How to remove metadata from a photo on Windows
File Explorer can strip some metadata from a photo. Here is how, what it does not promise, and how to clean a whole folder without re-saving the pictures.
The built-in way: Remove Properties and Personal Information
File Explorer has a metadata scrubber, and it works on several photos at once. Select one or more photos, right-click and choose Properties, open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information at the bottom. Microsoft's only published description of this dialog that we found is an archived tip written for Windows 7, so what you see may differ a little on your version of Windows.
The dialog gives you two choices:
- Create a copy with all possible properties removed. The default. Windows makes a copy with the word Copy added to the file name and strips every property it is able to change for that file type. Your original keeps its metadata.
- Remove the following properties from this file. You tick the properties to delete and click OK, and they are removed from the original permanently. A property with no check box next to it is one Windows cannot edit.
What it does not do
Explorer only removes the properties it knows how to edit. Microsoft's own description is that it "zeroes out metadata" and does nothing about the contents of the picture, and anything it does not list stays in the file. It is a reasonable first pass for sharing a photo with a friend. For a photo where the location matters, do not take the result on trust: look at the copy's Details tab, or drop it on the EXIF viewer, which also lists fields Explorer does not show.
If the Details tab shows few properties, or a HEIC photo from an iPhone will not open at all, see how to open HEIC files on Windows.
Cleaning a whole folder without re-saving the pictures
To remove everything in one pass, open the EXIF remover, then drop in the photos, or click the drop area and press Ctrl-A in the file picker to choose the whole folder. Before anything is changed, the page lists what each photo contains and whether it has GPS coordinates. Click Remove metadata and download the cleaned copies one by one or all together as a zip.
In a JPG it removes the EXIF block (GPS position, date and time, camera and phone model, settings and the embedded thumbnail), XMP, IPTC, comments and the other application metadata segments. In PNG and WebP it removes the EXIF, text and XMP chunks. The colour profile is kept by default because it holds no personal data and removing it can shift colours.
The cleaned copy is not re-compressed: the picture data is copied byte for byte and only the metadata blocks are cut out. One exception: with "Apply orientation to sideways photos" ticked (the default), a photo stored sideways with a rotation tag is re-encoded so it still displays upright, and its colour profile is dropped in that case. Untick the box and every photo is copied unchanged, though a sideways one may then display sideways.
It reads JPG, PNG and WebP. HEIC photos are not supported by the remover, so convert those first with the HEIC to JPG converter, which leaves metadata out unless you tick the box to keep it.
Everything happens inside your browser tab, so the photos never leave your device.
Check that it worked
Drop a cleaned photo back on the remover. It should report "No removable metadata found" and "GPS location: no". The EXIF viewer gives the full field-by-field view. Keep your originals: you can always share a stripped copy, but you cannot put the date and camera details back once the only copy is clean. For what those fields are, see what EXIF data is.
Questions
Does right-click Properties remove all EXIF data?
It removes the properties Windows can edit for that file type, which varies. It is not guaranteed to remove everything, so check the result with a viewer before you share a sensitive photo.
Can I remove EXIF data from many photos at once on Windows?
Yes. Select several files in File Explorer before opening Properties, or add a whole folder of photos to the EXIF remover, which cleans them in one go and offers a zip.
Why are there no check boxes in the Remove Properties dialog?
A property without a check box is one Windows cannot edit, so it cannot remove it. Use the EXIF remover, which cuts the metadata blocks out of the file itself.
Is it safe to use a website to remove EXIF data?
Only if the photo stays on your computer. The Stayput remover runs in your browser tab and the photo is not uploaded; you can confirm in the browser's network tab, or by switching to airplane mode after one visit and a short wait.