Muhammad Afan
Every photo your phone takes can store hidden details alongside the picture: the date and time, the phone model, camera settings and, if location services are on, GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres. This block of data is called EXIF.
Most of the time that's useful. Your gallery uses it to sort photos by place. But when you post a photo of your new sofa on a marketplace listing or email a picture of your kid's school play, you may be sharing your address too.
Check whether a photo has location data
Drop the photo into an EXIF viewer. If GPS coordinates are present it shows them, with a link to the spot on a map. It's a sobering thing to try on a photo taken at home.
On a computer you can also check manually. On Windows, right-click the file, choose Properties, then the Details tab and look for the GPS section. On a Mac, open the photo in Preview and choose Tools › Show Inspector, then look for a GPS tab.
Remove it before sharing
On any device, using a browser
Open the EXIF viewer, drop the photo in, and click Remove metadata. For JPG and PNG files the metadata is cut out without re-encoding the picture, so there's no quality loss at all. The cleaned copy downloads straight away, and the original is never uploaded.
On iPhone
When you share a photo from the Photos app, look at the top of the share sheet for Options. Tap it and switch off Location. That copy goes out without GPS data, while the photo in your library keeps it.
To remove location from the photo in your library, open it, swipe up to show the details, tap Adjust next to the location and choose No Location.
On Android
It depends on the manufacturer, but the camera app usually has a setting called Save location or Location tags. Turning it off stops new photos from recording GPS. For photos you've already taken, the Google Photos app can remove location from items you share via link: look for the location option in its sharing settings.
On Windows
Right-click the photo, choose Properties › Details, and click Remove Properties and Personal Information at the bottom. You can either strip the original or create a clean copy. The second option is safer.
Stop recording location altogether
If you never want location in your photos, turn it off at the source. On iPhone that's Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera › Never. On Android, use the camera app's setting mentioned above. You'll lose the "Places" map in your gallery, so many people prefer stripping on the way out instead.
Which apps strip location for you?
Some services remove EXIF data when you upload, others pass the original file along untouched.
Usually stripped: Facebook, Instagram and X remove location data from photos they publish. WhatsApp re-compresses photos sent the normal way, which drops the metadata.
Usually kept: email attachments, AirDrop, cloud storage links (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud links), messaging apps when you send a photo "as a file" or "as a document", and many online marketplaces and forums.
The platforms change their behaviour from time to time, so don't rely on them. If location matters, strip it yourself before the photo leaves your phone.
Other things photos can give away
Location is the big one, but not the only one. EXIF can include the owner name set on a camera, the device's serial number, and editing software. Beyond metadata, check the picture itself: house numbers, number plates, school logos and a window view can reveal as much as GPS does.
Frequently asked questions
Does a screenshot contain location data?
Screenshots don't record GPS. They can still include personal information visible on screen, so check what's in the frame.
Does converting a photo remove EXIF?
Converting with a browser-based tool usually does, because a new image is encoded and the metadata isn't copied. Our HEIC to JPG converter and image compressor both produce clean files. Desktop editors often copy the metadata across, so check the result.
Can someone see my location from a photo I posted on Instagram?
Not from the file, because Instagram strips the GPS data. They can see any location tag you add to the post, and they can sometimes work out where you are from what's in the picture.
Is removing EXIF the same as making a photo anonymous?
No. It removes the hidden data, but faces, landmarks and reflections in the image itself can still identify a place or person.
