How to use it
- Add the photos you want to clean.
- Each one is cleaned straight away. A note explains how.
- Download them. Cleaned files are named with
-cleanon the end.
What gets removed, and what stays
For JPGs, the EXIF block (camera, date, GPS, thumbnail), XMP editing data, IPTC captions, Photoshop data and comments are all removed. Two things are kept on purpose: the ICC colour profile, so colours do not shift, and the basic JFIF header. The compressed picture data is copied byte for byte, so there is no loss of quality at all.
PNGs lose their text, date and EXIF chunks. WebPs lose their EXIF and XMP chunks. Again, the image data is untouched.
The sideways photo problem
Phones often store photos unrotated, with an EXIF tag saying which way is up. Deleting EXIF deletes that tag too, and the photo appears on its side. When the tool spots a rotation tag, it re-saves that JPG the right way up at high quality instead, and tells you it did so. Most metadata tools skip this step and leave you with sideways photos.
Other formats
HEIC, TIFF and AVIF files are converted to clean JPGs, since their metadata cannot be removed safely in place. BMP and GIF files do not carry camera metadata, so they are passed through unchanged.
Questions people ask
Does removing EXIF data reduce quality?
Not for JPG, PNG or WebP. Only metadata is removed; the image data is copied exactly. The one exception is JPGs that rely on a rotation tag, which are re-saved upright at 92% quality.
Do social networks remove location data anyway?
Many large ones do for public posts, but you cannot rely on it everywhere. Email, cloud links, some messaging apps and marketplaces often pass the original file on.
How can I check it worked?
Open the cleaned file in the EXIF viewer. It should show no camera or GPS fields.
Can I stop my phone adding location in the first place?
Yes. Turn off location access for the Camera app in your phone’s privacy settings. iPhones also let you switch off location for a single photo in the share sheet’s Options.