Remove Location Data From Existing Photos

How to view and edit EXIF Data including location on macOS

On macOS, the Photos app does more than what it does on iOS. The app lets you view EXIF data and remove location data from your images. It doesn’t let you edit or remove all parameters of EXIF data however. Follow these steps to view EXIF data on Photos for macOS and to remove location data too.

• Open Photos for macOS.
• Open the image you want to edit.
• Tap the i button on the top-right. Here you can view EXIF data in the photo and add a description and keywords if you wish.
• You can remove location data from a photo by clicking Image in the top bar and then clicking Location > Hide Location.
• You can also edit the date and time on the photo by clicking Image > Adjust date and time. Change the time and date and then click Adjust.

To remove EXIF data entirely, you’re going to have to rely on a third-party app such as ImageOptim. Here’s how.

• Download ImageOptim.
• Click the + icon and select the images you want to strip EXIF data from. You can select multiple images too.
• The app will automatically remove EXIF data from the image.

For greater control over this process, click the Gear icon and go through the options. These let you decide whether you want to reduce file size a lot at the cost of image quality or if you simply want to remove metadata without losing image quality.

How to view and edit EXIF Data including location on iPhone and iPad

On iOS surprisingly enough you can’t see much in terms of EXIF data via the Photos app. For granular control on viewing and removing EXIF data on photos from iPhone and iPad, you need to download a free app such as Metadata Remover or Photo Investigator (both free with in-app purchases). These apps let you edit and remove the EXIF data from photos, but editing EXIF data will require you to pay Rs. 249 to unlock the app’s premium features. In Photo Investigator, follow these steps:

• Tap the gallery icon on the bottom-left.
• Select the picture you want to edit EXIF data for.
• To view EXIF data, you can tap the various icons below the image.
• To edit or remove EXIF data (after you pay for the app), tap Metadata.
• Now select Remove or Edit.

You can achieve similar results from any other apps that offer this feature too, we just happened to use these two and found them to work.

If you are privacy conscious, you might want to disable adding location data to your photos. Be aware that disabling geotagging of photos will result in the “Places” album being empty and we’ve found that album as a good way to search for old photos. Here’s how to disable geotagging on iPhone and iPad.

• Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Camera.
• Tap Never.

We weren’t able to find any apps that reliably remove EXIF data in bulk on Android and iOS. Do you use any apps to bulk remove EXIF data on smartphones? Which apps do you use to view, edit, and remove EXIF data from your photos? Let us know via the comments. For more tutorials, visit our How To section.

How to View, Edit, and Remove Location and Other EXIF Data From Your Photos | NDTV Gadgets 360

How to Batch Edit Photo Exif Data on Mac OS X (fireebok.com)

If you have installed the free ExifTool, you can run it from the Terminal command-line to remove all GPS location data including any within XMP content that begins with a string gps…

exiftool "-gps*=" image.raw image.jpg

or

all images in a directory path (~ or explicit):

exiftool "-gps*=" Dirpath

I just ran this against an iPhone image (.JPG) on macOS 11.4 and it removed the entire {GPS} group from the image. It will do this in camera RAW images too.

This command-line solution is the one recommended by Phil Harvey, the creator of ExifTool.

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