Does this change how my photo looks?

No. The picture data is copied across byte for byte and never decoded, so the clean copy and the original are the same image. Only the data around the picture is different.

Do social networks strip this for me?

Most of them remove it when you upload, but not all, and it depends on how the file reaches them. A photo sent by email, by messaging app or as a file attachment often arrives with everything still in it.

Is anything uploaded to a server?

No. The file is read and rewritten by your browser. Nothing is sent to sona.to and no request leaves the page.

Can the removed data be recovered?

Not from the clean copy. It is a new file that never contained it. Your original still has everything, which is why keeping it is worth doing.

Why does my photo still show a date on my computer?

That date comes from the file system, not from inside the photo. It records when the file was created or last saved on that device, and it is separate from the date the camera wrote.

Does it work with iPhone photos?

Yes. HEIC files are cleaned the same way as the rest, without converting them to another format and without changing the picture. AVIF, which some Android phones produce, works the same way.

Does this remove a visible watermark?

No. A watermark is part of the picture itself. This tool only removes the data stored alongside the picture, and never touches what you can see.

Can I make the file smaller as well?

A little of the size goes with the data, but the picture is nearly all of it. To change the dimensions or the quality, use the Image Resizer.

Home / Free tools / EXIF Remover

Remove location and camera data from your photos

See the location, time and camera details stored in a photo, then remove them without changing the picture.

A photo taken on a phone usually carries more than the picture. The file can hold the coordinates of where it was taken, the time to the second, and the make, model and serial number of the camera. Posting the file or sending it to somebody passes all of that along with it. This tool reads what is in the file, shows it to you, and writes a copy without it.

Drop photos here

JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF. The picture itself is never changed.

Why a photo knows where it was taken

Phones record coordinates into the file by default, taken from the position of the phone at the moment of the shot. For a picture taken at home that is your address, written into a file you may later post in public. Nothing on screen shows it, so it travels with the photo unnoticed.

The picture is not saved again

Most tools strip data by opening the photo and writing a new one, which compresses it a second time and costs a little quality. This tool edits the file around the picture instead. The compressed picture data is copied across untouched, so what you get back is the same photo rather than a new version of it.

What is kept

Two things stay. Orientation, a single number saying which way up the picture is, because removing it leaves portrait photos on their side. And the color profile, which tells a screen how to read the colors. Neither describes you, and dropping either one changes how the photo looks.

The parts you cannot see

A photo file can hold a small copy of itself, written when the picture was taken. If the photo was later cropped or something was painted over, that copy can still show the original scene. Some phones also add a short video to the end of the file. Both are removed.

What it removes

Read from the file and listed before anything is removed.

Location and time

Coordinates
Altitude
Date and time taken

Camera

Make and model
Serial number
Lens

Added later

Author and copyright
City and country
Captions and comments

Hidden extras

Embedded thumbnail
Second embedded image
Video added after the picture

How to use it

Add your photos

Drop them onto the box or choose them from your device. They are read in the browser and never sent anywhere.

Read what was found

Each photo gets a list of what is stored inside it, including the coordinates when there are any. The file on your device is not changed.

Download the clean copy

The copy is saved with -clean added to the name, so the original stays where it is.

Keep the original

The date and camera settings are worth having for your own records. Keep the original somewhere and post the clean copy.

What these words mean

EXIF

The block of data a camera writes into a photo file alongside the picture. It holds the settings the photo was taken with, the time, and on a phone usually the coordinates.

Geotag

The coordinates stored in a photo. A phone writes them from its own position at the moment the picture was taken, which for photos taken at home is where you live.

Orientation

A number in the file saying which way up the picture is, so a photo taken sideways displays the right way round. It is kept, because removing it turns portrait photos on their side.

Questions