How to remove location data from your pictures

We often scan our phones to ensure no one is tracking our location. While you can disable location services, your phone does not stop monitoring you entirely. Android and iOS have a way of pinpointing your whereabouts, but you can limit the data. This also involves removing location data from your pictures since it could be a potential privacy and security risk. 

When you take a picture using your camera, it stores information about where it was taken. This information can put you at risk when it falls into the wrong hands. Hence, to prevent that from happening, it’s recommended that you disable and delete geotagging information from your photo. Meanwhile, the former only stops new photos from having your location information, but older images will. 

Fortunately, there is an app that deletes all location information from your old picture. This ensures that no one can track you using a photo you uploaded to social media. 

How to stop location information in photos on an iPhone 

Note: This will only stop geotagging for future photos. All the ones you already took will have your information, but we will discuss how to remove them below this post.

• On your iPhone.
• Open the Settings App.
• Privacy>>Location services.
  • If Location Services is grayed out, it could be Screen Time restrictions. To lift the restriction, head back to Settings>>Screen Time>>Content & Privacy Restrictions>>Location Services>>Allow Changes.
• Click on Camera and select Never. This only stops location information in photos you take with the stock camera. If you have a third-party camera app, you should do the same thing for it.

How to stop Android from saving your location data in photos 

Again, this will only stop geotagging for future photos. You need a special app to remove your information from the images taken already.

• On your Android phone
• Head to Settings, scroll down, and tap Apps.
• Locate the Camera app and click on it.
• Tap on Permission>>Location and select Don’t Allow. 

Going forward, your location information will not be saved in any photos. However, the app might request your location when you open it and tap Don’t Allow.

How to remove geotags from older pictures.

Go to your Gallery and select camera pictures. Choose one picture, tap on the three dots, and select details. You will see the location of where the picture was taken. When you upload such a picture to the Internet, someone can use a special website to know your location. Hence, it’s necessary to disable it before posting online. 

Unless you previously disabled it on your phone, all camera photos on your device have geotagged information embedded in the EXIF metadata saved with the photos and contained in the image files. 

Apps like deGeo or Pixelgarde can help you remove location information from your photos using an iPhone. 

It might be hard to delete or remove location data from your photos on Android using the stock photo app. You can use the Photo EXIF Editor for that. It’s available on the Play Store and works on almost every Android phone. Once you install the app, you should follow the steps below. 

• After installing the app, launch it and grant permission when prompted 
• Tap the Photo icon and choose a photo. 
• All the EXIF details of the image will be shown to you.
• Tap anywhere on the photo to edit the EXIF details.
• Tap the OK button once you are done to save changes.
• Tap the Save icon in the upper-right corner to save your changes.
• You can remove all EXIF data from the photo when you tap the three dots at the upper-right corner and choose the Remove EXIF option.
• Tap the metadata you wish to remove. 
• Tap the Save icon to save your changes.

View, edit, and delete location information on photos on iPhone and Android.

It would be easier if Android and iOS systems let us delete or remove EXIF details from the stock app. Unless location services for cameras are turned off, your information will be attached to any photo taken with the camera app. We recommend turning it off before taking pictures, so you would not need a third-party app to remove the metadata afterward.