Remove metadata from iPhone photos
To remove location before sharing: in Photos, tap Share, then Options, and turn off Location. That removes the coordinates but leaves the camera model, capture time and iOS version in the file. Drop a photo below to see exactly what is left.
Nothing is uploaded. The inspector runs in a frame that the browser blocks from opening any network connection at all.
Use the toggle iOS already gives you
For a single photo, on the phone, nothing beats the built-in option. It is free and it happens before the file ever leaves the device:
- Open the photo in Photos and tap Share
- Tap Options at the top of the share sheet
- Turn Location off
- Share as normal — the copy that goes out has no coordinates
Anyone selling you an app for only this is selling you a switch you already own.
What the toggle does not do
It is a location toggle, not a metadata toggle. The coordinates go. What typically stays: the camera make and model, the lens, the exact capture date and time, the exposure settings, and the iOS version that produced the file.
For most sharing that is fine. For posting somewhere you would rather not be tied to a particular device and a particular minute, it is not the same as clean. Share a photo to yourself with Location off, then drop the result into the tool above and read what came through.
Stopping it at the source
If you would rather photos were never geotagged in the first place:Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → Never.
Photos already in your library are unaffected — they keep the coordinates they were taken with. This is a decision about future photos. It also breaks Places, Memories, and map views in Photos, which is a real cost if you use them.
iPhone photos are usually HEIC
Which is why the tool above will read your photo and then decline to rewrite it. Stripping a HEIC means re-encoding the image, and this tool does not re-compress anything without saying so. See removing metadata from HEIC for the detail.
If your iPhone is set to Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible, your photos are JPEGs instead, and the tool above will strip them completely.
Screenshots are a different case
iPhone screenshots carry no location and no camera data at all — no camera was involved. See screenshot metadata for what they do contain, which is considerably less than people expect.
Questions
- How do I remove location from an iPhone photo before sharing it?
- In Photos, select the photo, tap Share, then tap Options at the top of the share sheet and turn off Location. The copy you share has no coordinates. This is built into iOS, costs nothing, and is the right answer for sharing a single photo.
- Does turning off Location in the share sheet remove all the metadata?
- No, and this is the part that surprises people. It removes the GPS coordinates. The camera make and model, the exact capture date and time, the lens, the exposure settings and the iOS version generally remain in the shared file. It is a location toggle, not a metadata toggle.
- Does turning off location services stop photos being geotagged?
- Yes, for photos taken afterwards. Settings, Privacy and Security, Location Services, Camera, set to Never. Photos already in your library keep the coordinates they were taken with — this changes what future photos record, not what past ones contain.
- Do iPhone photos contain a serial number?
- iPhone photos generally do not include a device serial number in the way that many dedicated cameras include a body serial number. They do record the model, the lens in use, and the iOS version. If you want to know what a specific photo contains, drop it into the tool above and read the list.
When the browser is the wrong tool
Photos that reach a Mac — AirDropped, synced, or downloaded — are easier to clean in bulk there than one at a time on the phone.
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.