Remove Location From a Photo

Phones save the exact place a photo was taken inside the file. Drop a photo to see whether it contains a location, remove it, and confirm it is gone from the new copy.

The tool runs in your browser (JavaScript required). Nothing is uploaded.

Why a photo contains its location

When location access is on for the camera, the phone writes GPS coordinates into the photo's EXIF data — often accurate to a few metres, together with altitude, the direction the camera faced and a GPS timestamp. Editing apps can also copy a place name (city, country) into XMP metadata.

For photos taken at home, school or work, that is enough to find the place.

What this removes

  • GPS latitude and longitude, altitude, accuracy, direction, bearing and speed
  • GPS date and time
  • Place names in XMP (city, state, country, location)
  • The same data inside extra pictures stored in the file

What it cannot remove

Anything you can see in the picture — street signs, house numbers, landmarks, a view from a window — stays in the picture. This tool only removes data stored in the file, not what is shown.

Questions

Does removing GPS change image quality?

No. The location is stored separately from the picture. It is removed without re-encoding, and the picture data is checked to be byte-for-byte unchanged.

Do messaging apps remove location?

Some do and some don't, and it often depends on whether you send the picture as a photo or as a file. Because you usually can't see which, removing it yourself — and checking the copy you actually send — is the reliable way.

How do I verify the GPS was removed?

The result shows the location found in your original next to the result of a second scan of the new copy. "Verified not found" means that second scan found no location data.

Is location stored differently in HEIC and JPEG?

Both keep GPS in EXIF, but HEIC stores EXIF as an item inside the file while JPEG uses a segment. Both are handled. On an iPhone, the browser may receive a JPEG copy of a HEIC photo; the result shows which format we actually received.