Metadata remover: remove metadata from photos without re-saving them
Photos from phones and cameras can carry GPS coordinates, the device model, serial numbers and the exact time each shot was taken.
Drop files here or paste an image. Photo on your phone? Open scrubphoto.com there.
- No upload. Works offline once the page loads.
- Lossless. Every pixel kept, byte for byte.
- Free. No sign-up, no limits.
No photo handy?
To remove metadata from a photo, choose it in the tool above, tap the Scrub button and save the clean copy. ScrubPhoto strips GPS location, camera details, serial numbers, timestamps and editing software from JPEG, PNG and WebP files in your browser. The image data itself is never touched.
What hidden metadata a photo carries
Cameras and apps store data alongside the image that most people never see:
- Location. Apple's personal safety guide says that when Camera has Location Services access, the coordinates are embedded into each photo and video.
- The device: camera make and model, the lens, and sometimes a body serial number.
- Time: the date and time of the shot, down to the second.
- Software: the editing app, plus XMP and IPTC fields that can hold your name, captions and AI tags.
- Extras: an embedded thumbnail, and on Samsung and Google motion photos a short video stored after the image.
The metadata viewer shows which your file has.
When to strip metadata from a photo before you share it
- Selling items online. A photo of a bike leaning in your hallway can carry the coordinates of your front door.
- Dating profiles. Pictures taken at home or at work can reveal where you live and when you are usually there.
- Real estate listings. The address is public, but a phone's photo set can include shots taken elsewhere and the dates you visited.
- Journalists and sources. A serial number ties a photo to one camera and a timestamp to one moment, and both can point back to the photographer.
- Photos of kids. Location tags on school runs, parks and birthday parties can map out a child's week.
You cannot see what a website does with a file after upload, and an email attachment arrives exactly as you attached it. Clean the file first and neither matters.
Lossless metadata removal versus re-saving the image
A common shortcut is to draw the photo on a browser canvas and save a new file, and two things go wrong. JPEG compression runs again, so fine detail and gradients lose a little more each time. And MDN's canvas reference lists sRGB as a canvas's default color space, so a wide-gamut Display P3 photo can come out flatter.
ScrubPhoto edits the file's structure instead: it walks the segments or chunks, drops the metadata ones and copies the image data as it is. The color profile and any needed orientation stay. The result card says "Pixels identical", and the test suite checks that claim by decoding both files with independent software.
Remove metadata from JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC
JPEG
EXIF, XMP, IPTC, C2PA, comments and anything appended after the image are removed, while the color profile and image data stay.
Remove metadata from PNG
PNG stores text in chunks. ScrubPhoto drops the text, EXIF, time and C2PA chunks, including prompts and workflows written by Stable Diffusion WebUI and ComfyUI. Chunks that change how the image looks, like the color profile and transparency, stay.
WebP
Extended WebP files lose their EXIF, XMP and C2PA chunks. Simple WebP files carry none, so they come back unchanged.
HEIC from iPhone
HEIC is not lossless in this version. In Safari, which can decode it, the tool converts the photo to a JPEG at quality 95 and marks the result "re-encoded, not lossless". Chrome and Android browsers cannot decode HEIC. Apple's HEIF support page says choosing Most Compatible in the camera format settings makes new photos save as JPEG, which ScrubPhoto handles losslessly.
Built-in ways to remove location from a photo
Phones have their own location controls. Apple's guide says you can switch off Location under Options in the Share Sheet before sending, or stop the Camera from saving location at all. Google's Pixel Camera help says to turn off Save location in the camera settings. Both are described as location controls, so use the scrubber when the camera data and dates matter too. Step-by-step guides: iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows.
Questions about removing metadata from photos
Is there a free metadata remover that does not upload photos?
Yes, this one. ScrubPhoto runs in your browser, so photos never go to a server, and there is no account or file limit.
How do I remove location from a photo?
Scrub it here, which deletes the GPS data with the rest of the metadata. Run the clean copy through the checker to confirm.
Does removing metadata reduce photo quality?
Not here. The image data is copied byte for byte, so JPEG, PNG and WebP output is identical. HEIC is the labeled exception.
How do I strip metadata from a photo on iPhone?
Open this page in Safari, pick the photo, scrub it, tap Share and choose Save Image. The iPhone guide also covers the built-in switches.
Can I delete metadata from many photos at once?
Yes. Pick as many as you like, scrub them together and use Download all (.zip). There is no count limit, though the tool warns past 500 MB of images.
Is a metadata cleaner the same as a metadata stripper or scrubber?
Yes, they name the same job, and so does "scrub metadata". What differs between tools is whether they re-save the image along the way.
Does removing metadata also remove AI labels?
It removes C2PA Content Credentials, which Meta and TikTok both read, and the IPTC tags Meta reads. Watermarks and self-disclosure stay outside its reach, as the limits page explains. The C2PA remover page covers that side in depth.
Sources
Official pages this page was checked against in October 2026: