The short answer
Most phone photos contain the exact coordinates where they were taken, often precise to a few meters. Anyone who gets the original file can read them with a free viewer and see your street, sometimes your house.
Drop your photos into the remover below. Location only is already selected: it erases the GPS data and keeps the date and camera, which is useful for your own photo library. Choose All metadata if you want nothing left. Each row shows what was found, including the coordinates, so you can see which photos were affected. Then download the cleaned files one by one or with Download all as ZIP.
Try it here: Remove location from photo
Open the full tool pageWhat hidden data a photo contains
Photos carry metadata in standard blocks called EXIF, XMP and IPTC. Phones and cameras write it automatically, and editing apps add their own. You do not see it when you look at the picture, but it travels with the file.
| Field | Example | What it can reveal |
|---|---|---|
| GPS latitude and longitude | 41.0369, 28.9850 | Where you live, work or stay |
| GPS altitude and direction | 54 m, facing north | Which floor or window |
| Date and time taken | 2026-10-26 18:42 | Your daily routine, when you were away |
| Camera make and model | Apple iPhone 15 Pro | Which device you own |
| Lens and settings | f/1.8, 1/120 s, ISO 400 | Mostly harmless |
| Software | photo editor name and version | Which apps you use |
| Owner, artist, copyright | a full name | Your identity |
| Embedded preview | small JPG thumbnail | Sometimes the uncropped original |
Which apps remove it and which keep it
Large social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and X remove location data from the public copy of the images you post, although the platform itself may still keep it. Messengers usually remove metadata when they recompress a photo, but not when you send the file as a document. Everything that passes the original file along keeps the metadata.
- Usually removed: posts on Facebook, Instagram and X; photos sent normally in WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.
- Usually kept: email attachments, photos sent as a document or file in a messenger, AirDrop and file transfers, cloud storage links (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud links), forums and many classified ad and marketplace sites.
- Varies: websites and shops you upload to. Some strip everything, some keep the original. When in doubt, clean the file before you upload it.
Phone settings to stop saving the location
iPhone: go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and choose Never. To remove the location from a single photo when sharing, tap Options at the top of the share screen and switch off Location. In the Photos app you can also open a photo's info, choose Adjust next to the map and pick No Location.
Android: open the camera app's settings and turn off the option to save or tag the location; on Google Pixel it is called Save location, on Samsung Location tags. Some galleries, such as Samsung's, also offer to remove location data in the share screen. Google Photos has a setting to hide location data from items you share by link.
Turning off location in the camera is the most reliable protection, because photos never contain coordinates to begin with. The downside is that your own library can no longer show photos on a map.
Removing location on a computer
Windows: right click the photo, choose Properties, open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. You can create a copy with all possible properties removed, or pick fields one by one.
Mac: open the photo in Preview, choose Tools > Show Inspector, open the information tab and use Remove Location Info under GPS. In the Photos app, Image > Location > Hide Location hides it for that photo.
For a batch of JPG, PNG or WebP files on any system, the remover above is faster: drop them all, keep Location only or choose All metadata and download one ZIP. Because it removes the information blocks instead of re-saving the image, the pixels stay exactly as they were. The color profile is kept, and if the photo was taken sideways a small orientation note is written back, so it is not shown rotated.
Common problems and things to check
- HEIC photos from an iPhone: the remover handles JPG, PNG and WebP. Convert HEIC to JPG first; the converter does not copy metadata, so the location is gone after conversion.
- A row says there was no location: the camera did not save one, or an app already removed it. Nothing else needs to be done.
- The location is still visible in your gallery after cleaning a copy: the gallery shows the original file. Share the cleaned copy, not the original.
- Screenshots usually have no GPS data, but the content of the screen, such as a map or an address, can still reveal where you are.
- Background details can give away a location even without metadata: house numbers, street signs, car plates, the view from a window. Blur them before posting.
A simple routine before you share
For photos of your home, your car, your children or anything you sell online, make cleaning part of posting: export the photo, run it through the remover with Location only or All metadata, and upload the cleaned copy. It takes a few seconds per batch.
Keep the originals with their metadata in your private library if you like having dates and places for your own memories. The remover works on copies, never changes the files on your device, and nothing is uploaded, so you can clean private photos safely.