How to remove the location from a photo before you post it
Updated November 13, 2026
Short answer
Most phones save GPS coordinates in every photo, accurate to a few meters. Large social apps usually strip them on upload, but files you send by email, share through cloud links, post on forums or sell on marketplaces often keep them. On a Mac, Preview can remove the location from one photo, and PicDetox removes the location and all other metadata from any number of photos with a right-click.
Who can see it
Anyone who gets the original file. Free tools and many image viewers show the coordinates on a map in one click.
Check a photo
In Preview, choose Tools › Show Inspector and look for a GPS tab. Or right-click the photo and choose Show Metadata in PicDetox, which lists everything it finds in plain words.
Stop new photos from saving location
- iPhone: Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera › Never.
- Android: in most camera apps, turn off location tags in the camera settings.
Clean a photo with PicDetox
- Select the photos in FinderSelect one photo or as many as you like.
- Choose Clean Metadata with PicDetoxRight-click and choose Clean Metadata with PicDetox, under Quick Actions or Services. PicDetox saves a clean copy next to each original and checks it.
- Share the clean copyPost or send the file ending in -clean. Its pixels are identical to the original.
Questions
Does removing the location change the photo?
Not with PicDetox. It copies the image data byte for byte and drops only the metadata.
What else can a photo give away?
The time it was taken, the camera's serial number and sometimes the owner's name. PicDetox removes those too.