JPG Metadata RemoverJPG Metadata Remover

Re-saving a JPG to get rid of its tags is the wrong tool for the job: it recompresses the picture and still may keep part of the metadata. This page does something else. It reads the file from front to back, keeps the pieces the picture needs, drops every piece that carries information about you, and writes the result out again. The image data is never decoded, so it cannot get worse, and the photo never leaves your browser tab.

Inside a JPEG file

A JPEG is a sequence of segments. Each starts with a marker, and most are followed by a length. The segments called APP0 to APP15 are free storage for any program, and almost all JPEG metadata lives in them. This is how the tool treats each one:

• APP0 (JFIF) says how the pixels are laid out: kept. Its JFXX extension, which can hold a thumbnail: dropped.
• APP1 (Exif) holds camera and phone data, time, GPS, maker notes and a thumbnail: dropped.
• APP1 (XMP) is Adobe's XML packet with creator tool, edit history and AI source labels: dropped.
• APP2 (ICC profile) defines colours: kept, so colours do not change. APP2 (MPF), a directory of extra pictures inside the file: dropped.
• APP11 carries Content Credentials (C2PA): dropped.
• APP13 is the Photoshop and IPTC area with captions, credits, copyright and keywords: dropped.
• APP14 (Adobe) holds a colour-transform flag that some files need to display right: kept.
• COM comments from cameras, editors and AI tools: dropped.
• Tables, frame header and scans are the compressed picture: copied byte for byte.
• Anything after the final end-of-image marker: vendor trailers, attached videos, extra images: dropped.

Because only the segments around the picture are touched, the compressed data passes through unchanged. We confirm it by decoding the original and the cleaned file and comparing the pixels, and it is the reason a cleaned JPG can never be larger than its source.

Extras that modern phones add

• Motion photos. Many Android phones append a short MP4 after the still, with XMP describing it. The clean file keeps the still and loses the clip.
• HDR gain maps. Android's Ultra HDR keeps a second, small image behind the main one, plus a directory and XMP. All three are removed, so the photo shows as a normal standard-range picture.
• EXIF thumbnails. After a crop, some editors leave the old preview in place, and it still shows the original framing.
• Content Credentials. Some cameras and AI tools sign JPEGs with a manifest in APP11.
• Editor notes. Captions, credits, contact details and free text from photo libraries and publishing tools.

Rotation, colour, and cleaning twice

Portraits from phones are usually stored lying on their side with an EXIF flag that says how to turn them. Throw out all EXIF and the photo shows up sideways. So when that flag is present, the clean file gets a tiny replacement EXIF block that holds only the rotation, and the picture stays upright without being re-encoded. The colour profile stays as well.

JPEG quality is lost whenever a file is decoded and compressed again. Cutting segments does not do that, so you can clean the same file again and again without generation loss.

What we tested

We built JPEGs with real encoders and metadata writers and compared decoded pixels before and after. A baseline file with EXIF, GPS, serial numbers, IPTC, a comment, XMP, a C2PA segment and a trailer came out without anything identifying, with identical pixels and a smaller size. A file with a gain-map image and an MPF directory lost the second picture and kept the main one identical. A file with an appended MP4 lost the video and kept the still. A file with an ICC profile and an EXIF thumbnail kept the profile and lost the thumbnail. A photo with an orientation flag kept only the rotation. A constructed file with two scans separated by another marker, the pattern of progressive JPEGs, kept both scans and lost the trailing data.

We have not run every camera's files. If a result looks wrong, keep the original and tell us on the contact page.

Clean a JPG

1. Add files by dragging, choosing or pasting from the clipboard.
2. Press Clean and scan the list. Location, device and AI fields are highlighted.
3. Check the second scan. Verified clean appears only when nothing identifying is left.
4. Download one by one or as a .zip. Rename copies whose names mention places or dates.

Guests can clean 1 file at a time, up to 25 MB each and 50 files a day. A free account allows 5 at a time, 25 MB each and 500 a day, and Starter, Pro and Business have no daily limit. HEIC, the default on many iPhones, is handled on its own page; alternatively switch the camera to Most Compatible and clean the JPEG.

Compared with other ways

• `jpegtran -copy none` keeps pixels identical but also drops the rotation flag and the colour profile, so portraits can end up on their side.
• `exiftool -all=` keeps pixels identical, removes the rotation flag as well, and may leave vendor trailers unless handled separately.
• ImageMagick `-strip` decodes and re-encodes the picture, which costs quality.
• Operating-system options usually remove location only, and they do not show what remains.
• This page keeps pixels identical, preserves rotation and colour, and reports what it found. It does not convert formats.

Verify any result with exiftool -a -G1 -s photo-clean.jpg, which should show structure such as image size and colour space only, or open the file in the EXIF viewer. PNG, WebP and AVIF belong to the image metadata remover. To edit a field rather than delete it, use the EXIF editor.

Questions