How to Remove GPS Location and Metadata from iPhone Photos

Every photo your iPhone takes carries a hidden layer of data called EXIF metadata. It’s useful for organizing your own library, but it travels with the file when you share it - and it can reveal more than you’d expect.

What’s actually inside a photo

GPS coordinates - often the exact spot the photo was taken, down to a few meters.
Date and time - when the shot was captured.
Device and camera settings - your phone model, lens, exposure, and sometimes a unique identifier.

Post a photo to a marketplace listing, a forum, or send it to someone you don’t fully trust, and that location and timestamp go with it. For anything taken at home, at a child’s school, or anywhere you don’t want pinned on a map, that’s worth removing first.

The built-in option (location only)

iOS can strip location when you share. In Photos, select the photo, tap Share, then Options at the top, and turn off Location. This removes GPS for that share - but it leaves other metadata in place, and you have to remember to do it every single time.

Removing all metadata, in bulk

To strip everything - GPS, timestamps, and device fingerprints - and to do it for many photos at once, a dedicated tool is more reliable. We built PhotoGhost to make this one tap: it shows you exactly what metadata a photo contains (GPS even appears on a map), then creates clean copies with the data removed. Your originals are never modified, and because it runs 100% offline, your photos never leave your device.

A simple rule of thumb

Before posting any photo publicly, ask: would I be comfortable with a stranger knowing where and when this was taken? If not, strip the metadata first. It takes seconds and it’s irreversible once the file is out there otherwise.

Related: if you’re also converting formats, see how to convert HEIC to JPG - and strip metadata on the way out.