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A Word file saves who you are alongside what you wrote. The Author and Last modified by names, the company from the Office licence, the dates of every save, the minutes spent editing, a thumbnail of page one and a code for every editing session all travel with the DOCX file. A DOCX metadata remover deletes those records and leaves your text, styles, tables and pictures as they were. Drop a .docx file in the box above to see what it holds and download a clean copy.
What a Word document remembers
| Where | What is stored | Example |
|---|---|---|
| File properties | Author, Last modified by, Title, Subject, Keywords, Comments, Category, Created, Modified, Revision | Author “J. Alvarez”, Last modified by “Sam”, Created three years ago |
| Extended properties | Company, Manager, Application and version, Template, Total editing time | Company “Northwind Ltd”, 214 minutes of editing |
| Custom properties | Fields added by a company or a document system | ClientId = 4471, Classification = Confidential |
| Thumbnail | A small picture of the first page | A readable preview of page one |
| Editing session IDs | rsid codes on paragraphs and in the settings part | Codes that tie a passage to the session that wrote it |
| Reviewer list | Names of everyone who commented or tracked changes | A people list with every reviewer |
| Embedded photos | Pictures keep their own EXIF block, often with GPS | A phone photo that names the address of the meeting room |
Where the details come from
- Your Office account. Word copies your user name and company into Author, Last modified by and Company.
- Templates. A document made from a template keeps the template’s author and path.
- Copying a file. A contract drafted from last year’s contract still names the person who wrote last year’s.
- Pasted pictures. A photo pasted from a phone keeps its camera and location data inside the document.
What the remover deletes, and what it keeps
| Removed | Kept |
|---|---|
| Author, Last modified by, Title, Subject, Keywords, Comments | All text, styles, tables and formulas |
| Company, Manager, Application name and version, Template, editing time | Fonts, headers, footers and page layout |
| Created, Modified and Last printed dates, and the save time of every part | Pictures, charts and hyperlinks |
| Custom properties | Page and word counts that Word recalculates |
| Preview thumbnail | Document security settings |
| Editing session IDs and the reviewer list | Comments and tracked changes (reported, not deleted) |
| EXIF, GPS and camera data in embedded pictures | The pixels of every picture |
How to remove metadata from a Word document
- Drop your Word documents in the box at the top of the page, or choose them from your device. You can add many files at once.
- Press the clean button. Each file shows what was found and removed.
- Read the report. Anything that could still identify someone is listed as remaining, so nothing is hidden from you.
- Download the clean copy. One file downloads as it is; several come as one ZIP.
Is it safe to clean a Word document online?
Yes. Word documents are cleaned entirely in your browser: the file is read, rewritten and handed back as a download without leaving your device. You can confirm it by opening the network tab of your browser while you clean a file, where no upload appears. If you use the API or the MCP server, the file is processed on our server, held only for the length of the request, and deleted within minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove the author name from a Word document?
Drop the file here. The Author, Last modified by, Company and Manager fields are deleted from the file properties, and the report confirms it.
Is Word’s Document Inspector enough?
It is a good first step, but it works one file at a time, is missing from some editions, and does not clean the metadata inside embedded photos. Saving the file again can also write your name back.
Will the document look different afterwards?
No. Only the property parts, the thumbnail and the photo metadata are rewritten. Text, formatting and layout are untouched.
Does it work on .doc files?
Yes, with the DOC, XLS & PPT remover, which blanks the properties of old files in place. For the best result save the file as .docx in Word and clean that.
Can I clean Word documents with the API?
Yes. Send the file to POST /api/v1/clean/document with your API key and its name in the X-Filename header. It returns the clean file and reports what was removed in the response headers. The MCP server does the same for AI assistants.
How many files can I clean?
Guests and free accounts have a daily allowance and a file-size limit, shown above the drop box. Paid plans raise both. Documents, images, PDFs and audio share one daily allowance.