Quick answer
Drop the photo into the tool above. It lists what the file holds before cleaning and re-reads the cleaned file afterwards. You can also look with what your computer or phone already has, listed below. Looking does not change the file.
Ways to look
- This tool. Drop the photo in; the before and after list shows what the file held. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
- Windows. Right-click the file, choose Properties, open the Details tab. Microsoft's guidance on this tab is in the Windows guide.
- Mac. Open the photo in Preview and choose Tools > Show Location Info, then scroll to the GPS section. Apple's Preview guide covers location only. See the Mac guide.
- iPhone. In Photos, tap the photo, then swipe up or tap the Info button. Apple says this shows details such as date and time, file name, the iPhone model and camera settings, and a map of where it was taken.
What EXIF is
EXIF is metadata stored inside the image file. The Library of Congress describes Exif tags as covering descriptive metadata, copyright details, camera settings, technical image data, date and time information, geographic data and thumbnail storage. In a JPEG it sits in a segment called APP1. Two other kinds of metadata can sit in a photo alongside it: XMP and IPTC. Apple's Photos export, for example, refers to IPTC metadata and keywords.
The categories of fields
- GPS: latitude and longitude.
- Camera make and model (tags Make and Model).
- Lens (for example LensModel).
- Serial numbers: the camera body serial number (SerialNumber, called BodySerialNumber in the Exif spec) and LensSerialNumber.
- Date and time: when the photo was taken, created and modified.
- Software and owner: the Software tag, plus owner, artist and copyright text.
- Embedded thumbnail: a small second copy of the picture inside the file.
- XMP and IPTC: separate blocks that can hold titles, captions and keywords.
Which fields are the risky ones
GPS shows where you were. Date and time show when. Serial numbers identify a particular camera or lens. Owner, artist and software tags can name you or your tools. Camera make and model matter less on their own. Check GPS first, then the rest.
How to read a GPS coordinate pair
Exif stores latitude and longitude as three numbers each, degrees, minutes and seconds, plus a letter: N or S for latitude, E or W for longitude (per the ExifTool tag reference). Many viewers convert this to decimal degrees. For example, 48° 51' 30.2" N, 2° 17' 40.2" E is 48.8584, 2.2945 in decimal form, where south and west are usually written as negative numbers.
On accuracy, GPS.gov says GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft.) radius under open sky, and that accuracy worsens near buildings, bridges and trees. Apple adds that the Camera works out coordinates from mobile data, Wi-Fi, GPS networks and Bluetooth. Extra decimal places do not make a coordinate more accurate. In practice, assume it points to the building you were in or a few metres from it.
What this does not show or fix
- Each built-in viewer chooses what to show. None of the vendor pages above claims to list every field.
- Metadata is not what is visible in the image: faces, street signs and landmarks are not touched by cleaning.
- The tool cannot clean what a website or app stores after you upload.
Check the result
After cleaning, look at the tool's after list. It re-reads the cleaned file so you can see what is left. The tool cleans JPG, PNG and WebP files without re-encoding, keeps the ICC colour profile and a bare rotation flag on JPEGs, and GIF is not supported. For step-by-step removal, see the iPhone and Android guides.