How to remove metadata from PDFs and photos, and check that it is really gone

What metadata is

Metadata is data about the file rather than its visible content. In a photo it is usually EXIF: the capture date and time, camera or phone model, lens and exposure settings, orientation, and often GPS coordinates. Related blocks called XMP and IPTC can hold captions, keywords, copyright and edit history. In a PDF it is the document information: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the program that made the original), Producer (the program that wrote the PDF), and creation and modification dates. Some PDFs also contain an XMP packet with similar fields.

None of this shows on the page, which is why people forget about it. But anyone with the file can read it with a free viewer.

Why it matters

The best-known risk is location. A phone photo can record GPS latitude and longitude to several decimal places. One degree of latitude is about 111 km, so a coordinate with 4 decimal places is accurate to about 11 metres and one with 5 decimal places to about 1.1 metres. That is enough to identify a house. If you post a photo of a pet, a room or a parcel taken at home, and the file keeps its GPS tags, you may be publishing your address. Many large social platforms remove location data when you upload, but you should not assume every site, email client, forum or messaging app does.

Other risks are quieter. A PDF titled "Draft v3 - negotiation strategy" with an author name reveals more than the document intends. The Producer field shows the software and sometimes its version. Dates show when a file was created and edited, which can contradict a story. A phone model and timestamp can link a set of photos to one person. None of this is dramatic for most people, but it is easy to remove when you know it is there.

Check the file, not just the picture: the hidden fields travel with it.

How to remove EXIF data from photos

The Remove EXIF Metadata tool works in your browser with JPG, PNG and WebP images. It decodes the picture, draws the pixels onto a clean canvas, and exports a new image. A canvas export contains image data only, so EXIF, XMP and IPTC blocks are not copied. For JPEGs, the tool also reports whether it found EXIF, GPS, camera information and a rotation tag.

There are honest trade-offs. Because the image is re-encoded, a JPEG goes through compression again, so there can be a small quality change. The colour profile embedded in the file may not be preserved. Edit history, captions and copyright notices are removed along with the rest, which you may not want if you rely on them to credit your work.

1. Open the Remove EXIF Metadata tool and choose one or more photos. Nothing is uploaded.
2. Read the table of what was detected for each file, particularly the GPS entry.
3. Compare the before and after file sizes. A smaller file is normal, because the metadata is gone and the image is re-encoded.
4. Save each clean copy, or download everything as a ZIP.
5. Share the clean copy, and keep the original somewhere private if you need its data.

How to remove metadata from a PDF

The PDF Metadata Editor on this site shows the title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer and dates. You can edit any value, pick dates with the calendar, or press the button that removes all metadata in one go.

Be aware of what this does not cover. The document information fields are the common place for author data, but a PDF can also carry other hidden material: bookmarks, comments, form-field values, attachments, and text hidden under shapes. If the file contains sensitive content, flatten it with the Flatten PDF tool, or use the Redact PDF tool in secure mode, which turns the pages into images and removes hidden text with it. Then clean the fields again.

1. Open the PDF Metadata Editor and choose your file. The current values appear.
2. Read each field. Look for names, company names, project names, software names and dates.
3. Edit the fields you want to keep, such as a neutral title, or press Remove all metadata to blank them.
4. Save the new PDF. The original is not changed.
5. Verify, as described below.

How to verify the result

Do not assume. Test the files you will actually send.

• Photos: open the clean copy in the Remove EXIF Metadata tool again. A clean file should report no EXIF and no GPS. On Windows, right-click, choose Properties, then Details; on macOS, open Preview and use Tools, Show Inspector, then the EXIF or GPS tabs. On a phone, the gallery info panel should show no map location.
• PDFs: reopen the cleaned file in the PDF Metadata Editor and confirm the fields are empty or neutral. In a normal PDF viewer, open Document Properties and compare.
• File names: rename files that contain a person's name, an address or a project code.
• Thumbnails and sidecar files: if you cropped a photo before sharing, the cropped area is gone in the new file, but check that no editing app saved an embedded preview of the original.
• Send to yourself first: attach the cleaned file to an email or message, download it back, and check the downloaded version.

Verify on the file you will actually send, using a second tool or viewer.

When you should keep metadata

Metadata is not the enemy. Photographers rely on it for copyright, captions and licensing. Businesses use PDF metadata to sort and search archives. A correct title helps screen readers and search engines. Dates can be part of an audit trail. The goal is control, not removal at all cost: decide what each file should say about you before it leaves your device. For public posts, strip location. For client documents, set a neutral title and remove the author field if it identifies a person rather than a company. For internal archives, keep it.

Frequently asked questions

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