Remove location from a photo before you post it
Check whether your photo says where it was taken, strip that out with a clean copy, and stop your phone from adding it to the next one.
To remove the location from a photo, delete its EXIF metadata, which is where your phone stores exact GPS coordinates. With the EXIF metadata viewer you can check whether a photo carries them, see the spot on a map and download a clean copy, all in your browser, without uploading the photo. Do this before listing an item on a marketplace, sending a picture of your home or posting an image to a forum.
Does your photo have a location?
Many phones save the shooting location in every photo unless you've switched that off in the camera settings. The picture looks the same, but the file includes latitude and longitude, and anyone who receives the original file can read them.
To check, open the photo in the EXIF viewer. If it has a location, the tool flags it with a warning and offers a link to view it on OpenStreetMap. If it doesn't, it says so. What else a picture can give away, such as the phone model or the date, is covered in what your photos reveal about you.
How to remove it with a clean copy
- Open the EXIF viewer and drop your photo (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or TIFF, up to 50 MB). You can add several.
- Review the metadata. The GPS Location group shows coordinates when they exist.
- Click Download clean copy. The copy comes out without metadata and the tool confirms "No GPS location".
- If you loaded several, download them together as a ZIP named
photos-without-metadata.zip.
Three limits to know about:
- Only JPEG and PNG. For other formats the tool can't strip metadata without recompressing the image, so it offers no clean copy.
- WebP can't be read. The tool says it can't tell whether the file has metadata.
- Orientation. A photo with a rotation tag loses it when cleaned, so a portrait shot may look sideways. The tool warns you when that applies.
The iPhone HEIC catch
iPhone photos are often saved as HEIC. The viewer reads them and shows the location, but it doesn't offer a clean copy for that format. The route is to convert them with HEIC to JPG: by the tool's own note, converted photos contain no metadata, meaning no EXIF, no GPS location and no capture date. It's the shortest way from an iPhone photo to a JPG without a location. For the conversion itself, see HEIC to JPG on iPhone, Windows and Mac.
What your phone can do on its own
Before reaching for another tool, the phone can help:
- On an iPhone, the options in the share sheet let you turn off location for that one send. The exact wording varies by iOS version.
- On Android, it depends on the gallery or camera app: some let you remove location when sharing and others don't.
- At the source, you can stop the camera from saving location in new photos from the camera or location settings.
None of these fix photos you already have, and you can't always know what the app you post to does. A clean copy gives you certainty about the file that leaves your device.
What if you already posted the photo?
Cleaning the file now doesn't recall copies that others may have saved, but it still helps in two ways. Replace the post with a cleaned version so new viewers can't read the location from the original, and turn off location tagging so the next photos start clean. If the image shows where you live and you're worried, treat the old location as public and plan accordingly. Re-opening the cleaned copy in the viewer is a quick way to confirm: it should report no GPS location and no other personal fields.
When does it really matter?
Location matters most when the photo shows a private place: your home, your kids' school, somewhere you're often found. Emailing the original file or sending it as a document keeps all the metadata. For a public page, cleaning first beats trusting whatever the site does with it. And to trim the weight too, run Compress Image after cleaning.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove the location from a photo?
Delete its EXIF metadata. You can do that with a clean copy from a metadata viewer, or with your phone's share options if it has them. The tool here downloads a copy without metadata for JPEG and PNG photos.
How can I tell if a photo has a location?
Open it in a metadata viewer. If it has GPS coordinates, the viewer flags it and you can see them on a map. If not, it reports no location data.
What should I do with iPhone HEIC photos?
Convert them with HEIC to JPG: converted photos come out without metadata, location included. The EXIF viewer reads HEIC files but doesn't offer a clean copy for that format.
Why does my cleaned photo come out rotated?
The rotation tag is metadata too, and cleaning drops it. If a portrait photo comes out sideways, rotate it with another tool after cleaning.
How do I stop my phone from saving the location in new photos?
In the camera or location settings of your phone you can stop the camera from saving the location. That doesn't fix the photos you already have: for those you need a clean copy.
Is my photo uploaded when I clean it?
No. The metadata is read and removed in your browser and the copy downloads from your device. You can check the Network tab in developer tools: analytics requests show up, but no POST or PUT the size of your file.
Check and clean your photo
See whether it carries GPS data and download a copy without metadata. Runs locally, free, no signup.
Open EXIF Viewer →Related tools
- EXIF Viewer: read and strip photo metadata, with a GPS location warning.
- HEIC to JPG: convert iPhone photos, with no metadata in the result.
- Compress Image: shrink the cleaned photo.
- PDF Metadata: do the same with a PDF's author and software.
You might also like: what PDF metadata reveals about you, why selfies look flipped and Resize a photo to fit an online form's limits.