How to remove location from photos

Why your photos carry a location

When location access is on, your phone's camera writes the GPS coordinates of every photo into the file's EXIF metadata, along with the date, time and camera model. Anyone who gets the original file can read those coordinates and see where it was taken, which for photos taken at home means your address.

Apple notes that sharing a photo also shares its metadata, including the location. Large social networks generally remove EXIF data from the copies other people see, but files sent by email, as documents in messaging apps or through cloud links often keep it.

On iPhone

To share a photo without its location and leave the original untouched, open the share sheet, tap Options at the top, switch Location off and check that 'Location Not Included' appears before you send.

To stop saving location in new photos, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and choose Never.

To remove the location from a photo already in your library (menu names vary slightly between iOS versions):

• Open the photo in the Photos app.
• Tap the More button, then Adjust Location.
• Tap No Location.

On Android

On Samsung Galaxy phones, select the photos in Gallery and tap Share. At the top of the share panel, turn on Remove location data before you choose an app; the recipient cannot see where the photo was taken. To remove it from the file itself, open the photo's details, tap Edit and delete the location.

In Google Photos, open the photo, tap More, then Edit, and choose Remove location; select several photos and use Edit location to do it in bulk. The limit matters: Google Photos can only remove estimated locations and locations you added manually. A location recorded by your camera cannot be removed there, and it stays in the file if you download or email it. Google Photos does not include location when you share a new link, album or conversation unless you choose to.

To stop recording location altogether, open your camera app's settings and turn the location option off. Its name differs by manufacturer.

On Windows

File Explorer can strip location without extra software. Check the result afterwards, because some fields can survive: reopen Details and make sure the GPS section is empty. The steps:

• Right-click the photo and choose Properties.
• Open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information.
• Choose to create a copy with all possible properties removed, or select the GPS fields to remove them from the original.

On a Mac

Preview, the Mac's built-in image viewer, can do it in three steps:

• Open the photo in Preview.
• Choose Tools > Show Inspector, or press Command-I.
• Open the GPS tab, which appears only when the photo has location data, and click Remove Location Info.

In your browser, on any device

The free remove photo metadata tool shows what a photo reveals (location, camera, lens and date) and downloads a clean copy with all EXIF, XMP and IPTC data removed. It runs entirely on your device, so the photo is never uploaded, and it accepts JPG, PNG, WebP and iPhone HEIC files. That makes it handy on a shared or work computer where you cannot install software, and on a phone before you send a file by email.

If the place you are sending to does not accept HEIC, convert the photo with the HEIC to JPG converter, which also runs in the browser.

What metadata removal cannot hide

Removing GPS data stops a file from giving away coordinates, but the picture itself can still give away a place: a street sign, a house number, the view from a window, a reflection, a school logo on a uniform. Look at the background before you post, and crop or blur anything that identifies where you live.

The same applies when you upload a selfie to an AI photo app such as Luren AI to make AI photos of yourself: pick a photo you are comfortable sharing, and remove its location first.