How to Stop Your iPhone from Saving Location in Photos

To turn off location for the iPhone camera, open Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and choose Never. From then on, photos and videos taken with the Camera app no longer contain GPS coordinates. Photos you already took keep their location until you remove it, and that is the part most guides skip.

Below are the exact steps for current iOS versions, the trade-offs of each option, how to share a single photo without its location, and how to clean up the photos already in your library.

Why your iPhone saves location in photos

The first time you open the Camera app, iOS asks whether it may use your location. If you allowed it, every photo and video gets GPS coordinates written into its metadata at capture time: latitude, longitude, altitude, the direction the camera was facing and the time of the fix. In iPhone files these sit in the EXIF block of the HEIC or JPEG image, in tags such as GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude and GPSImgDirection.

Apple uses that data for helpful things: the Places map, searches like "beach", and memories built around trips. The problem is that the coordinates do not stay in the Photos app. They travel inside the file whenever you send the original, by AirDrop, Messages, email or a cloud link, unless you remove them.

How to turn off location for the iPhone camera

These steps apply to recent iOS versions, including iOS 26. Labels may differ slightly on older versions or after updates.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Privacy & Security.
3. Tap Location Services at the top.
4. Scroll down the list of apps and tap Camera.
5. Choose Never.

That is the whole change. You do not need to turn off Location Services for the entire phone, which would also break Maps, Find My and other useful features. Apple describes the same steps in its Personal Safety guide on managing location metadata in photos.

Never, While Using, or Precise Location off: which to choose

The Camera screen in Location Services gives you several choices. They are not equally private.

Turning off Precise Location is a reasonable middle ground for your own library, and Apple suggests it as an alternative to Never. But an approximate location is still a location: shared alongside other clues, it can confirm the neighborhood or town you live in. If the goal is sharing safely, do not rely on it alone.

What turning off camera location does not do

This is where people get caught out. Setting the Camera to Never is a forward-looking switch, with clear limits:

• Existing photos keep their GPS data. Every picture taken while location was on still contains its coordinates, in your library and in every copy you sent.
• Other camera apps are separate. Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, third-party camera apps and any app with a built-in camera have their own entry in Location Services. If one of them is allowed to use your location, it may still geotag photos it saves.
• The rest of the metadata stays. Your photos still record the capture date and time, the iPhone model, the lens, camera settings and the iOS version. That is less sensitive than GPS, but it is not nothing.
• The picture itself is untouched. A house number, a school sign or a view from your window can reveal a place without any metadata.

Screenshots, saved images and photos from other cameras

Not every image in your library came from the Camera app, and the setting does not apply to the rest:

• Screenshots are not taken by the camera and do not normally get GPS coordinates. They still record a date, and whatever is on screen, such as a map or an address, is part of the image.
• Images saved from the web, Messages or AirDrop keep whatever metadata they arrived with. A photo a friend sent you as an original file may contain their location, and forwarding it passes that on.
• Photos imported from a standalone camera or a drone carry the location recorded by that device, if it has GPS or was paired with your phone through its maker's app.

So even with the Camera set to Never, check the info panel of an image before sharing it as a file, especially one that did not originate on your phone.

Share a photo without its location (share sheet Options)

If you keep camera location on, or you need to send an older photo, iOS lets you drop the location for a single share:

1. In Photos, select one or more photos.
2. Tap the Share button.
3. At the top of the share sheet, tap Options.
4. Turn off Location. The top of the share sheet should now say Location Not Included.
5. Pick how you want to share: AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Save to Files and so on.

Two details matter. First, the switch applies to that share only: the next time you share, location is included again by default. Second, the same Options screen has an All Photos Data switch. When it is on, iOS sends the original file with its full metadata and edit history, so leave it off unless the recipient really needs the original. Our article on whether AirDrop and iMessage share your photo's location goes deeper into how each channel behaves.

Remove location from photos already in your library

Changing the Camera setting does nothing for the hundreds or thousands of photos you already have. You can remove their location in Photos.

One photo

1. Open the photo in the Photos app.
2. Swipe up, or tap the Info button, to show the details panel with the map.
3. Tap Adjust next to the location (on some versions, tap the More button and choose Adjust Location).
4. Tap No Location.

Several photos at once

1. In Photos, tap Select and choose the photos.
2. Tap the More button or the Share button and look for Adjust Location.
3. Tap No Location.

Photos may remember the original location so it can be restored (the Mac version of Photos offers Revert to Original Location); what changes is the location the library displays and includes when you share. Copies you already sent before making the change are not affected: they are separate files, out of your reach.

When you want no metadata at all

Removing location is the priority, but sometimes you want a file with nothing identifying left: for a public listing, a forum, a stranger or a document you are submitting. iOS has no built-in "remove all metadata" button, so you have two practical options.

• A web tool in Safari. Remove metadata online with our free tool: it works in Safari without installing an app, takes JPEG, PNG and WebP files (up to 10 at a time), removes EXIF, GPS, XMP and IPTC data, and keeps only the color profile and the orientation flag so the photo looks the same.
• A Shortcut or a dedicated app. Covered in our guide to removing EXIF data on iPhone without buying an app.

One format caveat: iPhones save photos as HEIC by default, and our tool does not accept HEIC. You can switch the camera to JPEG under Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible, or share and export photos as JPEG; many transfers convert HEIC to JPEG automatically. Our guide to HEIC metadata explains what changes between the two formats.

Your iPhone location privacy checklist

1. Set Location Services > Camera to Never, or decide consciously to keep it on for your own map.
2. In the same Location Services list, check every other app that can take photos and set it to Never or While Using as appropriate.
3. Remove location from older photos you are likely to share, starting with photos taken at home.
4. When sharing from Photos, tap Options, turn off Location and keep All Photos Data off.
5. For public posts and strangers, strip all metadata, not just GPS.
6. Test once: send a photo to yourself by email, save the attachment and inspect it to see exactly what the recipient gets.