Free photo tools/Remove the location from a photo

How to share an iPhone photo without its location

In the Photos app, select the photo, tap the Share button, tap Options, and turn off Location. The sheet then reads "Location Not Included", and the photo goes out without the place where it was taken. The photo in your library keeps its location.

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

The steps

Apple describes them in its guide Manage location metadata in Photos, under "Don't share location metadata when you share photos".

1. Open the Photos app and select one or more photos. You can also start from a photo in the Camera app.
2. Tap the Share button.
3. Tap Options.
4. Turn off Location, then tap Done.
5. Check that the sheet reads Location Not Included above the Options button.
6. Share the photos with one of the methods in the sheet.

The same steps work on an iPad.

What the switch covers

• It is for this share. Look at the line above Options each time you share. It tells you whether the location goes along.
• It leaves your library alone. The photo in Photos keeps its place, so your map and your search by place still work.
• It is about the location. A photo file holds more: the date and the time, the model of the iPhone, the lens, the software. To see what a shared copy holds, send one to yourself and open it in the photo metadata tool.
• It is a switch in the share sheet. For a photo that sits in Files or arrives as a download, make a copy without the location, as described below.

Why it matters

Apple says it plainly: when you share photos and videos that include location metadata, the people you share them with may be able to access that metadata and learn where a photo was taken. A photo taken in your living room holds the position of your living room. That is fine for your family, and it is more than a buyer on a marketplace, a forum, or a new acquaintance needs.

When the photo is a file

Not every photo on an iPhone is in the Photos library. A picture can sit in Files, in a download, in an email, or in a chat, and photos from another phone or from a camera arrive as files too. For those, make a copy without the location:

1. Open the remove location tool in Safari.
2. Tap Choose a photo and pick the file.
3. Look at what the tool found: the GPS position as numbers, and the place names.
4. Tap Remove the location. The date and the camera stay. To clear those too, tap Remove all metadata.
5. Download the copy. Safari saves it to the Downloads folder in the Files app. Share it from there.

The copy has the name of the original with -no-location added. The picture in it is the same, byte for byte. The tool runs inside Safari on your iPhone, and the photo stays on the device.

Check what you sent

A check takes a minute. Send the photo to yourself the same way you will send it to others: by AirDrop to another device, by email, or in a chat with yourself. Save what arrives and choose it in the remove location tool. The tool says either where the photo was taken or that the file holds no GPS position and no place name.

This check also answers the question for any app that you use. Apps treat photos in different ways, and the same app can treat a photo differently when you send it as a file. One test with your own app, your own settings, and your own photo tells you what the people at the other end get.

Three habits that cover most cases

• Read the line above Options each time you share from Photos.
• Make a copy without the location for a photo that goes to a public place: a listing, a forum, a review, a profile.
• Look at the picture itself. A house number, a street sign, or a school logo tells the place with no metadata at all. Cover that part before you send.

If you want no place in any new photo, turn the location off for the camera. The guide How to turn off the location for the iPhone camera has the steps.