Remove EXIF data with Exifo Clean

Open Clean. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Drop your photos on the page, paste one from the clipboard, or browse. JPEG, PNG and WebP are supported, up to 50 files at a time.
Each file shows the blocks it contains, such as EXIF, XMP and Content Credentials, with their sizes. Expand the report to see the values.
Keep Remove everything selected, or choose Custom to keep some blocks.
Select Clean all. Each file shows the bytes removed and an Image data identical badge.
Download the files one by one, or all of them as a ZIP.

Clean keeps the colour profile and writes back the orientation as a tiny block, so photos still appear the right way up. You can switch orientation off too.

Keep some metadata

Choose Custom to remove only part of it. The presets cover the usual cases:

Location only removes GPS and keeps the camera details and dates.
Device details removes make, model, serial numbers and maker notes.
Dates removes when the photo was taken and edited.
Keep copyright only removes everything, then writes back your name and copyright notice.

Check the result

Open a cleaned file in Inspect to confirm that no metadata is left, or put the original and the cleaned copy side by side in Compare, which confirms the image data is identical while the metadata differs.

Other ways to remove EXIF

Windows: File Properties, Details tab, then Remove Properties and Personal Information.
Mac: in Preview, Tools, Show Inspector, the location tab offers Remove Location Info.
iPhone: when sharing, tap Options at the top of the share sheet and turn off Location.

These built-in options often handle only some fields, and do not show you what was there. A dedicated tool lets you see every block first and confirms nothing else changed.