How to remove the location from a photo before you share it
Phones write where each photo was taken into the file itself, as GPS coordinates among its EXIF details. Turn it off when sharing from the phone, use Remove Properties in Windows, or export a copy without it. Most social networks strip it from what they show, but files sent as attachments keep it.
27 October 2026 · 4 min read
What a photo says about itself
Most photos carry EXIF details: the date and time, the camera or phone, the lens and exposure, and, if location was on, the latitude, longitude and often the altitude where it was taken. A photo taken at home and sent to a stranger can tell them where home is, to within a few metres.
To check, right-click the file in Windows, Properties, Details, and look for GPS. On an iPhone, swipe up on a photo in Photos to see its map; in Google Photos, open its details.
On the phone
- iPhone. When sharing, tap Options at the top of the share sheet and turn off Location. To stop recording it at all, Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, Camera, Never.
- Android. The camera app’s settings usually have a switch for location tags. Google Photos can leave the location out of photos shared by link, from its sharing settings; check what applies to the other ways you share.
In Windows
Select one or more photos in Explorer, right-click, Properties, Details, then Remove Properties and Personal Information at the foot. Choose to create a copy with all possible properties removed, or to remove only the properties you tick, such as the GPS ones, from the original.
Many photo editors do the same when exporting, with a choice to keep or drop the details. Check the result in Properties afterwards: some programs keep the location in a second place, such as XMP, that a quick removal misses.
Keep the camera, lose the place
Removing every detail also removes what photographers want kept: the date, the camera and the settings. Where a program offers it, remove the location alone and keep the rest.
Our own product, disclosed
Where our own software comes into this
We make Rutba Office, a free desktop suite for Windows. Since version 2.21, its Image editor’s export and its Pictures app’s Batch edit offer Remove location beside Strip all. Remove location takes out where the photo was taken and keeps the camera’s details; Strip all takes out everything. An export otherwise keeps the original’s details, in JPEG, PNG, WebP and TIFF alike.
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