View EXIF and file metadata

Drop a file and see what it is carrying. A photograph usually knows where it was taken and which device took it; a document usually knows who wrote it. Nothing is changed and nothing is uploaded — this reads the file and tells you, which is the step most people actually want before deciding whether to remove anything.

    • Where it runs

      Any file is read in the browser. Nothing is uploaded.

    • No queue, no account

      It starts the moment you drop the file, and it never asks who you are.

    • No watermark

      What comes out is the file you made, with nothing added to it.

    How it works

    1. Drop the file onto the box above, or press it to choose one.
    2. The format is worked out from its contents rather than its name.
    3. Read what it is carrying. Entries that identify you are marked.
    4. Nothing is altered. If you want the data gone, the metadata remover does that.

    What a photograph knows about you

    A picture taken on a phone usually stores the coordinates it was taken at — accurate enough to identify a building, not just a town — along with the date and time to the second, the make and model of the device, often its serial number, and the exposure settings. None of it is visible when you look at the image, and all of it travels with the file when you send it, post it, or attach it to a listing.

    Some photographs also carry a thumbnail generated before the picture was edited. That is how an image somebody cropped can still contain what they cropped out, and it is the single most surprising thing this tool shows people.

    And what a document knows

    Word, Excel and PowerPoint files record the author, whoever last saved it, the organisation from the software licence, the total editing time and the template it came from. PDFs additionally record the program that produced them, which is frequently enough to identify an employer. Audio files carry tagging software and sometimes purchase identifiers; video carries the encoder and the recording device.

    Reading it is deliberately separate from removing it. Looking at a file should not change it, and plenty of people arrive wanting to know rather than wanting to act.

    View EXIF and file metadata: common questions

    Is my file uploaded to read it?

    No. It is read in your browser and nothing is transmitted — which matters here more than almost anywhere, since the entire question is what private information the file contains.

    Does this change my file?

    Not at all. It reads and reports. The file on your device is untouched, and there is no download because nothing was produced.

    Can I see where a photo was taken?

    If the photograph carries coordinates, yes, and they are marked as identifying. Many pictures do not — social networks strip them when they re-encode an upload, and some phones are set not to record them.

    How do I remove what it found?

    The metadata remover does that, and shows you the file again afterwards so you can confirm it is gone. This page is the step before: look first, then decide.

    Which files can be inspected?

    Photographs, PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, video and audio. The format is identified from the contents, so a file with a misleading extension is still read correctly.

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