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How to remove EXIF metadata on Mac and Windows

A comparison of built-in desktop tools — macOS Preview, Windows File Properties — and how to strip image metadata losslessly without quality loss.

Updated

Desktop operating systems provide built-in utilities to inspect and manage file metadata. However, their capabilities vary significantly between macOS and Windows, and neither handles all modern file formats (like WebP or HEIC) without caveats.

Here is a guide to removing EXIF and location metadata using native desktop tools, along with their key limitations.

How to remove metadata on macOS

On a Mac, you can inspect and remove GPS location using Preview:

  1. Double-click an image to open it in Preview.
  2. Press Command + I (or choose Tools → Show Inspector).
  3. Click the (i) Information tab, then click the GPS tab.
  4. Click Remove Location Info at the bottom of the inspector window.

Limitations on macOS:

Preview allows you to strip GPS coordinates, but it does not allow you to easily remove camera serial numbers, exposure tags, or lens models from JPEG or RAW files. Exporting the file through Preview also risks re-compressing the image unless you carefully manage export parameters.

How to remove metadata on Windows 11 & 10

Windows includes a built-in property scrubber directly inside File Explorer:

  1. Right-click the image file and select Properties.
  2. Switch to the Details tab.
  3. At the bottom of the dialog, click the link: Remove Properties and Personal Information.
  4. You will see two options:
    • Create a copy with all possible properties removed (recommended).
    • Remove the following properties from this file (selectively uncheck individual fields).
  5. Click OK.

Limitations on Windows:

While convenient for standard JPEG files, Windows File Explorer frequently fails with an error (0x80004005: Unspecified error) when attempting to strip metadata from certain camera RAW files, PNGs, WebP files, or HEIC images. Furthermore, it often leaves proprietary camera MakerNotes and embedded thumbnails behind.

The command-line option: ExifTool

For advanced technical users and photographers, Phil Harvey’s open-source ExifTool is the gold standard for desktop metadata management:

# Strip all metadata from a JPEG on Mac or Windows terminal
exiftool -all= photo.jpg

ExifTool operates directly on file structures without decoding image pixels, preserving original image quality. However, it requires command-line familiarity and installing external dependencies.

The browser-based lossless alternative

If you want the byte-level precision of ExifTool without installing terminal utilities or command-line scripts:

  1. Open Metadata Remover AI or our specialized EXIF remover in any desktop browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge).
  2. Drag and drop your image files or an entire folder onto our bulk metadata remover.
  3. Because all processing happens via client-side JavaScript, files stay completely on your machine.
  4. The tool strips EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, and AI metadata losslessly while keeping compressed pixel data 100% byte-identical.
  5. Download your cleaned images individually or as a single bulk ZIP archive.

To understand how our engine strips container segments without re-compressing pixels, see our technical explanation of how it works.

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