📷 EXIF Viewer & Stripper

See the GPS coordinates, timestamps and serial numbers hiding in a photo — then download a copy with all of it removed. Nothing is uploaded.

About the EXIF Viewer & Stripper

Every photo from a phone or camera carries a hidden manifest: where it was taken (to about ten metres), when, on which device, through which lens, edited with what — and sometimes hardware serial numbers that quietly link every photo you have ever posted to the same camera body. This tool shows you all of it, plainly, and produces a copy with none of it.

It runs entirely in your browser, which for this tool is the point rather than a feature: an EXIF stripper that uploads your photo first would be a contradiction. The parse uses the exifr library loaded on demand; the strip is a canvas re-encode, which cannot carry metadata into the output by construction.

How to use it

Drop a photo — a JPEG straight off a phone shows the most.
Read the table. Highlighted rows are the identifying ones; the GPS row links to a map of the exact spot.
Download the clean copy before posting the photo anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is EXIF data and why is it in my photos?

EXIF is metadata your camera or phone writes into every photo: the exact GPS coordinates, the timestamp, the device make and model, sometimes serial numbers and the editing software used. It exists so photo software can organise and process images — but it travels with the file when you share it.

Can someone really find where I live from a photo?

If the photo was taken at home with location services on — yes, trivially. The GPS tag stores coordinates to roughly ten-metre precision, and any EXIF viewer (like this one) reads them in seconds. Photos of items for sale, taken at home, are the classic case. This is why stripping metadata before posting matters.

Does this tool upload my photo to read its metadata?

No — the file is parsed in your browser by the exifr library, loaded on demand. For a tool whose entire subject is privacy, uploading your photo to inspect it would be absurd. Your browser's network panel will confirm nothing leaves.

How does stripping work, and does it change quality?

The image is re-encoded through a canvas, which by design carries zero metadata into the output — no EXIF, no GPS, no colour profile. For JPEG output this is a re-compression at high quality (92%), so there is a small, usually invisible, generational loss. PNG output is lossless.

Do social networks strip EXIF for me?

The big ones (Instagram, X, Facebook) strip most metadata on upload — but they read it first, and many other channels don't strip at all: email, WhatsApp documents mode, Slack, your own website, marketplace listings. The safe habit is stripping before the file leaves your machine, not hoping the destination does it.

Why does my screenshot show almost no EXIF?

Screenshots and images exported from design tools carry little or no EXIF — there was no camera involved. EXIF is overwhelmingly a camera-photo phenomenon, which is also why a JPEG straight off a phone is the most revealing file to test here.

EXIF data: what your photos reveal and how to strip it

Every photo from a phone or camera carries a hidden manifest called EXIF: the exact GPS coordinates where it was taken (to roughly ten metres), the date and time to the second, the device make and model, lens details, exposure settings, editing software — and on many cameras, hardware serial numbers that quietly link every photo you have ever published to the same physical device.

Most people have never seen this data, because photo viewers do not surface it. But it travels with the file: email it, post it on a forum, upload it to a marketplace listing, and everything in it goes along. The classic failure is photographing an item for sale at home — the listing photo contains your home's coordinates, readable by any EXIF viewer in seconds.

Braxik's EXIF viewer shows you everything: the identifying rows are highlighted, the GPS row links to the exact spot on a map (the fastest way to make the point), and a one-line verdict summarises what this specific file reveals. The stripper then produces a clean copy with all of it removed.

Both halves run entirely in your browser — which for this tool is the point rather than a feature. An EXIF stripper that uploaded your photo to a server first would be a contradiction in terms. The parse uses the exifr library loaded on demand; the strip is a canvas re-encode, which cannot carry metadata into the output by construction.

How it works

The file's bytes are parsed by exifr, the fastest JavaScript EXIF library, reading the TIFF/EXIF structures embedded in JPEG (and where present, in PNG and WebP). GPS rationals are converted to decimal degrees; timestamps, exposure fractions and apertures are formatted into the conventions photographers actually read (1/125s, f/1.8, 26mm).

Rows are ordered by consequence: location first, then time, then device identity, then the photographic settings. Sensitive rows — location, timestamps, serial numbers, owner name, software — are flagged, and the privacy verdict above the table is computed from which of them are present.

Stripping re-encodes the image through a canvas: PNG stays PNG (lossless), everything else becomes a quality-92 JPEG. A canvas re-encode carries no metadata into the output — no EXIF, no GPS, no embedded thumbnail (old strippers famously left the thumbnail, which contained a small copy of the original image), no colour profile.

Common uses

Check what a photo reveals before posting it to a marketplace, forum or social network that does not strip metadata.
Strip GPS data from photos taken at home or at identifiable private locations.
Verify that photos received from others carry the claimed capture date — or that a 'recent' photo isn't three years old.
Read the camera settings from a shot you admire: exposure, aperture, ISO and focal length are all in the table.
Confirm your own publishing pipeline strips metadata, by checking a file downloaded back from your site.
Audit a batch of images for embedded owner names and serial numbers before a public release.
Demonstrate to a colleague or family member, with the map link, why location services on the camera app deserve a decision rather than a default.

Before you rely on the result

Test with a photo straight off a phone camera — screenshots and design exports carry almost nothing, and prove nothing about your real exposure.
Click the map link on the GPS row: seeing the actual building is a more reliable motivator than reading coordinates.
Remember the strip is a re-encode: JPEG output at quality 92 is visually identical but not byte-identical; keep the original for archival.
Strip BEFORE the file leaves your machine — relying on the destination platform to strip is a bet on every platform you'll ever use.
Check photos edited in desktop tools too: editors often preserve EXIF through edits, and add a Software tag while at it.
GPS absence in this viewer means the standard tags are absent — sidecar files and platform-specific containers can exist outside EXIF.
For legal or forensic needs, use dedicated tooling; this tool is built for the everyday publishing case.