How to view EXIF data on any device (and the fields your phone won't show you)
Short answer: to view EXIF data, open the photo's info panel. On iPhone, open it in Photos and swipe up or tap the Info button. On Windows, right-click the file, choose Properties, then Details. On a Mac, open it in Preview and choose Tools → Show Inspector. For every field, not just the highlights, use a full metadata viewer or ExifTool.
That last part is what most guides skip. The built-in panels are summaries. They pick a dozen friendly fields (camera, lens, date, exposure, sometimes a map) and leave the rest out: XMP edit history, serial numbers, embedded thumbnails, AI generation prompts, Content Credentials. An info panel that looks almost empty doesn't mean the file is. This guide covers each platform, what each one hides, and how to see everything.
What EXIF data is, briefly
EXIF is the block of tags a camera or phone writes into a photo at capture: make and model, lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, date and time with time zone, and GPS coordinates if location was on. It's one of several metadata blocks a file can carry. XMP holds editing history and creator tools, IPTC holds captions and copyright, PNG files have their own text chunks, and newer files may carry a C2PA manifest (Content Credentials). When people say "view EXIF data" they usually mean all of it, and that's where the built-in viewers fall short.
iPhone and iPad
Open the photo in the Photos app and swipe up, or tap the Info button (the i). Apple's photo information guide says the panel shows camera metadata such as the device, lens, shutter speed and file size, and where the photo was taken, with a link to open the spot in Maps.
What it shows is a summary from your library, not a full tag list. And the location shown can be one you edited with Adjust Location rather than the one the camera recorded. Apple's location metadata guide describes that menu.
Android (Google Photos)
In the Google Photos app, open the photo and swipe up to see its details: date, camera, file size, and location if it has one. On photos.google.com, open the photo and click the Info button.
Watch where the location comes from. Google's location help page says a location in Google Photos can come from your camera, from you, or from an estimate Google made from landmarks and your other photos. Estimates live in your Google account, not in the file. So the location you see in the details panel isn't proof that the file itself contains GPS, and its absence there isn't proof either way. Other gallery apps (Samsung Gallery and so on) have their own details screens with their own selection of fields.
Windows
Right-click the photo in File Explorer, choose Properties, and open the Details tab. Scroll down for the Camera, Advanced photo and GPS sections. The General tab's dates come from the file system, not the photo; Date taken under Details is the one stored in the file.
The Details tab is Windows' own selection of properties, not a full tag list. Answers on Microsoft's own Q&A forum note that Explorer doesn't display every EXIF format, so GPS that is in the file can still be missing from the panel.
Mac
Open the photo in Preview, choose Tools → Show Inspector (or click the Info button in the toolbar), then open the More Info tab. Apple's Preview guide describes it as showing information about the image in its formats and where the photo was taken. Sub-tabs such as EXIF and GPS appear only when the file has that data. For location, Apple's see where a photo was taken page adds that Tools → Show Location Info is greyed out when there's no location in the file.
Preview is the most thorough of the built-in options, but it's still a selection of tags, not the whole file. For XMP edit history, PNG text chunks or a C2PA manifest, use one of the tools below.
See every field: two ways
In the browser
Our image metadata viewer reads JPEG, PNG and WebP files in your browser, so the photo isn't uploaded anywhere. It parses EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP and the PNG header and lists every field with a plain value, then flags the things worth noticing: GPS present, C2PA present, AI tags present (AI tool names in the software fields, or the parameters and prompt text chunks that Stable Diffusion and ComfyUI write) and an embedded thumbnail. Two limits to know: it doesn't open HEIC (convert iPhone photos first), and it detects a C2PA manifest without verifying its signature. For a full Content Credentials check, use the content credentials checker.
Not every online viewer works this way. Some send your photo to their server to read it, which is a strange thing to do with a file you're checking for private data. Before you use one, read its privacy notes, or open your browser's developer tools and watch the Network tab while you drop a file in.
With ExifTool
ExifTool is a free, long-standing command-line metadata reader. It reads JPEG, PNG and WebP, but also HEIC, RAW formats and video:
exiftool -a -G1 -s photo.jpg
-a keeps duplicate tags, -G1 shows which block each tag came from (IFD0, ExifIFD, GPS, XMP-xmp, maker notes and so on), and -s prints short tag names. This is the view that shows you the camera serial number, the original file name in an XMP history, or a second copy of the date that the summary panel never mentions.
What to look for when you view EXIF data
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude | Where the photo was taken, often to a few metres |
DateTimeOriginal, OffsetTime | When it was taken, and your time zone |
Make, Model, LensModel | Which phone or camera you own |
BodySerialNumber and maker-note serials | Ties every photo to one physical camera. See the camera serial number in every photo |
Software, CreatorTool, XMP history | Which apps edited the file, sometimes with the original file name |
PNG parameters or prompt | The full AI prompt and settings. See what Stable Diffusion and ComfyUI leave in PNGs |
| Embedded thumbnail | A small preview that can still show the uncropped frame |
Check the copy you're about to share, not just the original. Converting, editing and sending all change what's in the file, and platforms differ in what they strip on upload, which this platform-by-platform breakdown covers.
Limits: what viewing metadata can't tell you
- Whether a photo is real. EXIF is easy to edit and easy to remove. A plausible camera model and date don't prove a photo is authentic, and an empty file doesn't prove it's AI-generated or edited. Signed C2PA Content Credentials are the closest thing to proof, and only when the signature checks out.
- What's in the picture. No metadata viewer can tell you a street sign or a reflection gives away where you were.
- What already left. A viewer shows what's in this file now. It can't tell you what was in earlier copies you uploaded, or what a platform kept from the original before it stripped its own copy.
- Fields the reader doesn't know. Every viewer, ours included, shows the blocks it parses. Proprietary maker notes and unusual chunks can be missing or shown as raw values.
If you find something you don't want to share
If the viewer shows GPS, a serial number or a prompt you'd rather keep private, remove the metadata before you share. Remove GPS from photo rebuilds a JPEG, PNG or WebP from its pixels in your browser, which drops EXIF, XMP, IPTC and C2PA together. It re-saves JPEGs at quality 0.95, so keep the original if you need it untouched. Then open the cleaned copy in the viewer again to check it.
Removing metadata isn't anonymity, though. The pixels still show what they show, and the account you post from is still yours.