How to remove metadata (and GPS) from photos before sharing
Every photo your phone or camera takes is wrapped in metadata — a hidden block of information stored inside the image file. It commonly includes the exact GPS coordinates where the picture was taken, the date and time, the device model, and sometimes an edit history. None of it shows up when you look at the photo, but it travels with the file when you post it, email it, or send it in a message.
Why it matters
If you sell something online, share a photo from home, or post a picture of your kids, embedded GPS can quietly reveal where you live. Journalists, domestic-abuse survivors, and anyone who values privacy have good reason to strip it. Even for everyday use, there's no reason to hand your location to every platform and recipient.
Some platforms remove metadata on upload — but many don't, and you can't rely on it. The safe move is to clean the file yourself, before it leaves your device.
What's actually in there
- EXIF — GPS, camera model, exposure settings, date/time.
- XMP / IPTC — captions, author, copyright, editing software.
- Content Credentials (C2PA) — provenance data added by some AI and editing tools.
- Appended data — occasionally, extra bytes tacked onto the end of the file.
How to remove it — without uploading your photo
The important thing: don't use a random website that asks you to upload the photo to strip its metadata — that's handing your image (and its location) to a stranger's server. Do it locally.
With scrub, it's three steps and nothing leaves your machine:
- Drop the photo inOr browse to it. scrub reads it on your device.
- See exactly what's insideIt lists the EXIF, GPS, XMP and any appended data it found.
- Click CleanYou get a clean copy with the metadata gone — losslessly, so the picture quality is untouched. Your original stays put.
scrub even re-checks its own output to confirm the metadata is really gone before it tells you the file is clean.
The short version
Photos leak your location through hidden metadata. Strip it locally before sharing — never by uploading to a site. Get scrub free and clean a photo in about ten seconds.