What a location tag actually says
It is not a place name. It is latitude and longitude to five or six decimal places, which is a few metres — the doorway, not the neighbourhood. A phone writes it silently whenever location is on for the camera, so the photos most likely to carry it are the ones taken at home. Some platforms remove it when you post; a file sent over chat, email or a cloud folder usually keeps it exactly as written.
Which files can lose only the location
A JPEG can. Its GPS tags sit in a block that can be dropped while the compressed image and every other tag stay byte for byte identical. No other format the workspace reads can be edited that way in a browser, so a HEIC, PNG, WebP, AVIF, TIFF or GIF goes through Re-encode Cleanup instead — which removes the location, and everything else embedded along with it.
What is left afterwards
On a JPEG: the camera and lens, the exposure settings, the capture time, the software that touched it. That is usually the point. A photo can stay documented — you can still tell what shot it and when — without also saying where you were standing.
Questions about location tags
How accurate is the location in a photo?Open
Typically within a few metres. The tag stores decimal coordinates, not a street or a city, so it points at a spot rather than an area. Some photos also carry an altitude and a direction the camera was facing.
Does removing GPS change anything else about the photo?Open
On a JPEG, no. The location tags are dropped and every other tag, along with the image data itself, is untouched. On any other format the file has to be re-encoded, so everything embedded goes at once.
My photo has no coordinates. Did something remove them already?Open
Possibly, or they were never written. Location has to be switched on for the camera app at the moment of the shot, and many services remove the tags when a photo is uploaded — so a photo you downloaded from somewhere often arrives without them.
Can I check the coordinates before removing them?Open
Yes. When a photo carries a location the workspace shows the coordinates and a link to a map, so you can see exactly what the file is disclosing before you decide.
By file format
- HEIC metadata viewer
- Open a HEIC or HEIF and read its EXIF, GPS and Apple maker notes in the browser, even where the browser cannot display the image. Nothing is uploaded.
- PNG metadata viewer
- PNG has no EXIF segment. See the tEXt, iTXt and eXIf chunks a PNG is actually carrying, read locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
- WebP metadata viewer
- WebP stores metadata in RIFF chunks, and only in its extended form. See what a WebP is carrying, read locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
- TIFF metadata viewer
- TIFF is where EXIF came from. Read a TIFF's image file directories, tags and byte order in the browser, even though no browser can display one. Nothing is uploaded.
- AVIF metadata viewer
- AVIF uses the same container as HEIC and the opposite licensing, which is why your browser can display one. Read its metadata locally. Nothing is uploaded.
- GIF metadata viewer
- A GIF has no EXIF and no colour profile. See the comment and application extension blocks it does carry, read locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
- RAW metadata viewer
- Most raw files are TIFF underneath, which is why their EXIF, GPS and maker notes can be read in a browser that cannot display one. Nothing is uploaded.