How it works
Photos often carry hidden EXIF data: the camera or phone model, the date and time, editing software and — on many phones — the GPS location where the photo was taken. Image reads it locally and shows what's there. If a location is present you'll see “This image contains location metadata.” Image never decodes or looks up the coordinates.
For JPEG, PNG and WebP, removal is lossless: the file is rewritten without its metadata blocks while the compressed image data is copied byte-for-byte — no recompression, no quality change. Removed: EXIF (including GPS), XMP, IPTC, comments and text chunks. The colour profile is kept by default because it contains no personal data; you can remove it too.
Afterwards, Image re-reads the output file and shows what's left, so you can verify the result rather than take it on trust.
Worked example
A 3.4 MB JPEG straight from a phone typically contains:
- EXIF: phone make and model, date taken, software version, exposure settings
- GPS: latitude, longitude, altitude
- A colour profile (Display P3)
After removal it's a few kilobytes smaller, looks identical, and the verification table shows EXIF: None, GPS: None — with the colour profile still present.
Edge cases handled
- Sideways phone photos: a minimal orientation-only flag is kept so they still display upright.
- Hidden preview images appended after the main JPEG are removed too.
- AVIF and GIF: converted to a metadata-free WebP (shown explicitly) — no lossless rewrite exists here.
- Animated files: refused for lossless removal; first-frame WebP only after confirmation.
- Files without metadata: reported as clean; you can still drop the colour profile.