How to remove metadata from a photo on Android (all of it, not just the location)
Short answer: Android has no built-in button that removes all metadata from a photo. Samsung Gallery and Google Photos only deal with location, and the date, phone model and camera settings stay in the file. To remove the rest, make a clean copy. You can rebuild the photo from its pixels in Chrome, or run ExifTool in Termux. Then check the copy before you send it.
Most guides for this search show you the location toggle and then recommend a Play Store app. The toggle is worth knowing about, but it only removes one field. And whatever you use, Android adds a twist the other guides don't mention: it hides GPS from many apps, so a checker on the phone can say a photo is clean when it isn't.
What's in an Android photo
The gallery's details panel shows a summary. The JPEG your camera saved usually holds more:
- EXIF: the date and time to the second, the phone's make and model, lens, focal length, exposure, ISO, and GPS coordinates if the camera had location access.
- XMP: extra tags. On Pixel and Samsung phones these include the markers for a Motion Photo.
- An embedded thumbnail: a small preview image stored inside the EXIF.
- A hidden video, if Motion Photos was on. The short clip is stored after the image data in the same
.jpgand carries its own metadata.
Location gets the attention, but the other fields matter too. A capture time plus a phone model can tie several photos to one person. And the date shows when someone was somewhere even after the GPS has gone.
What Android's built-in options actually remove
| Option | Where | What it removes | What's left in the file |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remove location data | Samsung Gallery → select photos → Share | GPS, in the shared copies only | Date, time, phone model, camera settings, Motion Photo |
| Edit the location in Details | Samsung Gallery → photo → ⋮ → Details → Edit | The location on that photo | Everything else |
| Auto Blocker → Maximum restrictions | Samsung Settings, under Auto Blocker | Location on images shared from Gallery | Everything else |
| Remove location | Google Photos info panel | Only locations you added or that Google estimated | Camera GPS, and every other field |
| Camera location off | Camera settings, or the Camera app's Location permission | GPS on new photos only | Everything else, and old photos are untouched |
The vendors' own pages back this up, and they only ever talk about location. Samsung describes the Remove location data share option for One UI 3.0 and later. Its Private Share guide says Auto Blocker with Maximum restrictions removes location data from images shared from Gallery. Google's Photos location help goes further. If your camera added the location, you can't remove it in Google Photos at all. And a photo you download or email from Google Photos keeps the original location your device saved.
Menu names move between One UI and Android versions, so treat these paths as directions. No Samsung or Google page says these options remove the date, the phone model or the camera settings, so plan on them staying. If you only care about location, see how to remove location from photos on Android. The rest of this page is about the fields those steps leave behind.
Method 1: rebuild the photo from pixels in Chrome
The most complete way to remove metadata doesn't delete fields one at a time. It decodes the photo into plain pixels and saves a new file from them. A grid of pixels has nowhere to keep EXIF, XMP, IPTC, a C2PA record, an embedded thumbnail or a Motion Photo clip, so none of it reaches the new file.
That's what our metadata cleaner and the remove GPS from photo tool do:
- Open either page in Chrome (or any browser) on the phone.
- Pick one or more photos from the gallery.
- Download the cleaned copies. They save to your Downloads folder.
- Share the copies, not the originals.
The photo is drawn to a canvas and re-encoded in the browser, and nothing is uploaded. Things to know first:
- JPEG, PNG and WebP only. HEIC/HEIF isn't accepted. Most Android cameras save JPEG by default. If you switched yours to HEIF to save space, switch it back for photos you plan to share, or convert first.
- JPEGs are re-encoded at quality 0.95. You won't see the difference in a photo you're sending, but the pixels aren't bit-identical to the original. Keep the original in your gallery.
- The Motion Photo clip is dropped. You get a still image. If you want to share the motion as well, clean the video separately with the video metadata cleaner.
Method 2: ExifTool in Termux
If you're comfortable with a command line, ExifTool runs on Android in Termux. Termux's own package repository includes it:
pkg install exiftool
termux-setup-storage # lets Termux reach your photos
cd ~/storage/dcim/Camera
exiftool -all= -o clean/ photo.jpg
-all= deletes every metadata tag ExifTool can write, and -o clean/ writes the result into a new folder, so the original stays as it is. Unlike Method 1, this doesn't re-encode, so the image data is untouched. Two caveats come from ExifTool's own documentation. Deleting all metadata isn't guaranteed to be complete for every format. And it edits the structure it understands, so anything stored after the image, such as a Motion Photo's video, is worth checking for yourself:
exiftool -a -G1 -s clean/photo.jpg
Method 3: a metadata app
Play Store and F-Droid both have EXIF editors and strippers, and many work. Before you install one, look at what it asks for. An app that wants access to all your photos plus the media location permission can read every location you've recorded. An app that only gets the photos you pick through Android's photo picker sees far less. Then check its output the same way as the other methods. Don't trust its "removed" message.
Which method to use
| Samsung share option | Rebuild from pixels in Chrome | ExifTool in Termux | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Removes location | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Removes date, phone model, camera settings | No | Yes, every block | Yes, every writable tag |
| Drops a Motion Photo clip | No | Yes | Check the output |
| Takes HEIC | Yes | No | Yes |
| Image quality | Unchanged | Re-encoded (JPEG at 0.95) | Unchanged |
| Works on any Android phone | Samsung only | Yes | Yes, needs Termux |
For a quick send where only location matters, a Samsung phone's share option is enough. If the date and the device matter too, use one of the copy methods.
Checking the result: Android can hide GPS from the checker
This is where Android behaves differently from a computer. Android's developer documentation says that for apps using scoped storage, "the system hides location information by default". An app only gets the coordinates if you grant the media location permission at runtime and the app asks for the original file. So:
- A metadata app on the phone can report no GPS for a photo that has it, because it was never shown the coordinates.
- A photo you open in a mobile browser may reach the page without its location for the same reason. Developers report this, though Google doesn't document it for browsers.
- Your gallery app has full access, so it still shows the map.
A "no GPS" result on the phone therefore proves less than it seems. To check properly:
- Make the copy exactly as you'll send it: save it from the cleaner, or run ExifTool.
- Open it in the image metadata viewer. It lists the date, the phone model and the other remaining fields, and flags GPS, AI tags, C2PA and an embedded thumbnail. For the location, rely on a computer. Copy the file over by USB or email it to yourself, then run
exiftool -a -G1 -s photo.jpg. - Run the same check once on an original you know has GPS. If the checker finds nothing in a tagged photo, its "clean" result means nothing.
More on reading the output: how to view photo metadata on Android.
What this doesn't protect against
- What's in the picture. A street sign, a reflection or the view from a window can give away a place with no metadata at all. Removing metadata doesn't change pixels you can see.
- Copies that already left. Google Photos backup, a cloud drive, or anyone you've already sent the photo to has the original. Cleaning your copy now doesn't change theirs.
- The account. Clean metadata doesn't make you anonymous. The platform still knows which account posted, when, and from which connection, and Google Location History can place a photo by its timestamp alone.
- What the platform does. Some services strip metadata from the copy other people see, but they still received your file. Which platforms strip EXIF covers what's known. Clean the file before it goes rather than counting on the platform.
Common questions
Does Google Photos remove metadata when I share?
Not the camera's metadata. Google says a location your camera saved can't be removed in Google Photos, and that sharing a photo outside Google Photos, for example by email, keeps that location. Google doesn't document removing the date or device fields at all.
Does sending a photo on WhatsApp or Messages remove the metadata?
It depends on the app and how you send the photo, and apps change this without notice. Samsung documents that Messages removes location from shared images when Auto Blocker's Maximum restrictions is on. That covers location only. Clean the file yourself if it matters.
Does taking a screenshot remove the metadata?
It drops the camera's EXIF, but a screenshot is a new file at screen resolution, with metadata of its own. See do screenshots have metadata.
How do I remove metadata from many Android photos at once?
Pick several photos at once in the cleaner, or run ExifTool on a whole folder: exiftool -all= -o clean/ ~/storage/dcim/Camera. Samsung's share option also takes several photos at once, but it only removes location.
Related: how to remove metadata from photos on iPhone, and how to remove metadata from an image on any device.