How to check and remove GPS location from photos before sharing
Photos often contain the exact place they were taken. Learn how to see this hidden EXIF data and strip it before posting or sending pictures.
· 1 min read
When location services are enabled for the camera, most smartphones save the GPS coordinates of every photo inside the file, along with the date, time and phone model. This is called EXIF metadata.
Why it matters
Share a photo of your new sofa on a marketplace, a picture of your children in the garden or a room you're renting out, and the file may reveal your home address to anyone who downloads it.
Many large social networks remove this data when you upload. But email attachments, messaging apps sending “original quality” files, cloud-sharing links and many websites keep it.
Step 1: check what a photo reveals
Drop the photo into the Image metadata viewer. If it contains coordinates, you'll see a warning with a link to the location on a map, plus the camera, date and other details.
Step 2: remove the metadata
Drop one or more photos into Remove image metadata and download the clean copies. The tool redraws the pixels into a brand-new file, so GPS, camera details, editing history and embedded thumbnails are all left behind. The photo stays the right way up and at full resolution.
Then re-check a clean copy in the metadata viewer: it should show no metadata at all.
Prevent it in the future
- iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → Never. When sharing, tap Options and turn off Location.
- Android: open the Camera app settings and turn off Location tags (the name varies by manufacturer).
Also good to know
Compressing or resizing an image with Compress image also removes EXIF data, because it re-encodes the file.