Remove location data from photos before you share them
Phones can save where a photo was taken inside the file, as GPS data in a block called EXIF. Anyone who gets the file can read it. Apple's iPhone guide says that sharing a photo includes its date and time, location and device.
This page shows how to check a photo, the official steps to remove its location on each system, and what our tools do with it. We ran every tool on 25 photos and a test file with GPS, in 3 browser engines.
What people run into
- On the Apple Community forum a user asks for a way to share photos without location every time, instead of turning it off for each share. (user report, posted 2025-07-04)
- A user on Microsoft Q&A says Windows' Remove Properties and Personal Information does not work: the copy it makes still has all its properties. (user report, posted 2022-06-23)
- Another user on Microsoft Q&A removed all properties from photos for a company and still saw the owner and computer name. The answer: Windows shows those from your own PC; they are not in the file. (user report, posted 2023-09-19)
- On the Google Photos community a user finds that photos shared from an Android phone no longer carry their location, and asks why. (user report, posted 2024-08-18) Google's help pages explain this below: Google Photos leaves the location out of shares by default.
- On WordPress Stack Exchange a site owner wants to strip the location from uploads, and learns that WordPress keeps the original file as it was sent. (user report, posted 2020-12-30)
How to check a photo
- iPhone or iPad: In Photos, open the photo and swipe up, or tap the info button. A map means the photo has a location.
- Android: In Google Photos, open the photo and swipe up. Google's help page says the location can come from the camera, from you, or from Google's own estimate.
- Mac: Open the photo in Preview and choose Tools, Show Location Info. Apple says that when this item is grey, the image has no location.
- Windows: Right-click the file, choose Properties, then Details, and look for a GPS section with a latitude and longitude.
What our tools keep and drop
We ran each tool on 25 CC0 photos and on our test file, which carries EXIF camera data, a GPS location and a colour profile. 23 of the photos carry EXIF data, 3 of them a GPS location, 19 XMP data, 15 IPTC entries such as captions or keywords, and 14 a colour profile. Then we read every block in every file the tools wrote. The Chromium numbers are from our main test with every setting; WebKit and Firefox ran one default setting per tool.
Files with a GPS location or an EXIF block, by tool
| Tool | Chromium (Chrome, Edge) | WebKit (Safari, iPhone) | Firefox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compress | GPS in 0 of 1,469; EXIF in 0 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 26 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 0 |
| Convert | GPS in 0 of 756; EXIF in 0 | GPS in 0 of 52; EXIF in 52 | GPS in 0 of 78; EXIF in 0 |
| Resize | GPS in 0 of 289; EXIF in 0 | GPS in 0 of 25; EXIF in 25 | GPS in 0 of 25; EXIF in 0 |
| Crop | GPS in 0 of 144; EXIF in 0 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 26 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 0 |
| Rotate | GPS in 0 of 180; EXIF in 0 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 26 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 0 |
| Watermark | GPS in 0 of 360; EXIF in 0 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 26 | GPS in 0 of 26; EXIF in 0 |
Source: our test on 2026-11-10 (harness eacd79c, site code eacd79c), headless Chromium 145 on a desktop Mac, 25 CC0 photos. Source: our test on 2026-11-11 (harness 349005d, site code eacd79c), headless WebKit 26.0 and Firefox 146.0.1 on a desktop Mac, 25 CC0 photos and 1 test file with GPS we made. How we test
What the files our tools wrote carry
| Data in the file | Chromium | WebKit | Firefox |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPS location | none of 3,198 | none of 181 | none of 207 |
| Camera make and model | none of 3,198 | none of 181 | none of 207 |
| Date and time taken | none of 3,198 | none of 181 | none of 207 |
| XMP data | none of 3,198 | none of 181 | none of 207 |
| IPTC captions and keywords | none of 3,198 | none of 181 | none of 207 |
| EXIF block | none of 3,198 | 181 of 181, written by the browser | none of 207 |
| Colour profile (ICC) | 2,451 of 3,198 | none of 181 | none of 207 |
None of the location, camera, date, XMP or IPTC data in our photos reached a file our tools wrote. What some files do carry comes from the browser, not from your photo. Chromium adds a colour profile to JPG and WebP files, also to 1,314 of 1,878 files whose original had none. Safari's engine adds an EXIF block that holds only the colour space, the width and the height in pixels, and an empty IPTC block with no entries.
Source: our test on 2026-11-10 (harness eacd79c, site code eacd79c), headless Chromium 145 on a desktop Mac, 25 CC0 photos. Source: our test on 2026-11-11 (harness 349005d, site code eacd79c), headless WebKit 26.0 and Firefox 146.0.1 on a desktop Mac, 25 CC0 photos and 1 test file with GPS we made. How we test
No file our tools wrote kept a GPS location: none of 3,586, in 3 browser engines. That includes the 101 files made from our test file with GPS.
Remove it on your phone or computer
iPhone or iPad
- To share one photo without its location: in Photos, tap the share button, tap Options and turn off Location. Apple's guide says the share sheet then shows Location Not Included.
- To remove the location from the photo in your library: open it, tap the info button, then Adjust Info, Adjust Location and No Location.
- To stop new photos from saving a location: Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, Camera, Never.
Android
- To stop new photos from saving a location: open the camera app's settings and turn off the location setting. Google lists its name per phone maker: on Samsung it is Location tags, on Google Pixel Save location.
- Google Photos leaves the location out of new shared albums, links and conversations unless you include it; partner sharing includes it.
- Google Photos cannot remove a location the camera saved. Google says a photo you download and send outside Google Photos, for example by email, keeps the location the device saved. To send a copy without it, save a new copy without metadata, for example with one of our tools.
Windows
- Right-click the photo, choose Properties, then Details, then Remove Properties and Personal Information.
- Choose Create a copy with all possible properties removed, or pick the GPS fields to remove from the file itself.
- Microsoft's own write-up of this button is an archived tip written for an older Windows. Users report that it sometimes fails (above), so check the file afterwards.
Mac
- In Photos, select the photo and choose Image, Location, Hide Location.
- To check a file, open it in Preview and choose Tools, Show Location Info.
What this does not do
Your original file does not change. Our tools make a new file and leave the original where it was; delete or keep it as you choose. The steps above for each system change either the file or the copy, as each says.
Sites differ in what they remove when you upload. Apple's share sheet includes the location unless you turn it off. Google Photos shares without it by default, but a downloaded copy keeps it. Other sites keep the file as sent or remove some data; read the site's own help before you rely on it.
Removing data does not hide the place in the picture. Google notes that people can guess a location from landmarks; so can a street sign or a view from a window.
Our tools save a new picture, so they also change it: JPG is saved again at 0.92, and the compressor may shrink it. If you need the photo exactly as it is, use your system's steps instead.
What our test covers
The Chromium counts come from our main run, every setting of every tool. The WebKit and Firefox counts come from a second run with one default setting per tool; we ran it twice and the results matched in 468 of 468 runs, with only the times different.
We read the bytes of every file the tools wrote, block by block. We did not test real phones, the apps named above, or what any site does on upload; those steps come from the sources below.
Other pages for this job: Compress image · Convert image · Photo upload rejected?
Sources
Official pages say what the company states. User reports are what people describe on forums; they are not rules, and we use no number from them.
Official
- Apple Personal Safety User Guide: Manage location metadata in Photos, read 2026-11-11
- iPhone User Guide: Share photos and videos on iPhone, read 2026-11-11
- Preview User Guide: See where a photo was taken using Preview on Mac, read 2026-11-11
- Google Photos Help: Understand, find & edit your photos' locations (Android), read 2026-11-11
- Google Photos Help: How Google Photos protects your location data, read 2026-11-11
- Google Photos Help: Change your camera location settings, read 2026-11-11
- Microsoft Learn (TechNet Magazine archive): Remove Personal metadata from Files to Protect Your Privacy, dated 2016-08-01, archived
User reports
- Apple Community: iOS Photos: share without location by default, posted 2025-07-04
- Microsoft Q&A: Remove Properties and Personal Information doesn't work, posted 2022-06-23
- Microsoft Q&A: Why is the FILE properties data still shown when I remove all personal data from my photos on windows 10?, posted 2023-09-19
- Google Photos Community: shared and emailed photos from android phone no longer contain location info, posted 2024-08-18
- WordPress Stack Exchange: How to remove Geo Tagging on image uploads, but not other EXIF data?, posted 2020-12-30
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