How to Remove the Location From a Photo Before You Share It
Gizke Team · Published · Reading time: 1 minute
Drop the photo into the metadata cleaner. If it shows GPS latitude and longitude, press "Remove Metadata & Download" and share the new copy. It works on JPEGs, runs on your own device, and leaves the picture itself exactly as it was.
On this page
What a photo can give away
Most phones save the exact coordinates of every photo, plus the date, time and phone model. Paste the latitude and longitude into any map and you land within a few meters of where the shutter went off. For a photo taken in your garden, that's your home address.
None of this is visible when you look at the picture. It only travels with the file, which is why it matters most when you share the original: email attachments, cloud links, marketplace listings, "send as file" in messengers.
Check before you strip
You can see what's in a photo before deleting anything. The cleaner lists the camera, the date taken and the GPS fields, and warns you in red if coordinates are present.
One Android quirk: when a browser opens a photo, Android hands it a copy with the GPS values blanked. The tool tells you when that happens. The copy you download is safe, but the original in your gallery still holds the location.
Turn it off at the source
Stripping each photo works, but switching off location tagging means you never forget:
- iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera > Never. Apple explains the options in its Location Services guide. When sharing, you can also tap Options at the top of the share sheet and turn off Location for that one share.
- Android: open the Camera app's settings and turn off location tags (the name varies by brand). Google Photos explains how to view and remove a photo's location.
iPhone photos in HEIC
The cleaner reads JPEG only. If your iPhone saves HEIC, convert it with HEIC to JPG first, then check the result here before you share it.