Stripping every tag including orientation without rotating the pixels first, which leaves the photos on their side everywhere.
File formats
EXIF
Also called exif data, exchangeable image file format or photo metadata. Here is what it means, when it changes what you export, and what people get wrong.
File formatsRuns on your deviceUpdated 10 August 2026
The short answer
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is the block of information a camera writes inside a photo file: shutter speed, aperture, ISO, lens, date and time, orientation, colour space and often GPS coordinates. It is invisible in the picture but travels with the file, so it can say more than you intended once you publish.
Updated
The short version
EXIF at a glance
| Quick fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Standard | CIPA DC-008, maintained by the Japanese camera industry |
| Structure | TIFF-style directories of numbered tags |
| Carried by | JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, AVIF, WebP, PNG (Third Edition) |
| Not carried by | GIF and BMP |
| Includes GPS | Yes, in a separate GPS directory when location is on |
| Visible in the picture | No, metadata only |
Slide the table sideways to see every column.
What does EXIF actually record?
Rather more than most people expect. A typical photo from a phone or a camera carries:
- Capture settings: exposure time, aperture, ISO, focal length, flash, metering and exposure compensation
- Equipment: camera make and model, lens model, firmware, and sometimes body or lens serial numbers
- Time: the original capture timestamp, plus digitised and modified timestamps and, in newer files, the time zone offset
- Orientation: a value from 1 to 8 saying how the image should be rotated or flipped for display
- Colour: a colour space tag, usually flagging sRGB, which tells software how to interpret the numbers
- Location: latitude, longitude, altitude and GPS time, when location was switched on
- A thumbnail, and vendor-private maker notes that can hold anything the manufacturer chooses
Where does EXIF live inside a file?
EXIF borrows TIFF's structure: a set of directories, each holding numbered tags with their values. In a JPEG that whole structure sits in an application marker segment near the start of the file, before any image data. TIFF files hold it natively. HEIC and AVIF carry it as a metadata item, and WebP has a dedicated chunk for it in its container.
PNG gained official EXIF support in the PNG Specification Third Edition, which became a W3C Recommendation in June 2025, using a dedicated chunk for it. GIF and BMP have nowhere to put EXIF at all, so converting to either of those drops it completely.
What are the real privacy risks?
Location is the headline. Coordinates written outdoors are typically accurate to within a few metres, which is street-address precision. A seller photographing stock on a kitchen table can publish their home address without ever typing it. Timestamps map out routines. Serial numbers in the maker notes can link a batch of anonymous images back to one camera body.
Large social platforms generally re-encode uploads and discard EXIF in the process, but that is a side effect of their pipeline rather than a promise to you, and it does nothing about the copy you emailed, shared as a cloud link, or uploaded to a marketplace that stores the original. Treat stripping as something you do before the file leaves your machine.
How do you view or remove EXIF?
To view it: right-click a file in Windows and open Properties, then Details. On macOS, open the image in Preview and show the inspector. On a phone, swipe up or tap the info button on a photo to see the capture details and any map pin. Desktop tools such as exiftool show everything including maker notes.
To remove it: Windows offers "Remove Properties and Personal Information" in that same Details tab, which writes a cleaned copy. macOS lets you drop location from the Photos share options. Many editors and converters simply do not write metadata into their output, so a re-save often strips it as a side effect. That is convenient but not a guarantee, so verify the output rather than assuming.
Should you strip all of it?
No, and stripping everything causes its own problems. Delete the orientation tag without rotating the pixels first and every photo uploads sideways. Delete the colour space tag and some software guesses wrong, so colours shift. Photographers and stock contributors also want the copyright and creator fields to survive, because that is the only claim of authorship travelling with the file.
The sensible default is selective: strip GPS and serial numbers before publishing, keep orientation and colour information, and keep rights fields if attribution matters to you.
What people get wrong about exif
Each one is a real failure mode, not a style preference.
Trusting that a social network removed your GPS data, when the same file emailed or listed on a marketplace still carries it.
Assuming a screenshot preserves anything useful, when it drops the colour and orientation tags along with the location.
Editing the EXIF capture date to fix a sorting problem while the file system dates and any XMP copy still disagree.
Questions people ask
EXIF, answered
The follow-up questions people search for once they have the definition.
Does uploading to Instagram or Facebook remove EXIF data?
Major social platforms re-encode uploads and generally discard EXIF along the way, so the public copy usually has no location in it. Do not rely on that as your privacy control: the platform still received the original, and files shared any other way keep everything.
Does resizing a photo remove its EXIF?
It depends entirely on the tool. Some carefully copy the metadata into the resized file, others write a clean file with none. Neither behaviour is wrong, so check the output rather than assuming. Note that a preserved EXIF thumbnail may still show the original, uncropped image.
Can EXIF really show where a photo was taken?
Yes, if location services were on when it was shot. The GPS fields store latitude and longitude precisely enough to drop a pin on a specific building, and any photo viewer or free online tool can read them. No technical skill is needed to look.
Do PNG files have EXIF data?
They can. The PNG Third Edition specification, a W3C Recommendation since June 2025, defines an official chunk for EXIF. In practice most PNGs are screenshots or exports that carry none, so a PNG is often metadata-light simply because nothing wrote any.
How do I check the EXIF on my phone?
On iPhone, open the photo and swipe up or tap the info button to see camera details and a map if the photo is geotagged. On Android, open the image in Google Photos and choose the details view. Both show the main fields without extra software.
Same cluster
More from the glossary
Neighbouring entries, so every term in the set is one hop from every other.
Exposure
Exposure is how much light your camera lets reach the sensor, which decides whether a photo comes out dark, bright or just right.
DPI
DPI means dots per inch: the number of ink dots a printer lays down across an inch of paper.
Favicon
A favicon is the small icon a browser shows for a site in tabs, bookmarks and history.
From the studio
Tools that do this
Each one runs on your own device, so the photo stays where it is.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. Every link opens the specification, standard or documentation the claim was read at.
Keep reading
Elsewhere on Photomop
Platform image rules
Image size, file type and background rules for 22 selling platforms, each one sourced.
Read itConvert image
JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF, with an honest answer about HEIC and alpha.
Read itAll the tools
The whole toolbox in three families, with what each one needs before it can run.
Read itOn-device privacy
The pipeline in five steps, what leaves your device, and how to check it yourself.
Read it
Now do it to a photo
Photomop is a photo studio that runs on your own device. Resize, crop, compress, convert, batch edit, remove a background and change one all work in the browser tab you are reading this in, at full resolution and with no watermark. The on-device page shows you how to check that the photo stays put.