# IndieEXIF > Read Exif, XMP, and IPTC metadata, then make a clean copy without uploading the photo. See and clean photo metadata locally. Free, no account. The canonical page is https://indieexif.com/. ## Use the tool Open [IndieEXIF](https://indieexif.com/) to complete the job. The questions below describe the supported input, result, and limits. Every answer names its source next to it. Source: [exifr](https://github.com/MikeKovarik/exifr). ## Questions and limits ### What is EXIF data? Exif is the block of metadata a camera or phone writes into a photo file: the camera make and model, the lens, the exposure settings, the date and time, and often the GPS coordinates of the place where the shutter fired. It sits beside the picture, not in the pixels, so two photos can look identical and carry very different fields. XMP and IPTC blocks sit next to it and add captions, creator names, copyright, and edit history. ### Which photo formats can it read? JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, and HEIF, one photo at a time, up to 50 MB. The browser detects the format from the file's own bytes, not from its extension, so a renamed file is still read correctly. Every readable Exif, XMP, IPTC, and ICC field is listed with the standard it comes from linked beside it. RAW formats, TIFF, GIF, and AVIF are not read. ### Does a photo contain my location? Often, yes. A phone with location turned on writes the latitude and longitude into the Exif GPS directory, and editing software can add the city, state, and country to XMP and IPTC fields. IndieEXIF lists every location field at the top of the result and marks it as sensitive. If you see coordinates there, anyone who downloads the original file can read them too. ### How do I remove metadata from a photo? Choose the photo, review the fields, and download the clean copy. The browser strips the Exif, XMP, and IPTC blocks and copies the encoded picture unchanged, so nothing is re-encoded and no quality is lost. Orientation and the ICC color profile stay, because the photo needs them to display correctly. The copy is read back before the download, and if a private field is still readable, IndieEXIF refuses to hand it over. For a JPEG, you can remove location only. That rewrite zeroes the GPS directory and strips the place fields in XMP and IPTC, while the creator and copyright fields stay. The result lists what went, what stayed, and anything it could not rewrite. PNG, WebP, and HEIC photos get the full clean copy. ### Does removing EXIF data reduce image quality? No. IndieEXIF never decodes or re-encodes the picture. For JPEG, PNG, and WebP it removes the metadata containers and then compares the encoded image payload before and after; if a single byte differs, the download is refused. A HEIC photo is handled differently: the known Exif and XMP item data is zero-filled inside the container and the HEVC stream is not touched, so the file keeps its original size. ### What does a clean copy not hide? Anything visible in the pixels. A face, a street sign, a license plate, a reflection in a window, or an address on an envelope stays in the picture after every metadata field is gone. Cropping or blurring is a separate job. A clean copy also says nothing about copies you already shared: a photo uploaded last year still carries whatever it carried then. ## Promises - The core is free: no account, no card, no premium plan, no upgrade nag, no hidden paywall. - Private lookup activity is never published. - Analytics is currently off. Private lookup activity is never published or sent to a tracker. No lookup history becomes public inventory. ## More - [Notes](https://indieexif.com/blog.md): posts by the maker, newest first - [More tools](https://indieexif.com/tools.md): the other tools by turushan - [security.txt](https://indieexif.com/.well-known/security.txt): how to report a vulnerability Made by turushan, https://twitter.com/turushan.