How to remove image metadata

Step 1: Add your photo

Open the Image Metadata Viewer & Editor and drop your image in.

You'll see what's inside it first. Worth a look before you strip it, so you know what you were about to share. Reading the findings covers what each one means.

Step 2: Download the clean copy

Take the clean copy from below the findings. That's a new file with the metadata removed.

Your original is untouched. Nothing is modified in place, and nothing is uploaded anywhere. The clean copy is generated in your browser and saved to your downloads.

Step 3: Share the clean copy, not the original

The obvious step that goes wrong most often. Check the filename before you attach it, especially if both files are sitting in your downloads folder with similar names.

When this matters

Selling something online. Marketplace photos taken at home carry your home coordinates.

Posting anonymously. Camera make, model and creator fields link photos across everything you've ever posted, even without location.

Sending documents. Photographed or scanned paperwork carries the same data as any other image.

Journalism and sensitive sources. Timestamps and device identifiers have de-anonymised people. If that's your situation, treat this tool as one step rather than the whole answer.

What removing metadata does not do

Being straight about the boundaries:

• It doesn't change the image itself. A street sign or a house number visible in the photo is still visible in the clean copy.
• It doesn't affect copies you already sent. Only this new file.
• It isn't anonymity. It removes one identifying layer. Where you upload, from what account and on what connection is a separate matter entirely.

The image content usually gives you away first. Metadata is the invisible layer. What's actually in frame is the visible one, and people forget to check it.