Hello! I've got a self created .mp4 video that I have created using iMovie. I would like to review all the metadata associated and then delete all the metadata for privacy reasons. I am not an IT expert, so please keep that in mind, I do not know any terminal commands.
Generally, do you have any recommendations for privacy enhancing tools?
Thank you very much kind stranger :)
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.6
Check metadata:
exiftool -a -G1 -s movie.mp4
Remove metadata:
exiftool -overwrite_original -All= movie.mp4
...
Using exiftool via the command line is not so difficult as it sounds. Just download the MacOS Package .dmg from exiftool main page and install it via ctrl-click > Open (to bypass the security check for applications that haven't a bought a certificate from Apple). Then, for example, put copies of the movies you want to process on the Desktop to a folder named 'movies' (don't put anything else there). Then open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app, type 'cd ' (notice the space) and drag that 'movies' folder to the Terminal window and press Return to change to that folder (or type 'cd ~/Desktop/movies' followed by Return. '~' means your home folder). Then copy & paste the previous long command to the Terminal, press Return, and wait for all files in that folder to be processed. (The dot '.' at the end of the long command means 'this folder'. Or alternatively, omit that dot '.' at the end, and instead type the exact name of the file you want to process. Or type just the start of the filename, and then press Tab to use autocomplete and maybe insert '*' to the end, and hit Return to process all files that start with the same letters. Or add '-ext mp4' switch to the command to process only files that have .mp4 suffix (or add '-ext dv' to process .dv files that exiftool does not touch by default). That was a rather clumsy instruction but I guess you get the idea.
Movie dates and Photos.app - Apple Community
What metadata are you trying to remove?
If you copy to an ExFAT file system, then use `dot_clean -m` on the drive, it will remove Apple's metadata.
As far as I know, there is nothing else built into the OS that will remove the EXIF metadata.
Open the Mac App Store app, and search for EXIF Tool, or such. You’ll find some options.
Oh, and to remove (or reset) also all QuickTime dates, do also:
exiftool -overwrite_original '-QuickTime:*Date*=' movie.mp4
MrHoffman wrote:
Barney-15E wrote:
What metadata are you trying to remove?
If you copy to an ExFAT file system, then use `dot_clean -m` on the drive, it will remove Apple's metadata.
That won’t effect EXIF data.
I thought that’s what I said.
Hey, thank you very much for your input. Appreciated :)
However, I would like to simply have a nice GUI, which lists every Metadata of the file (either .pdf .jpeg .png .mp4 .docx etc.) and then provides me with an Option to delte everything, so that Privacy is enhanced. I know that on some privacy focused linux operating systems have such tools, however, on MacOS, there is not really anything good or a programme which I can trust, which lists all the metadata and then shows me tickboxes like "remove x. remove y etc.", which is kinda annoying because I believe that is a very important piece of software, to remain somewhat private when sharing data. On the App Store, the software is not really doing exactly that. I cannot see all the metadata and I don't know what is/can be deleted. Did I make my point clear? Sorry, non english native. Thank you guys.
Hey, thank you for the answer very much. But as I have mentioned, I would not like to use the terminal. Does this have a GUI? Thank you.
Barney-15E wrote:
What metadata are you trying to remove?
If you copy to an ExFAT file system, then use `dot_clean -m` on the drive, it will remove Apple's metadata.
That won’t effect EXIF data.
I think we all understand what you want to do. I don't know if there is a single tool that does all of that in the GUI.
Well, there isn't! So, I do not have any clue to programme. But, maybe you guys could programm some nice app? That would be awesome :)
How to remove metadata in a an .mp4 file on MacOS Monterey?
