Remove metadata from a HEIC photo
Drop a HEIC below to see its location, camera, serial number and capture date. This browser tool reads HEIC but does not rewrite it: stripping a HEIC means re-encoding the image, which changes the picture, so it is a job for a native tool.
Nothing is uploaded. The inspector runs in a frame that the browser blocks from opening any network connection at all.
Why the browser stops here
This is a limitation, stated plainly rather than hidden. This tool reads HEIC metadata and shows you all of it. It will not write a HEIC back out.
HEIC stores its image as HEVC-encoded data inside an ISOBMFF container. Editing that container correctly in a browser means either shipping a multi-megabyte codec to do it properly, or decoding the image and encoding it again — which re-compresses your photo and quietly makes it worse. Neither is a good trade for the person who came here to remove a GPS coordinate.
A HEIC is not one image
This is the part that catches people out. A HEIC file is a container, and an iPhone routinely puts more than one image in it:
- The primary image — the photo you see
- A depth map — from Portrait mode, describing the distance to the subject
- Auxiliary renditions — alternate versions used for editing and effects
- A thumbnail — a small copy for fast previews
Each of those can carry its own metadata. A stripper that clears the EXIF on the primary image and stops has cleaned one item in a container that holds several, which is how a file ends up reported as clean while still describing where it was taken.
Converting to JPEG does not fix it
The usual advice — convert the HEIC to a JPEG and the metadata goes away — is backwards. Converters generally copy EXIF into the output on purpose, because for most users losing the capture date would be a bug. You end up with a re-compressed image and the same coordinates.
If you convert anyway, drop the resulting JPEG into the tool above and check. It takes a second and it is usually a surprise.
What does work
- Before you share, on the iPhone itself. In Photos, tap Share, then Options at the top, and turn off Location. Free, built in, and it removes the coordinates — though it leaves the camera model, serial number and capture date in place. More on removing metadata from iPhone photos.
- A native tool, for the rest of it. Rewriting the container properly is what a desktop app is for.
Questions
- Can this tool remove metadata from a HEIC in the browser?
- It reads HEIC metadata and shows you everything inside, but it does not rewrite HEIC files. Removing metadata from a HEIC in a browser means decoding and re-encoding the image, which changes the picture. A tool that did that and called it lossless would be misreporting what it did.
- What is inside a HEIC that is not inside a JPEG?
- A HEIC is a container that can hold several images at once. Alongside the photo you see, an iPhone HEIC often carries a depth map, alternate renditions, and a thumbnail — and each of those can have metadata of its own. Stripping the primary image is not the same as stripping the file.
- Does converting HEIC to JPEG remove the metadata?
- Usually not. Most converters copy EXIF across to the new file deliberately, so the GPS coordinates and camera serial number arrive intact in the JPEG. Converting also re-compresses the image, so you lose quality and keep the metadata — the opposite of what was intended.
- How do I strip a HEIC without re-encoding it?
- Use a tool that edits the container rather than the image. On macOS the app version of this tool rewrites HEIC metadata in place. Command-line exiftool can also do it. Either way, check the result afterwards by re-reading the file.
When the browser is the wrong tool
HEIC is the format the browser genuinely cannot do properly, and the reason the Mac app exists.
Nothing Personal for Mac does two things this page cannot. It reads the download history macOS attaches to a file — where you saved it from — which lives outside the image and is invisible to any browser. And it handles folders rather than a handful of files, from Finder, without opening anything.