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How to remove location data from photos on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac

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In short: there are three moments to deal with location data — before the photo is taken (turn off location for the camera), when you share it (most phones offer a switch in the share screen) and afterwards (remove it from the file). A location control may change only the app’s library or one sharing path; it does not necessarily rewrite the original file or remove other metadata.

Before you start: decide what you want

Location in photos is useful in your own library: it powers the map view and searches like “photos from Lisbon”. Turning it off at the camera loses that for good. A common middle ground is to keep recording location and remove it only from the copies you share. The steps below cover both approaches.

The Apple, Google and Samsung documentation linked below was checked on 21 October 2026. Menu names vary by version and device. These are documentation-based steps, not a physical-device test matrix; inspect the actual exported copy afterwards.

iPhone and iPad

Stop recording location

Open Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera and choose Never. New photos will have no GPS coordinates; photos you already took keep theirs.

Remove it when sharing

Select the photos in the Photos app, tap the share button, then tap Options at the top of the share sheet and turn off Location. The setting applies to that share only; the photos in your library keep their location.

Remove it from a photo in your library

Open the photo, open More → Adjust Location and choose No Location. Some versions expose this through the photo’s information panel. This changes its location in Photos; check the exported copy you intend to send.

Android

Stop recording location

On Pixel Camera, open Settings → More settings and turn off Save location. Other camera apps use different names; review the camera’s location permission in Android’s app settings if no switch is available. This affects future captures, not existing files.

Remove it when sharing

Some Samsung Gallery versions offer Remove location data in the share panel; availability depends on model and software. In Google Photos, review Share photo locations for the specific album, link or conversation. Hiding location there is not the same as stripping GPS from the file.

Remove it from a photo

Google Photos lets you change or remove locations you added manually or that it estimated. It does not let you remove a location recorded by the camera. Google also warns that a file downloaded and shared outside Photos can retain the original camera location, regardless of edits in its library. For Samsung Gallery, its current instructions use More → Details → Edit, then the minus sign beside location and Save; verify the resulting file.

Windows

In File Explorer, inspect a copy of the JPEG and use the property-removal controls if your Windows version and file handler expose them:

  1. Right-click the photo (or several) and choose Properties.
  2. Open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information at the bottom.
  3. Choose Create a copy with all possible properties removed, or select only the fields you want to remove.

“All possible” means properties the installed handler can edit, not every byte of metadata. Windows’ image-metadata support varies by format. This guide does not claim a current Windows device test; if the option is missing or fails, use the browser method below and inspect its output.

Mac

  • Photos app: select the photos and choose Image → Location → Hide Location. Review any location option offered when exporting, then inspect the exported file; a library change alone does not verify every export route.
  • Preview: Apple’s current guide documents Tools → Show Location Info for inspecting GPS. Use that inspection on the exported copy rather than assuming that the library’s map view describes its bytes.

In the browser, on any device

delexif removes supported personal metadata from a copy on a modern browser, without uploading the image:

  1. Drop one or more photos anywhere on the page, or tap to choose them. JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC files up to 64 MiB each are supported, subject to the Redraw safeguards below.
  2. Each photo gets a card that shows what it contains, with a map link when it has GPS coordinates.
  3. Choose a method — Redraw for any format, or Lossless for JPEG compressed image data you want to keep unchanged — and download the clean copy, or all of them in a .zip.

Redraw is limited to 25 megapixels and 8192 pixels per side; a large JPEG can use Lossless instead, but may lose its displayed rotation or mirroring when EXIF is removed. For other formats, export a lower-resolution copy or use a desktop tool. The large-photo safeguards explain these limits.

After cleaning, delexif re-reads the output for the recognized GPS, device, capture and authorship fields. A successful check is limited to that coverage; technical fields can remain, and partial or failed inspection must be treated as unverified. Lossless or Redraw explains how to choose between the two methods.

Location is rarely the only field

Most built-in options are designed for location only. A photo shared with location turned off may still carry its date and time, device model or authorship. If those matter to you, inspect and remove those fields as well as GPS — and remember that the picture itself can show a place too: a street sign, a view from a window or a reflection.

Check the exported file with a known input

Before trying a privacy-sensitive photo, download the synthetic JPEG. It has invented GPS coordinates 40.5, -3.7, device TestCam and author Example Author.

  1. Save a copy, apply the relevant location control and export or share it using the exact route you intend to use.
  2. Save the received or exported file. Reopen that file in a metadata viewer; do not rely only on the source library’s map.
  3. Check GPS separately from device and authorship fields. Record device, OS/app version, share option and date so the observation has a defined scope.

For a reference produced by delexif, the actual JPEG Lossless implementation was run on this input on 21 October 2026. The 633-byte output has no detected sample GPS, device or author fields, and its compressed scan is unchanged. The recorded comparison is a JPEG-tool test. No iPhone, Android, Windows or Mac removal workflow was executed as part of that test. Use the checklist above to verify your device’s path.

Sources and scope

Primary documentation checked on 21 October 2026. The downloadable example is synthetic; the recorded test does not establish the behavior of every photo, device or sharing service.

Want to see what a photo still contains after using the options above? Drop it into delexif: the check runs in your browser and the image is never uploaded by the tool.