# Remove EXIF Data - Strip Photo Metadata & GPS Location

Page: https://hirantha.me/tools/remove-exif
Part of: Hirantha Sandaruwan Lakshan free tools (https://hirantha.me/tools)
Updated: 2026-07-31

Strip location and camera metadata from a photo before sharing it.

This is a free tool that runs in the browser: open the page to use it. File tools process files on the visitor's own device; files are never uploaded or stored. No account, sign-up, payment or watermark.

Strip hidden metadata - including GPS location, camera model, and timestamp - from a photo before sharing it, entirely in your browser. The photo is re-encoded through canvas at a high quality setting, which drops metadata as a side effect while keeping visible quality intact.

Photos from phones and cameras often embed EXIF metadata: GPS coordinates of where it was taken, the exact device model, and the timestamp - none of which is visible in the image itself.

Re-encoding the image through a canvas draws only the visible pixels to a fresh image buffer; the metadata fields were never part of that pixel data, so they don't carry over.

The default quality is set high specifically for this tool, since the goal is removing metadata invisibly, not shrinking the file - a side effect is a small amount of re-encoding loss, kept minimal at the default setting.

Q: Is my photo uploaded anywhere to remove the metadata?
A: No, the whole process runs in your browser tab - the photo never leaves your device.

Q: Will this reduce my photo's visible quality?
A: The default quality setting is kept high specifically for this tool, so any re-encoding loss is minimal and usually not visible.

Q: What exactly gets removed?
A: All EXIF metadata, including GPS location, camera make and model, timestamp, and any other embedded fields - none of it survives the canvas re-encode.

Q: Does this also work on PNG files?
A: Yes - PNG can carry similar embedded metadata, and re-encoding through canvas strips it the same way.

Q: Can I strip metadata from several photos at once?
A: Yes, queue up multiple files and they'll all be processed together.

Q: Why does removing EXIF matter for privacy?
A: Photos from a phone often embed the exact GPS coordinates where they were taken, plus the timestamp and device. Sharing an unmodified photo can reveal your home address without you realising.

Q: Doesn't social media already strip EXIF?
A: Most large platforms do strip it on upload, but not all, and it survives when you send a photo by email, message, or as a file attachment - which is where it usually leaks.

Q: Will removing EXIF rotate my photo incorrectly?
A: No. The orientation flag is applied to the actual pixels before the metadata is dropped, so the photo stays the right way up.

Sources: Exif - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif); createImageBitmap() - MDN (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/createImageBitmap)

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- [PNG to JPG converter](https://hirantha.me/tools/png-to-jpg.md): Convert PNG images to JPG, free and in your browser.
- [Rotate and flip an image](https://hirantha.me/tools/image-rotate-flip.md): Rotate a photo 90, 180 or any angle, flip it left to right or top to bottom, preview it live and save it as PNG, JPEG or WebP. Nothing is uploaded.