Photo X-Ray

See what your photo is secretly sharing, like where it was taken, the phone that took it and when, then wipe it before you share. Photo X-Ray is a free photo location and metadata remover, and it all happens in your browser, so your photos are never uploaded.

  1. 1X-ray your photo
  2. 2Wipe the hidden data

Drop photos here or paste with Ctrl/Cmd+V. You’ll see what each photo reveals first, then you can wipe it. JPEG, PNG and WebP keep their full quality.

Private by design: your photos are X-rayed and wiped on your device. Nothing is uploaded, stored or shared, and the map only opens if you press it.

How to use Photo X-Ray

  1. X-ray your photo. Drop one or more photos onto the box, press X-ray a photo, or paste an image with Ctrl/Cmd+V.
  2. Read the X-Ray results. Each photo shows what it’s secretly sharing: a red Location found warning with the GPS coordinates if it reveals where it was taken, or a green No location data if it doesn’t. Underneath you’ll see the phone or camera that took it, the date and time, the editing software, the orientation, the image size and how much other EXIF data is inside.
  3. Check the spot if you want to. Press Open in map to see the location on OpenStreetMap, or Copy coordinates. Nothing is loaded unless you press one of them.
  4. Wipe it before you share. Press Wipe hidden data, then Download clean copy. It’s saved with the original name plus -clean, for example IMG_2041-clean.jpg. Doing several photos? Wipe all and download (.zip) gets them in one go. Share the clean copies, not the originals.

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What’s hidden in a photo?

When your phone takes a picture, it saves a block of extra information inside the file called EXIF data. Most of it is harmless, like the shutter speed. But if location services are on for your camera, it also records the exact GPS coordinates where you were standing, often accurate to a few metres.

That matters when you share the original file. A photo of something you’re selling on Vinted, eBay or Facebook Marketplace, taken at home, can reveal your address. So can a picture of your children, your new car or your front room. Some websites strip this data when you upload, but many don’t, and files sent by email, AirDrop, Bluetooth, messaging apps set to send “original quality”, or cloud links usually keep it.

Photos can also carry your phone’s make and model, the date and time, a serial number, the name of the editing app, your name as the “author”, place names added by photo apps, and even a small preview copy of the original picture from before you cropped it.

How the wipe works

For JPEG, PNG and WebP photos, Photo X-Ray cuts the metadata blocks out of the file and leaves the picture data exactly as it was. There’s no re-compression, so the clean copy looks identical to the original. It removes EXIF (including GPS), XMP, IPTC, comments, embedded previews and any extra data tucked after the image, such as motion-photo clips. Colour profiles are kept so colours stay accurate, and if the photo was taken sideways we keep just the “which way up” setting so it doesn’t appear rotated.

Every clean copy is X-rayed again before you download it, to confirm the location and camera details are gone.

iPhone HEIC photos: Photo X-Ray can reveal the hidden location in a HEIC file in any browser. To wipe it, it needs to open the picture, which only Safari can do with HEIC, so on an iPhone, iPad or Mac using Safari you’ll get a clean JPEG. In other browsers, you can stop the location being shared from the iPhone itself: in Photos, tap Share, then Options, and turn off Location. Or set Settings → Camera → Formats to Most Compatible so new photos are saved as JPEG.

Stop your phone adding locations

  • iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → Never.
  • Android: open the Camera app’s settings and turn off Location tags (also called “Save location” on some phones).

Photos you’ve already taken keep their location, so it’s still worth X-raying and wiping them before you share.

Privacy

Your photos never leave your device. They’re X-rayed and wiped by your own browser, with nothing uploaded, logged or stored. The Open in map button only opens OpenStreetMap if you press it, and it sends just the coordinates you can already see. Refresh the page and everything is gone.

FAQ

Will the wiped copy look worse?

No. JPEG, PNG and WebP photos are wiped without re-saving the picture, so the quality is identical. Only HEIC photos are converted, to a high-quality JPEG.

Do Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp remove the location?

The big social networks generally strip location data from photos they display, but sending a photo as a “document” or file, by email, through cloud storage links or on smaller sites can keep it. X-raying and wiping it yourself means you don’t have to rely on anyone else.

What does the X-Ray show?

Everything a photo can give away about you: the GPS location (with how accurate it is, the altitude and which way you were facing, if recorded), place names added by photo apps, the phone or camera make and model, the lens, the date and time it was taken, the software used, any owner name, caption or serial number, the orientation, the image size, and a count of the other EXIF tags inside.

It says “No location data”. Is that right?

Probably. Screenshots, photos that have already been through social media, and pictures from cameras with location turned off often have no hidden data at all.

Related: Catpool home, Security, QR X-Ray, Link X-Ray, Text X-Ray, Has My Password Been Leaked?.

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