How to Remove Exif Data from Multiple Photo Files


Exif is a type of metadata that has been created for photo files. Exif data includes information about the photo, how it was taken, and the device used to take it. Virtually every digital camera and mobile phone automatically embed it in the files of photos taken by them. Exif stands for Exchangeable Image File Format.

Image file formats that can have Exif data embedded in them include JPEG, PNG, and WebP. Image conversion software could pass-through Exif data from one format to another. Image file formats can have other types of hidden data & metadata embedded in them, alongside Exif data, such as XMP data and C2PA metadata.

While Exif data is useful, it poses a serious privacy and confidentiality risks when the photos are shared. It's possible to avoid these risks by removing Exif data from files before sharing them. This can be achieved with an appropriate software. Examples of such software are the free BatchPurifier LITE™ for JPEG, and the full BatchPurifier™ for JPEG, PNG, and WebP.


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Privacy dangers of Exif data

Types of potentially harmful information that Exif data may include are:

  • Exact date and time - can allow people to know where the photographer and any people in the photo have been at a particular day and time.

  • Unique serial numbers of the camera and lens - can allow people to trace two photos to the same photographer, possibly compromising one's anonymity.

  • Geotag - if the device is equipped with a position receiver, like GPS, the precise location coordinates will be included in the Exif data. Most smartphones have such geotagging capability. Can compromise one's anonymity and home location.

  • Thumbnail - used for showing a quick preview of the photo on the camera's screen. Many image manipulation software fail to update this thumbnail when the original photo is modified. So even if the photo was cropped, blurred, or otherwise modified to hide certain parts in it, the removed parts may still be visible in the thumbnail.

Reliably removing Exif data from multiple files in batch on Windows

The type of software that can remove Exif data is known by several names, including Exif remover, Exif stripper, and Exif cleaner. Since different file formats are built internally in a different manner, a software must be designed specifically for removing Exif data from particular file types.

BatchPurifier LITE™, for example, is a free application for completely removing all Exif data from multiple JPEG photo files in batch. It can also remove all other JPEG hidden data & metadata, such as XMP data and C2PA metadata.

The full edition of this application - BatchPurifier™ - can completely remove Exif data from PNG and WebP files, in addition to JPEG. It also supports the removal of more than 60 types of hidden data & metadata from various types of image, video, audio, and document files.

Both are offline privacy-oriented desktop applications for Windows®, that have a graphical user interface. (GUI) They remove Exif data and other hidden data & metadata from files as a quality lossless operation, while keeping the image intact and without degrading its quality.

The "Remove Properties and Personal Information" feature is not suitable

Windows® 11 has a very limited built-in metadata remover - "Remove Properties and Personal Information" feature. It can remove some Exif data properties from JPEG photos and HEIF/HEIC/AVIF photos, however these do not include the camera and lens unique serial numbers nor do they include the dreadful thumbnail that may still include parts of the image that has been erased.

While it appears on the surface to remove the same set of Exif data properties from TIFF photo files, all Exif data persists within these files. The feature modifies TIFF files in a way that will prevent Exif viewers from showing the Exif data, but it does not truly removes it from the files, and the Exif data can be recovered with an hex editor.

Removing Exif data from PNG and WebP is entirely unsupported by this feature.

Using BatchPurifier LITE™ and BatchPurifier™ to remove Exif data

The following two screenshots show how Exif data can be removed. The first screenshot shows how the free BatchPurifier LITE™ is used to remove Exif data from JPEG photo files. The second screenshot shows how the full BatchPurifier™ is used to remove Exif data from PNG and WebP photo files, in addition to JPEG files.

Using BatchPurifier LITE to remove Exif data from multiple JPEG files

Using BatchPurifier to remove Exif data from multiple image files

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