How to remove metadata from photos on a Mac (all of it, not just the location)
Short answer: macOS has no single command that removes all metadata from photos. Photos and Preview can remove the location, but the date, camera model and lens settings stay in the file. To remove the rest on a Mac, make a clean copy. Finder's Convert Image quick action can do it with Preserve Metadata unticked, and so can ExifTool or a pixel rebuild in the browser. Then check the copy.
Most guides for this search show the location checkbox in Photos, then point you to a download. You may not need one. Finder has had a metadata switch built in since macOS Monterey, and the guides rarely mention it. They also skip the two catches that trip people up on a Mac: Live Photos, and Preview editing your file in place.
What a photo on your Mac carries
Photos from a phone or camera usually hold far more than the info panel shows:
- EXIF: the date and time to the second, the camera or phone model, lens, focal length, exposure, ISO, often a camera serial number, and GPS coordinates.
- Maker notes: a block of manufacturer-specific data inside the EXIF. iPhone photos have Apple's.
- XMP and IPTC: edit history, keywords, captions and place names, written by editing apps or by Photos on export.
- An embedded thumbnail: a small preview that can still show the uncropped frame.
- Content Credentials (C2PA), if an AI tool or a camera that supports them made the image.
Location gets the attention, but the rest matters too. A timestamp and a camera model together can link photos to one person, and the date shows when someone was somewhere even after the GPS is gone.
What the built-in location options remove
| Option | Where | What it removes | What stays in the file |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hide Location | Photos: select photos → Image → Location | The location as Photos shows it | Everything else. Apple doesn't say what this does to exported files |
| Location Information checkbox | Photos: File → Export → Export Photos | GPS in the exported copies | Date, time, camera model, lens and exposure settings |
| Remove Location Info | Preview: Tools → Show Inspector → GPS tab | GPS, written into that file | Everything else |
| Export Unmodified Original | Photos: File → Export | Nothing | Everything the camera wrote |
Apple's own Photos guide and its Personal Safety guide give one way to deal with location in Photos on a Mac: Image → Location → Hide Location. Neither says it removes anything else, and neither says what a hidden location does to an exported copy. Apple's export guide adds that Export Unmodified Original saves the photo in the format it was imported in. A Live Photo comes out as two files there, a still and a video.
The Location Information checkbox in the export dialog and Preview's Remove Location Info button are described by many users and Mac guides, but Apple's current guides don't document them. Both are location-only. If location is all you care about, the iPhone location guide explains how the same library behaves on the phone. The rest of this page is about the fields those options leave behind.
Method 1: Finder's Convert Image quick action
This is built into macOS Monterey and later, and needs no download:
- In Finder, select one or more photos. If they're in your Photos library, export them to a folder first (File → Export → Export Photos).
- Control-click the selection and choose Quick Actions → Convert Image.
- Choose a format (JPEG, PNG or HEIF) and a size. Actual Size keeps the resolution.
- Untick Preserve Metadata.
- Click Convert to JPEG (the button names the format you chose). The new files appear next to the originals, and the originals stay as they were.
What to know before you rely on it:
- Apple doesn't publish what it removes. Mac guides that tested it report the GPS coordinates and the other camera details gone with the box unticked. That matches what the switch is for, but there's no field list to point to. Check the output once (see below).
- It re-encodes. Converting JPEG to JPEG still writes new image data, so the copy isn't bit-identical to the original. For photos you're sending, you won't see the difference.
- The file gets a new date. The file's own created date becomes the moment you converted it. That's usually what you want, but it isn't "no date".
Method 2: rebuild the photo from pixels in the browser
The most complete approach doesn't delete fields one by one. It decodes the photo to plain pixels and saves a new file from those pixels. A grid of pixels has nowhere to hold EXIF, maker notes, XMP, IPTC, a C2PA record or an embedded thumbnail, so none of them reach the new file.
Our metadata cleaner and the remove GPS from photo tool work this way in Safari, Chrome or Firefox on a Mac:
- Open either page and drop in one or more photos.
- Download the cleaned copies.
- Send 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:
- JPEG, PNG and WebP only. HEIC isn't accepted, and most iPhone photos in a Mac library are HEIC. Export them from Photos as JPEG first (File → Export → Export Photos, then choose JPEG). Converting alone isn't cleaning, because converters usually copy the metadata across, so do both steps.
- JPEGs are re-encoded at quality 0.95. That's hard to see, but the pixels aren't bit-identical. Keep the original in your library.
- Only the still is cleaned. If you also send the video half of a Live Photo, clean it with the video metadata cleaner.
Method 3: ExifTool in Terminal
ExifTool is free and has a macOS package on its site. If you use Homebrew, brew install exiftool also works. It removes metadata without touching the image data, so there's no re-encode:
exiftool -all= -o clean/ photo.jpg # writes a clean copy into ./clean/
exiftool -all= --icc_profile:all -o clean/ photo.jpg # same, but keeps the colour profile
exiftool -all= -ext jpg -ext png -o clean/ ./to-share/ # a whole folder
The colour profile matters on a Mac. Photos from recent iPhones and Macs use the wide-gamut Display P3 profile, and removing it can make colours look duller elsewhere. ExifTool's own FAQ suggests the --icc_profile:all form. Two more caveats from its documentation: deleting all metadata isn't guaranteed to be complete for every format, and you shouldn't run -all= on RAW files.
Method 4: a metadata app
ImageOptim and similar apps strip metadata as part of shrinking files, and the Mac App Store has dedicated EXIF removers. Many work well, but they change, and their idea of "all metadata" varies. Check the output the same way as the other methods rather than trusting a "done" message.
Which method to use
| Photos export, location off | Finder Convert Image | Pixel rebuild in the browser | ExifTool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Removes location | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Removes date, camera model, lens | No | Reported yes. Check the output | Yes, every block | Yes, every writable tag |
| Takes HEIC | Yes | Yes | No, export as JPEG first | Yes |
| Image quality | Re-encoded unless original | Re-encoded | Re-encoded (JPEG at 0.95) | Unchanged |
| Needs anything installed | No | No | No | Yes |
For a quick send where only location matters, the export checkbox is enough. When the date and camera matter too, use Finder's Convert Image for something built in, ExifTool for big batches without re-encoding, or the pixel rebuild when you want every block gone in one go.
The two Mac-specific traps
Preview edits the file in place. Remove Location Info, then save, and you've changed that file. Do it on a copy in a folder, not on a file you dragged out of somewhere you care about. And Apple Community users report that a change made in Preview doesn't always show in the Photos library, because Photos keeps its own record.
Live Photos are two files. Export Unmodified Original gives you a still and a video, and the video carries its own date and location. If you send both, both need cleaning. Otherwise, send only the still.
Check the file you actually send
The info panel in Photos shows the library's record, not what's inside the exported copy. To see what the recipient gets:
- Produce the copy the way you really will: export it, convert it, or save it from the cleaner.
- Open it in Preview and choose Tools → Show Location Info. Apple's Preview guide says the item appears grey when the image has no location information. Then open Tools → Show Inspector to see the EXIF and other tabs that remain. How to view EXIF data covers the Inspector in more detail.
- For the fuller picture, open it in the image metadata viewer. It reads JPEG, PNG and WebP in the browser, flags GPS, AI tags, C2PA and an embedded thumbnail, and lists the remaining fields. Or run
exiftool -a -G1 -s photo.jpgin Terminal.
Run the same check once on an original you know has GPS and a camera model. If the checker finds nothing in a tagged photo, its "clean" result means nothing.
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.
- Copies that already left. iCloud Photos, a Time Machine backup, and anyone you've already sent the photo to have 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.
- 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 AirDrop or Messages on a Mac remove metadata?
Apple doesn't document either one stripping the date or camera details. Treat a photo sent that way as carrying its metadata, and clean it first if it matters.
Does exporting from Photos remove metadata?
Only what you untick. Export Photos with the location box off drops GPS, but the date, camera and lens settings go with the copy. Export Unmodified Original keeps everything.
Can I remove metadata from many photos at once on a Mac?
Yes. Finder's Convert Image takes a whole selection, ExifTool takes a folder, and the cleaner accepts several files at once. Preview's Remove Location Info works one photo at a time.
Does taking a screenshot remove the metadata?
It drops the camera's EXIF, but a screenshot is a new file with metadata of its own. See do screenshots have metadata.
Related: how to remove metadata from photos on iPhone, and how to remove metadata from an image on any device.