Metadata Editor
View all metadata in your photo, organized by category with privacy risk indicators. Select which categories to remove — GPS, dates, camera info, software — and download a clean version.
300+ images cleaned
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Categorized View
All metadata fields organized into GPS, Date, Camera, Software, Copyright, and Image Properties — with privacy risk indicators for each category.
Selective Removal
Toggle categories individually — strip GPS data while keeping camera settings, or remove everything. GPS is auto-flagged as high risk.
Privacy First
Metadata is read server-side (auto-deleted within 1 hour). The clean image is generated in your browser via Canvas re-encode — no server storage of the result.
How the metadata editor works
The editor reads all EXIF, XMP, and IPTC metadata from your image and displays it organized into six categories: GPS/Location, Date/Time, Camera/Lens, Software, Copyright/Author, and Image Properties. Each category has a risk indicator — GPS is flagged as high risk because it reveals your physical location. Toggle the categories you want to strip, then download a clean version. The clean image is re-encoded via the Canvas API in your browser, which strips all metadata. For a quick full strip without review, use the EXIF Remover.
Why GPS metadata is high risk
GPS coordinates embedded in photos can pinpoint where the photo was taken — your home, workplace, school, or frequent locations. When shared on platforms that don't strip metadata, this data becomes publicly accessible. The editor auto-selects GPS for removal because it's the highest privacy risk. To see your GPS data on a map before removing it, try the GPS Map Viewer. For an overall privacy assessment, use the Privacy Score tool.
Selective vs full metadata removal
The EXIF Remover strips all metadata in one click — fast but indiscriminate. The Metadata Editor lets you review every field first, understand what's exposed, and decide what to keep. Photographers may want to keep camera settings and copyright info while removing GPS and timestamps. Journalists may need to strip everything for source protection. The categorized view with risk indicators helps you make informed decisions. For full EXIF details before editing, check the EXIF Checker.
Privacy and security
Reading metadata requires server-side processing (PHP's exif_read_data), so the image is uploaded temporarily. It is auto-deleted within one hour. The clean download, however, is generated entirely in your browser — Canvas re-encode produces a new image with zero metadata. No clean image is ever sent to the server. For blurring faces before sharing, combine with the Face Blur tool. Explore all 88 image tools. Before editing, check your current privacy exposure with the Privacy Score tool.
Different professions need different metadata strategies. Stock photographers preparing images for agencies should keep copyright, contact, and keyword fields (IPTC) while stripping GPS coordinates and timestamps — buyers need attribution info, not your home address. Social media managers publishing to platforms that do not strip metadata automatically should remove location and device information to prevent user tracking. Journalists covering sensitive stories should strip everything to protect sources, sometimes even re-encoding to eliminate traces of the originating camera model.
Image metadata spans three main standards, each carrying different information and privacy risks. EXIF stores camera settings, GPS, timestamps, and device identifiers — the highest privacy risk category. XMP holds Adobe processing history, keywords, and editing software chains — lower risk but can reveal workflow details. IPTC contains captions, credits, and copyright — typically safe to keep and often required for proper attribution. Understanding which standard holds which data helps you make informed selective removal decisions rather than blindly stripping everything.
Before editing metadata, verify the result is clean by checking it with the File Hash Scanner to confirm the file changed, or encrypt sensitive images with the Image Encryption tool for secure storage. For batch metadata review across multiple images before a bulk edit, the Batch Scanner shows all metadata fields side by side. If you need to compare the metadata of two versions of the same image (before and after editing), use the EXIF Compare tool. For a full walkthrough with role-specific strategies, read the metadata editor guide.