How to Remove Metadata from Photos on a Mac

To remove metadata from photos on a Mac, open the image in Preview and use Tools > Show Inspector, then the More Info tab, then GPS > Remove Location Info. That only removes location, though. To remove everything, export from Photos with Location Information unchecked, use the Finder's Convert Image quick action with Preserve Metadata turned off, or run ExifTool or an online metadata remover for a complete, lossless clean.

Each built-in tool removes something different, and none of them clears every field without trade-offs. This guide shows what each one does, step by step, and how to confirm the result. Menu names below match current macOS versions at the time of writing (2026); they may differ slightly on older releases.

Mac methods compared

Remove location with Preview

Preview is the quickest option for one photo that is already a file in Finder, such as an image from AirDrop or a download. Apple's Preview guide shows where to view a photo's location; the removal button sits on the same pane.

1. Make a copy first if you want to keep the original's location: select the file in Finder and choose File > Duplicate.
2. Open the photo in Preview.
3. Choose Tools > Show Inspector, or press Command + I.
4. Click the More Info tab (the "i" in a circle).
5. Click the GPS tab. A map shows where the photo was taken.
6. Click Remove Location Info below the map.

If there is no GPS tab, the photo has no GPS coordinates in its EXIF data, so there is nothing to remove there.

Look at the other tabs in the same Inspector before you consider the photo clean. The EXIF and TIFF tabs still show the camera make and model, lens, capture date and software. Preview removes location and nothing else.

Remove location when exporting from Photos

For pictures in your Photos library, including everything synced from your iPhone through iCloud, the export dialog is the built-in way to produce copies without location.

1. Select the photos in Photos.
2. Choose File > Export > Export [number] Photos.
3. Choose JPEG as the Photo Kind if you plan to clean the files further or share them widely, because HEIC is not supported everywhere.
4. Uncheck Location Information. Uncheck Title, Keywords, and Caption too if those contain names or places.
5. Click Export and pick a folder.

The exported copies leave out GPS coordinates, but they still include the camera model, capture date and other EXIF data. This export also re-encodes the image at the JPEG Quality you selected.

Remove all metadata with the Finder's Convert Image action

Since macOS Monterey, the Finder has a built-in Convert Image quick action with a Preserve Metadata checkbox. Unchecking it gives you a new file without the original's metadata, with no extra software.

1. In Finder, select one or more photos.
2. Right-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image.
3. Pick a format (JPEG, PNG or HEIF) and set Image Size to Actual Size so the resolution does not drop.
4. Uncheck Preserve Metadata.
5. Click the Convert button. The new files are saved next to the originals, which are not changed.

The trade-off is quality: the photo is re-encoded, so a JPEG is compressed a second time. For social media or messaging, that is rarely noticeable. For archive copies or print, use a lossless method. Check one converted file in Preview's Inspector to confirm the EXIF and GPS tabs are gone before converting a whole folder.

Make it a one-click action with Shortcuts

If you clean photos often, the Shortcuts app on the Mac offers the same Convert Image action used on iPhone, with the same Preserve Metadata switch. You can build a reusable shortcut and run it from the Finder:

1. Open Shortcuts and create a new shortcut.
2. In the shortcut's details, turn on Use as Quick Action and select Finder, so it receives the images you select.
3. Add Convert Image, choose JPEG (or Match Input), and turn off Preserve Metadata.
4. Add Save File and choose a destination folder, such as a "Cleaned" folder on your Desktop.

The shortcut then appears under Quick Actions when you right-click images. It has the same re-encoding trade-off as the built-in action, and the panel labels can differ slightly between macOS versions. The benefit is consistency: every photo goes through exactly the same steps and lands in one folder you can check.

Remove all metadata with ExifTool (Homebrew)

ExifTool removes metadata without touching the image data, and it handles entire folders. Install it with Homebrew, or download the macOS package from exiftool.org.

brew install exiftool

Then, in Terminal, change to your photo folder with cd and use these commands:

Keeping the ICC profile matters more on a Mac than on most systems. iPhone photos are captured in Display P3, and stripping the profile can make those photos look washed out. Keeping the orientation tag stops portrait photos from turning sideways. ExifTool saves each original with _original appended; add -overwrite_original only once you trust your command. The ExifTool cheat sheet has more examples, and the same commands work on Linux.

Remove all metadata online in Safari

If you would rather not use Terminal, remove metadata online in Safari, Chrome or Firefox. Drag up to 10 JPEG, PNG or WebP photos (up to 25 MB each) onto the page, keep Keep same format so the image is not re-encoded, and download the cleaned file or ZIP. Double-click a ZIP in Finder to extract it.

The tool removes EXIF, GPS, maker notes, embedded thumbnails, XMP, IPTC and C2PA data while keeping the ICC profile and orientation, and it shows a report of what it removed. HEIC photos from your iPhone need to be exported as JPEG from Photos first, as described above, or captured in "Most Compatible" mode. Files are deleted from the server 10 minutes after processing.

Mac-specific metadata that lives outside the image

macOS also stores information about a file in the file system rather than inside it. Two kinds are worth knowing:

• Extended attributes, such as the "Where from" URL recorded for downloaded files and Finder tags. You can see them with xattr -l photo.jpg in Terminal.
• Spotlight metadata, the index the system builds from the file's contents. mdls photo.jpg shows it, including fields like kMDItemLatitude if the image has GPS data.

Extended attributes are not part of the JPEG, so uploading a photo through a browser does not send them. They can travel, though, when you compress files with Finder: the resulting ZIP may include a hidden __MACOSX folder holding those attributes. If you send ZIPs of photos to other people, check for that folder or use the cleaned files directly.

How to check that the metadata is gone

1. Open the cleaned photo in Preview and press Command + I. In the More Info tab, a fully cleaned file shows only basic properties; there should be no GPS tab and no camera details in the EXIF tab.
2. In Terminal, run exiftool -a -G1 -s cleaned.jpg. You should see file information, image size and, if you kept them, the ICC profile and orientation, and nothing identifying.
3. Or upload the cleaned file to the online tool again and read its report.

Our guide on checking that metadata was removed goes through what clean output looks like.

Which Mac method fits your situation

• One file, location is the only concern: Preview, Remove Location Info, on a duplicate.
• Photos from your library, quick share: export with Location Information unchecked.
• No location, no camera data, nothing to install: Finder Convert Image with Preserve Metadata off, accepting re-encoding.
• Lossless and complete, many files: ExifTool with the ICC profile and orientation kept.
• Lossless and complete, no Terminal: the online tool with Keep same format.
• Photos coming from an iPhone: clean them on the phone before they reach the Mac with the methods in removing EXIF data on iPhone.