Strip EXIF and GPS from a photo on your device before you share it

A JPEG is not only pixels. Phones and cameras often store GPS, a timestamp, a camera model, and a thumbnail in the same file. You post the picture of a new lock, a child’s school gate, or the view from a window you would rather not map. The pixels look harmless. The metadata is a map pin.

EXIF remover on Tool Hub re-encodes the image in your browser so the hidden block does not ride along. You pick the file on your computer. We do not receive the photo.

When EXIF removal is the right tool

Use this page when you will share a JPEG or PNG and you do not want location, camera serial, or embedded thumbnails travelling with it. Typical jobs: a listing photo before it goes on a public board; a screenshot-adjacent camera shot of a document; a picture you will attach to a ticket that should not include your home coordinates.

This is not encryption. Anyone can still see the picture. This is not redaction of faces. This is not a compressor, though re-encoding can change file size slightly. If you also need a smaller email file, run Compress JPEG after you have decided the pixels are what you want to send.

I strip EXIF on purpose when I know the photo was taken at home or at a child’s event. I do not strip EXIF on a photo I am sending to a repair shop that needs the camera model in the file, unless I have copied that model into the email body myself.

What the tool actually removes

On this hub the remover decodes the pixels and writes a new image. EXIF, IPTC, XMP, GPS, camera model, timestamps, and thumbnails in the metadata block do not survive that path. The visible picture remains. Quality is re-encoded at a high setting so the point is the tags, not a second compression hit. If you need a tiny file, compress as a separate, conscious step.

Screenshots from some phones are already light on EXIF. Camera-roll photos are not. WhatsApp and some messengers strip tags on send; email attachments often do not. Do not assume a platform stripped anything. Check the file you still have on disk.

What “in the browser” means for this job

Client-side means the page sends code to your tab. Your browser reads the file with the File API. It decodes and re-encodes locally. Download goes through the browser download manager. We never had a copy to delete.

You can test it. Load the page, go offline, pick a throwaway JPEG that you know has GPS (many phone photos do). If you still get a download, the bytes did not need our server. To confirm tags are gone, open the result in a metadata viewer you already use, or in the hub’s own preview if it shows “no GPS.” I also drop the output into macOS Preview → Tools → Show Inspector on a Mac. If location is still there, do not share that file; try a different export (print to PDF is not a substitute for a photo you still need as a JPEG).

How I strip a photo here

1. Open https://tools.sw-commercial.com/exif-remover.
2. Pick the .jpg, .jpeg, or .png from your computer.
3. Wait for the preview. The work is on the device, so a 12 MP shot may take a moment.
4. Download the cleaned file. Keep the original in a private folder if you still want the GPS for yourself (a trail photo you might map later).
5. Share only the download, not the original, not airdrop of the camera-roll file by mistake.

You do not create an account. There is no watermark.

Failure cases I hit while using it

HEIC is not JPEG. iPhone originals may still be HEIC. Convert with HEIC to JPG first, then strip EXIF on the JPEG you will actually send. Stripping the HEIC in some other app and then converting can re-introduce tags depending on the converter. I strip last, on the file I attach.

A screenshot of a map still shows the map. Removing EXIF does not remove the street name in the pixels. If the picture itself is the leak, crop or do not send it.

Some PNG exports from design tools have little EXIF and a lot of other chunks. The hub path is built for photo metadata. If a file is a weird container, check the output.

Renaming .jpg to .png does not strip tags. Use the tool.

When not to use this page

Do not use it as a substitute for thinking about the pixels. A photo of a badge, a screen with mail, or a reflection in a window is still those things after EXIF is gone.

Do not upload the original to a “free EXIF viewer in the cloud” to “see if it worked.” That undoes the point. Use a local inspector.

Do not assume social networks will strip for you. Some do, some cache the original, some generate a thumbnail from the upload that still sat on their disk. If the photo should never leave the machine except as a cleaned file you chose, clean it here first.

Related jobs on the same hub

Resize image if a form wants exact pixels. SW Toolbox can strip EXIF from a right-click on a page image, still on the device. How-tos on this catalog only point at URLs that return HTTP 200. This one does.