Does removing Exif reduce image quality?

Not with this tool. It does not redraw (recompress) the image; it only strips out the parts that hold Exif and XMP, so the photo's pixels do not change by a single bit. Re-exporting with an image converter or a screenshot also removes Exif, but it recompresses the JPEG and lowers quality slightly.

Can I remove only the location and keep the shooting date?

Yes. In "Choose what to remove", select only "Location (GPS)". The Exif GPS items and the locations written in XMP and IPTC are removed together, while the shooting date, device model and shooting settings stay as they are. You can keep sorting by date in your photo app.

What does Exif Orientation 6 mean?

It means "display rotated 90 degrees clockwise." Photos taken with the phone held upright are often stored sideways, with Orientation = 6 telling viewers to rotate them when displaying. If you remove all Exif, that instruction disappears too, so the photo appears lying on its side. This tool's "Remove everything" keeps only Orientation by default.

What is the problem with an embedded thumbnail?

Exif can contain a small reduced image used for previews. Some editing apps do not regenerate it when you crop a photo or paint over part of it, so the area you cut off, or the face or text you hid, can remain in the thumbnail. This tool warns about thumbnails whose aspect ratio differs from the main image, and can remove just the thumbnail.

Can a photo reveal the camera's serial number?

Many DSLR and mirrorless cameras write serial numbers in Exif BodySerialNumber (the camera body's manufacturing number), LensSerialNumber and the maker note. By searching for photos with the same number, someone can tell that photos posted under different names were taken with the same camera. You can remove them by selecting "Serial numbers & unique IDs".

Isn't the location removed when I post to social media?

Many social networks recompress images when you post, so it is often gone from the published image. However, the original photo is still uploaded to the service once. And when you send a photo as a file by email or chat, via a cloud sharing link, with AirDrop, or upload it to your own blog, the location can reach the recipient intact. Removing it on your own device before handing it over is the safe way.

Can I check and clean iPhone HEIC photos too?

Yes. For HEIC, Exif and XMP are read, and items are removed in place and filled with 0. The HEIC preview only appears in browsers that support it, such as Safari, but checking and removing information works in any browser. When choosing photos on an iPhone, pick them from the "Photo Library" so they load with their location data.

How do I open Exif latitude/longitude in Google Maps?

Exif latitude and longitude are three numbers in degrees, minutes and seconds, like 35°40'52.45", with a separate north/south and east/west marker. In decimal this is 35 + 40/60 + 52.45/3600 = 35.681236, with south and west being negative. This tool converts it automatically and shows a map link. In the "Convert Lat/Long" tab you can also convert DMS typed by hand or Exif rationals such as (35/1, 40/1, 5245/100).

Photo Exif & Location Checker | Check GPS, Serial Numbers and Thumbnails, Then Remove Them Without Quality Loss

The Photo Exif & Location Checker reads the information stored in JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC photos and shows it color-coded as "High risk" or "Caution" by type: location (latitude/longitude, altitude, the direction the camera faced), shooting date and time zone, device and lens, camera body and lens serial numbers, photographer name and copyright, embedded thumbnails, XMP edit history, and even motion-photo video. Removal does not redraw the image; it only strips out the parts that hold information, so image quality does not change by a single bit. Besides "Remove everything (keep only the orientation)", you can choose what to remove, such as "remove the location and serial numbers but keep the shooting date". It also detects thumbnails that still hold the pre-crop photo, re-reads the cleaned file to verify, removes info from any number of photos at once and saves them as a ZIP, converts latitude/longitude between DMS and decimal, and includes a quick reference for Orientation and Flash values. Photos are processed only inside your browser and are never sent to a server.

1. Choose photos

Supports JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF. Pick as many as you like. Photos are read only inside your browser and never sent to a server (it works even offline).

Drop photos here, or tap to choose

On iPhone, choose from the "Photo Library" so the location data is kept when loading

3. Choose how to remove, then create the cleaned file

The image is not redrawn; only the parts holding information are removed. Quality stays the same and the file hardly gets smaller. The original photo is not modified (a new file is saved).

Keep only the orientation (Orientation)If you uncheck this, photos taken in portrait may show up lying on their side. The orientation reveals nothing about a person or place.

Please choose photos first.

ABOUT

About Photo Exif & Location Checker | Check GPS, Serial Numbers and Thumbnails, Then Remove Them Without Quality Loss

The Photo Exif & Location Checker reads the "invisible information" stored in a photo file, shows it color-coded starting with whatever could identify a person or place, and removes it without changing the image quality. It supports JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF, and finds Exif GPS (latitude, longitude, altitude, accuracy, the direction the camera faced, GPS time), shooting date and time zone, maker/model/lens, camera body and lens serial numbers and maker notes, photographer/owner names, copyright and comments, embedded thumbnails, XMP (edit history, names on face tags, creator tool), IPTC location, PNG text, and even the motion-photo video appended to the end of the file together with its shooting location. Removal never redraws the image. For JPEG, PNG and WebP, only the blocks holding information are stripped and the rest is stitched back together; "Choose what to remove" and HEIC remove just the matching items in place and fill them with 0, so not one pixel changes and there is none of the recompression loss you get when re-exporting with an image converter. "Remove everything" keeps only the orientation (Orientation), so portrait photos do not end up lying on their side. The cleaned file is read again to confirm that no location data is left before you get it. It also warns about thumbnails whose aspect ratio differs from the main image (to catch pre-crop or pre-redaction pictures), can clean any number of photos at once and save them as a ZIP, converts latitude/longitude between DMS and decimal, and includes a quick reference for Orientation and Flash values. Photos are processed only inside your browser and are never sent anywhere.

How to use Photo Exif & Location Checker | Check GPS, Serial Numbers and Thumbnails, Then Remove Them Without Quality Loss

1Drag photos onto "Drop photos here" or tap to choose them (any number; to just try it, use "Try a sample photo")
2On each photo's card, check the red (high risk) and yellow (caution) badges and "what the recipient can see if you share it as is"
3If location data is present, check how precisely the place can be pinned down using the latitude/longitude and the map links
4Use "Show all items" to review the Exif, XMP and IPTC items by type
5Choose "Remove everything" or "Choose what to remove" (location, serial numbers, names, thumbnail, shooting date and so on)
6Press "Create cleaned file" and look at the post-removal check (Location: none, image data unchanged)
7Download each photo, or save them all with "Download all (ZIP)"

Great for

Check that a photo does not contain your home location before posting it to social media, a blog or a flea-market app
Remove only the Exif from a photo without losing quality (without recompressing)
Remove just the location and keep the shooting date so you can still organize photos
Strip the location and serial numbers before sending a photo as a file by email or chat
Find out what information is stored in a photo you received or an image you downloaded
Check that a cropped or painted-over photo does not still carry the pre-edit thumbnail
Check whether the camera body serial number is recorded in a photo
Check whether a motion photo, such as from a Google Pixel, includes the video's shooting location
Convert Exif latitude/longitude (DMS) to decimal to paste into a map
Understand why photos with Exif Orientation 6 or 8 appear lying on their side

Good to know

Photos are read only inside your browser and never sent to a server. The map opens only when you click a link such as "View on Google Maps", and even then the photo is not sent.
Removing information does not modify the original photo. It is saved as a new file with "_clean" added to the name.
For JPEG, "Remove everything" keeps the ICC profile (used to display colors correctly) and the JFIF and Adobe blocks. They cannot be used to identify a person or place.
"Choose what to remove" fills removed items with 0 and does not move the other items. The file size barely changes so that the contents of the maker note are not corrupted.
Location written in XMP (such as exif:GPSLatitude), place names, and IPTC locations are removed together as location data.
For motion photos (a video appended after the photo), "Remove everything" strips the video and leaves a normal photo. Choosing location under "Choose what to remove" removes only the video's shooting location (©xyz).
HEIC and AVIF are cleaned by removing items in place. The orientation of an iPhone HEIC is determined by information separate from Exif, so removing Exif does not change it.
TIFF and RAW (DNG, CR2, NEF, ARW, etc.) can be inspected only. Removal is not supported because the image data and Exif live in the same structure.
Even without Exif, what appears in the photo (nameplates, mail, the view from a window, uniforms, etc.) can reveal the location. Check what is visible before you shoot or post.

Questions this tool answers

Use Photo Exif & Location Checker | Check GPS, Serial Numbers and Thumbnails, Then Remove Them Without Quality Loss for searches like these:

I want to check whether a photo contains location data
I want to remove a photo's location without losing quality
I want to remove only the location and keep the shooting date
I want to remove Exif from many photos at once
I want to check Exif in the browser without uploading
I want to know whether a photo reveals the camera's serial number
I want to check whether the pre-crop photo remains in the Exif thumbnail
I want to know what Exif Orientation 6 means
I want to convert Exif latitude/longitude from DMS to decimal
I want to remove the location from an HEIC photo

FAQ

Does removing Exif reduce image quality?: Not with this tool. It does not redraw (recompress) the image; it only strips out the parts that hold Exif and XMP, so the photo's pixels do not change by a single bit. Re-exporting with an image converter or a screenshot also removes Exif, but it recompresses the JPEG and lowers quality slightly.
Can I remove only the location and keep the shooting date?: Yes. In "Choose what to remove", select only "Location (GPS)". The Exif GPS items and the locations written in XMP and IPTC are removed together, while the shooting date, device model and shooting settings stay as they are. You can keep sorting by date in your photo app.
What does Exif Orientation 6 mean?: It means "display rotated 90 degrees clockwise." Photos taken with the phone held upright are often stored sideways, with Orientation = 6 telling viewers to rotate them when displaying. If you remove all Exif, that instruction disappears too, so the photo appears lying on its side. This tool's "Remove everything" keeps only Orientation by default.
What is the problem with an embedded thumbnail?: Exif can contain a small reduced image used for previews. Some editing apps do not regenerate it when you crop a photo or paint over part of it, so the area you cut off, or the face or text you hid, can remain in the thumbnail. This tool warns about thumbnails whose aspect ratio differs from the main image, and can remove just the thumbnail.
Can a photo reveal the camera's serial number?: Many DSLR and mirrorless cameras write serial numbers in Exif BodySerialNumber (the camera body's manufacturing number), LensSerialNumber and the maker note. By searching for photos with the same number, someone can tell that photos posted under different names were taken with the same camera. You can remove them by selecting "Serial numbers & unique IDs".
Isn't the location removed when I post to social media?: Many social networks recompress images when you post, so it is often gone from the published image. However, the original photo is still uploaded to the service once. And when you send a photo as a file by email or chat, via a cloud sharing link, with AirDrop, or upload it to your own blog, the location can reach the recipient intact. Removing it on your own device before handing it over is the safe way.
Can I check and clean iPhone HEIC photos too?: Yes. For HEIC, Exif and XMP are read, and items are removed in place and filled with 0. The HEIC preview only appears in browsers that support it, such as Safari, but checking and removing information works in any browser. When choosing photos on an iPhone, pick them from the "Photo Library" so they load with their location data.
How do I open Exif latitude/longitude in Google Maps?: Exif latitude and longitude are three numbers in degrees, minutes and seconds, like 35°40'52.45", with a separate north/south and east/west marker. In decimal this is 35 + 40/60 + 52.45/3600 = 35.681236, with south and west being negative. This tool converts it automatically and shows a map link. In the "Convert Lat/Long" tab you can also convert DMS typed by hand or Exif rationals such as (35/1, 40/1, 5245/100).

Special Thanks

SOLO GUILD | サービス作るAIエンジニア

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