How to Remove EXIF and Location Data From Product Photos

Every photo from a camera or phone carries hidden information: the device, the date, sometimes the exact place it was taken. Here is what that metadata contains, why a brand should remove it before publishing, and how to do it on Windows, on a Mac and in Lightroom, one photo or a whole shoot at a time.

What EXIF metadata is

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a set of information that cameras and phones write inside each photo file, next to the pixels. It isn’t visible on the image, but anyone who downloads the file can read it with a basic tool. Other metadata standards, such as IPTC and XMP, are often added by editing software and live in the same file.

A typical product photo can contain:

The device. Camera or phone make and model, lens, sometimes the camera’s serial number.
The settings. Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash, focal length.
The date and time. When the photo was taken, and often when it was last edited.
The location. GPS latitude and longitude, sometimes altitude and direction, when location was enabled on the device.
The people. An author or owner name, a copyright notice, contact details added by the photographer or their software.
The software. The editing program used, and sometimes an embedded preview image.
The orientation. A tag telling viewers which way up to display the photo.

None of this helps a shopper choose a necklace. Some of it you would rather not share.

Why it matters for a brand

The location of your studio or home. Many small brands shoot in a home studio, a workshop or a photographer’s flat. A photo taken with location enabled can point straight to that address.
Dates you haven’t announced. A capture date tells anyone who looks when a collection was photographed, which can reveal a launch calendar or show that “new in” pieces were shot months ago.
Your equipment and your people. Camera serial numbers, photographer names and contact details are not information your customers need.
File weight. Metadata is usually small compared with the image itself, but embedded previews and extra blocks add bytes to every file. The larger saving comes from resizing and choosing a light format, covered in our guide to image size and format.

Does Shopify remove it for you?

Shopify’s Help Center, on its page about uploading images, says that colour profiles are removed when images are displayed on your online store. It doesn’t document what happens to camera, date or location metadata. Shopify’s media editor help also notes that photos appearing in an unexpected orientation after upload is usually caused by EXIF metadata.

So the safe approach is simple: treat metadata as your responsibility. Remove it before the photos leave your computer, not only before they reach your store. That also covers everything else a photo passes through: shared drives, email, a freelancer’s laptop.

If you want to check what your own store serves, open a product image from your storefront in a new tab, save it, and inspect that copy with the methods below.

How to check a photo’s metadata

On Windows

Right-click the photo and choose Properties.
Open the Details tab.
Scroll through the sections: Camera (make, model, settings), Origin (date taken, authors, copyright) and GPS (latitude and longitude). If there is no GPS section, the file has no location data.

On a Mac

Open the photo in Preview.
Choose Tools > Show Inspector, then open the More Info tab.
Look at the Exif tab for camera and date, and the GPS tab for location. You can also choose Tools > Show Location Info: if it is greyed out, the image contains no location information.

In the Photos app, select a photo and open the Info window to see the camera, date and, if present, a map of where it was taken.

How to remove it, one photo or a handful

Windows: Remove Properties and Personal Information

Select one or several photos in File Explorer.
Right-click, choose Properties, then the Details tab.
Click Remove Properties and Personal Information.
Choose Create a copy with all possible properties removed to keep your originals intact, or Remove the following properties from this file to tick what goes.

Microsoft’s own documentation is clear on the limit: this removes the properties Windows knows how to edit for that file type. Check a copy afterwards to confirm the GPS section is gone.

Mac: Preview and Photos

Photos app. Select the photos, then choose Image > Location > Hide Location. Export them with File > Export, then check one exported copy to confirm the location is gone.
Preview. In the Inspector’s GPS tab, use the button to remove location information when your version offers it, then save.
Sharing from an iPhone or iPad. In the share sheet, tap Options and turn off Location before sending photos to your computer or to someone else.

How to remove it for a whole shoot

Handling files one by one doesn’t scale past a few dozen photos. Build metadata removal into the export step instead.

Lightroom Classic export

In the Export dialog, open the Metadata section:

In Include, choose Copyright Only (or Copyright & Contact Info Only if you want contact details). This leaves out camera settings and most other fields.
Tick Remove Location Info, and Remove Person Info if you tag people.
Save these settings as an export preset, next to your size and format settings, so every future export applies them.

Other editing programs have similar options, often called “metadata: none” or “copyright only” in their export or “save for web” windows.

Command-line tools

If you are comfortable with a terminal, free tools such as ExifTool can strip metadata from a whole folder in one command. Run them on a copy of the folder, never on the only copy of the shoot.

Ask your photographer

The simplest batch approach is upstream: ask for delivered files exported without location data, at the size you need. Put it in your brief, with your shot list.

What to keep

You don’t have to remove everything. Two things are worth thinking about:

Copyright fields. Google Images can read embedded copyright, creator and credit information. If you want to keep them, use a “copyright only” export. Whether they survive each platform’s processing is something to check on a downloaded copy.
Orientation. If a photo was rotated using only its orientation tag, removing metadata can make it appear sideways. Export tools normally rotate the pixels themselves; check each photo before uploading.

Everything that describes the product for shoppers and search engines belongs elsewhere: in the alt text and the file name, not in hidden camera data.

Checklist before uploading

Keep the untouched originals in a separate, private backup.
Check a few photos from the shoot: is there a GPS section?
Export with location removed and only the metadata you chose to keep.
Make sure each exported photo is the right way up.
Check one exported file again: no GPS, no camera serial, no personal name.
Rename the files and write alt text.
Upload, then check one image downloaded from your storefront.
Save your export settings as a preset for the next shoot.

With Dropmatch

Dropmatch, a Shopify app published by Aryios, cleans photos as part of preparing them:

Camera, date and location data removed from every photo before it is sent to your store.
Resized to 1024, 2048 or 4096 px and converted to WebP or JPEG.
Alt text and an SEO file name written for each photo in your store’s language, following your brand rules, and editable before sending.
Photos matched to products by file name, folder name, SKU, barcode or product handle; unsure matches wait for your decision.
No photo library. Photos are deleted from Dropmatch’s servers once they are in your store, otherwise about 24 hours after upload.

See all features.

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopify remove EXIF data from uploaded photos?

Shopify’s Help Center says colour profiles are removed when images are displayed on your online store, but it doesn’t document what happens to camera, date or location data. Don’t rely on it: remove the metadata before uploading, and check a downloaded copy if you want to be sure.

Does removing metadata reduce image quality?

No. Removing properties doesn’t touch the pixels. Re-exporting a photo can recompress it, depending on the quality setting you choose, but that is a separate step.

Do all phone photos contain GPS coordinates?

Only if location was allowed for the camera when the photo was taken. The only way to know for a given file is to check its properties.

Is camera metadata useful for SEO?

Search engines rely on what’s on the page: alt text, file name, surrounding text. Camera model, exposure settings and GPS position don’t help describe a product. Google Images can read embedded copyright, creator and credit fields, so keep those only if you want them.

Will removing metadata make my photos appear rotated?

It can, if the photo was rotated using only its orientation tag. Export tools usually apply the rotation to the pixels, so export first, then check that each photo is the right way up.

How to remove EXIF and location data from your product photos