Free photo tools/View and remove photo metadata

How to remove metadata from a photo on an iPhone

An iPhone has a built-in switch for one part of the metadata, the location: in Photos, tap Share, then Options, and turn off Location. To remove the rest as well, such as the date, the phone model, and the software, make a clean copy with a tool that runs in Safari. Both ways are below, step by step.

By Paul Bădărău, maker of Milkglass. Written on 7 October 2026.

First, see what your photo holds

Open the photo in the Photos app and swipe up, or tap the Info button. Photos shows the date and the time, the device, camera details such as the lens, the file size, and the place on a map. That is the part of the metadata that Photos displays. The file can hold more: the software version, serial numbers, a block of text from an editing app, and a small preview picture.

For the complete list, open the photo metadata tool in Safari and choose the photo. It shows what it finds in the file, in groups.

Way 1: leave the location out when you share

This is Apple's own control, described in the guide Manage location metadata in Photos.

1. Open the Photos app and select one or more photos.
2. Tap the Share button.
3. Tap Options.
4. Turn off Location. The sheet now reads "Location Not Included".
5. Share the photos with one of the methods in the sheet.

The switch is for the share you are making. Your photo in the library keeps its place, so your map and your search still work. The switch is about the location. To see what else the shared copy holds, send it to yourself once and look at it in the metadata tool.

Way 2: make a clean copy in Safari

Use this when you want the date, the camera, and the software gone too, or when the photo is a file and not in the Photos library.

1. Open milkglass.app/tools/photo-metadata in Safari.
2. Tap Choose a photo and pick the photo from the Photos library or from Files.
3. Read the list of what the file holds.
4. Tap Remove all metadata. The page shows what was removed and what was kept.
5. Tap Download the clean photo. Safari saves it to the Downloads folder.
6. Open the Files app, tap Browse, and open Downloads. Apple shows the way in Where to find downloads on your iPhone or iPad. Share the clean copy from there.

The clean copy has the name of the original with -no-metadata added, so you can tell the two apart. The tool runs on your iPhone, inside Safari. The photo stays on the device.

What stays in the clean copy

Two things, and both are there for the picture:

• The orientation. An iPhone stores a portrait photo sideways, with one number that says how to turn it. The tool keeps that number, so the photo stays upright.
• The color profile. It tells a screen what the color numbers in the file mean. With it, the colors of the clean copy match the original.

The picture data itself stays byte for byte. The tool takes the metadata out of the file and leaves the compressed picture alone, so the quality is the same.

HEIC and JPEG

The iPhone camera saves photos in the High Efficiency format, HEIC, unless you chose Most Compatible in the Camera settings, which gives JPEG. Apple explains the two in Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices. The tool reads both. A clean HEIC stays a HEIC of the same size, because the metadata is overwritten in place.

Stop the location at the source

If you never want a place in your photos, turn it off in the camera: go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services, then Camera, and tap Never. New photos then carry no location. The date, the device, and the settings are still written, so a clean copy is still the way to remove those. The guide How to turn off the location for the iPhone camera has the detail.

Which way to use

• A photo to a friend, and only the place matters: the Location switch in Options.
• A photo to a stranger or to a public page: a clean copy, made with Remove all metadata.
• A photo that is a file in Files or in an email: the tool, since the switch belongs to the Photos app.