How to remove location from a photo

What a photo stores about where and when

A photo file holds more than the picture. Beside it sits a block of notes called EXIF data, written by the camera at the moment the photo is taken. It records the date and time, the make and model of the camera or phone, and the settings used. If location was switched on for the camera, it also records the latitude and longitude, often the altitude, and the time of the GPS fix.

The coordinates are precise enough to pick out a building. A photo taken in your kitchen and posted with its EXIF data intact tells anyone who looks where your kitchen is. Most people never see these notes, because photo apps show the picture and keep the rest out of the way.

Look first

Before removing anything, see what is there. The EXIF Viewer reads a JPG, PNG or WebP in your browser and lists what it holds, with the location shown as coordinates. If the list has no location, there is nothing to remove: a screenshot has none, and neither does a photo taken with location switched off.

Looking first also tells you what else is in the file. The date, the camera model and, in some files, a serial number or an owner's name are all there to be read by whoever receives the photo.

Remove everything, or change one field

There are two ways to deal with it, and they suit different needs.

Remove everything. The EXIF Remover takes out the EXIF data, the location with it, and the other metadata blocks a file can carry, from up to 20 photos at a time. It does this without redrawing the picture. The image data is copied through exactly as it was, so the photo loses nothing but its notes.

Change one field. If you want to keep the date and the camera details and lose only the place, the EXIF Editor lets you empty the latitude and longitude of a JPG and leave the rest. When the location goes, the whole GPS block goes with it, including the altitude and the time of the fix, because either of those beside missing coordinates would still say something.

A third way is a side effect. Any tool that redraws the picture and saves a new file, such as a resizer or a compressor, writes that file without the original's metadata. If you were going to resize the photo anyway, its location is gone when you have.

What your phone and computer can do

Most devices can remove a location without any extra tool. The menus move between versions, so take these as the usual places to look.

• iPhone. When you share a photo from the Photos app, the share sheet has an Options button at the top, with a switch for Location. Turning it off sends that copy without its coordinates.
• Android. It depends on the maker and the gallery app. Look for a location or "remove location data" option on the share screen, or in the gallery's settings.
• Windows. Right-click the file, open Properties, then the Details tab. The link at the bottom, "Remove Properties and Personal Information", can make a copy with the properties removed.
• Mac. Open the photo in Preview, choose Show Inspector from the Tools menu, and look for the GPS tab, which has a button to remove the location.

To stop the location being written in the first place, switch off location access for the camera app in the phone's privacy settings. That affects new photos only. The ones already in your gallery keep what they have.

Whichever way you use, check the result. Put the cleaned copy through the viewer again and confirm that no location is listed.

Where a second copy can hide

A file can say the same thing in more than one place, and removing it from one place does not remove it from the others. This is the part that guides on the subject tend to leave out.

XMP and IPTC. These are two further metadata blocks, written mostly by editing and cataloguing programs. Either can repeat the date, the author or the location. A tool that edits EXIF alone leaves them as they were. The EXIF Editor on this site says so in its result when a photo has them; the EXIF Remover takes them out along with the rest.

The thumbnail's own fields. Many cameras store a small preview inside the file, with a short list of fields of its own. When this site's editor was tested on sample photos from 21 cameras and phones, one of them kept the camera's make and model a second time there. The editor now changes both copies.

The maker note. This is the camera maker's private block, in a layout only the maker fully documents. In the same test several cameras wrote their own name inside it. Tools that edit single fields do not open it. Removing all of the EXIF data removes it too.

The practical rule follows from that. If the aim is privacy, remove everything and check. Editing one field is for correcting a file, not for hiding something in it.

What removing the location does not do

It does not change the picture. A street sign, a shop front, a view from a window or a school uniform can place a photo as surely as coordinates. If something in the frame gives the place away, it has to be covered: Censor Image puts a solid block over any area you mark.

It does not reach copies that have already left your hands. A photo you posted last year, with its location, is still wherever it went. Cleaning the file on your phone changes that file only.

And it says nothing about what an app does afterwards. Some services remove metadata from what you upload and some keep it. That behaviour changes without notice, so the dependable course is to remove the location yourself before the photo goes anywhere.