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KBSize

Remove EXIF data from a photo

See what the file is carrying, then download a copy with the metadata gone. The picture is copied across rather than re-encoded, and nothing is uploaded.

Choose a photo and everything stored inside it is listed here, in this browser. Nothing is uploaded.

What this photo is carrying

Camera

Waiting for a photo.

Exposure

Waiting for a photo.

Dates

Waiting for a photo.

Location

No location is stored in this file.

Shutter count

No shutter count is stored in this file.

Software

Waiting for a photo.

Your photo is never uploaded. It is read in this browser with the standard file API, and the cleaned copy is built here too, so there is no server involved at any point.

Look first, strip second

The cleaner is deliberately the second button. A page whose only action is Download teaches you to clean a file without ever seeing what was in it, and the thing worth knowing — that this one photograph has your street on it — is precisely what gets skipped. So the report appears first and the cleaned copy is offered underneath it.

Your original is never modified. Removal builds a new file and hands it to you as a download; what is on your disk, in your camera roll or in the folder you dragged from is exactly as it was, which also means you can compare the two.

Stripping metadata does not re-compress the picture

A JPEG is a chain of segments and the picture lives in exactly one of them. Cleaning the file means writing it out without the segments holding the camera notes, the edit history and the coordinates, then copying the compressed scan across byte for byte. Nothing is decoded, so nothing softens and the file is simply a little smaller.

That is the difference between this and “removing EXIF” by opening a photo in an editor and saving it again. Re-saving is a second lossy encode: the metadata does go, and so does a little of the picture, every time. PNG works the same way here — whole text, timestamp and Exif chunks are dropped, and the image chunks keep the checksums they were written with.

Sending a photo as a file is not the same as sending it as a photo

Whether a picture you send still carries its location depends entirely on how you send it. A messaging app that compresses the image re-encodes it, and the metadata goes with the original it left behind. The same picture attached as a document or a file arrives exactly as it sits on your disk, coordinates and all — which is the split behind “does WhatsApp remove EXIF”, and the answer is that it depends on which of the two you tapped.

So if you are about to attach a photograph as a file, run it through the report first. If the location card has a coordinate in it, the cleaned copy is the one you actually want to attach. Nothing is uploaded either way, which matters rather a lot when the file is the one you were worried about.

What removing the metadata does not do

It does not change the pixels. A photograph taken through your front window still shows the street, and a reverse image search does not need coordinates to place it. Stripping metadata means less information attached to the file, not invisibility.

It does not reach copies that have already gone — a listing you posted last week still carries last week’s file, with everything that was in it. And orientation is metadata too, so a picture taken sideways can appear rotated in older software after a clean; if that matters, rotate the image itself before you strip it.

Exactly which blocks the cleaner drops

Cleaning a file is writing it out again without the blocks that hold the notes. The blocks that hold the picture are copied across without being decoded, which is why the download is lossless and why the cleaner rewrites JPEG and PNG rather than every format it can read.

BlockFormatWhat it holdsWhat happens to it
APP1 (Exif)JPEGCamera, exposure, timestamps, GPS, thumbnailRemoved
APP1 (XMP)JPEGEdit history, sometimes the name of an accountRemoved
APP13 (IPTC)JPEGCaptions, credits and contact detailsRemoved
COMJPEGA free-text commentRemoved
APP2 (ICC)JPEGThe colour profile, which says nothing about youKept if you ask
SOS and the scanJPEGThe compressed picture itselfCopied byte for byte
tEXt / eXIf / tIMEPNGText chunks, a full Exif block, a timestampRemoved
IDATPNGThe compressed pixelsCopied byte for byte

Common questions

Will removing EXIF data reduce the quality of the photo?

No. The compressed image data is copied into the new file unchanged and only the metadata blocks are dropped, which is why the cleaned copy is slightly smaller and looks identical. Tools that re-save the image to strip it do lose a little quality.

Does this change my original file?

No. The original stays exactly where it is. The tool builds a separate cleaned copy in the browser and offers it as a download, so you can open both and compare them before you rely on either.

Can I remove only the GPS and keep the camera settings?

Not here — the whole metadata block goes. Serial numbers, unique image IDs and the embedded thumbnail identify a photograph almost as well as coordinates do, so leaving them behind would only look private. The colour profile can be kept, because it says nothing about you.

Does WhatsApp remove EXIF data when I send a photo?

Usually yes when you send it as a photo, because it is re-encoded on the way. Usually no when you send it as a document or file, because that is delivered untouched. Check the outgoing file here if the distinction matters.

What is the smallest size an image can be compressed to?

There is no hard floor, but below roughly 10 KB a photograph has to become very small in pixel terms — around 200 by 150 — before it fits. Line art and signatures go far lower because they contain much less detail to store.

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