How To Remove Metadata from Files in Windows (Remove EXIF Data)

Learn how to completely remove the metadata (EXIF data) from any file in Windows 11 & 10 in quick and easy steps.

Almost any file you create on your computer or the photo you take with your mobile phone contains metadata (EXIF data). Generally, this metadata lets your system or phone better understand the file and helps you organize and find the file when needed. For example, when you take a photo with your mobile phone, it may contain geo-location information, making it easier to organize and find files by location.

While file metadata is generally useful, there might be situations where you need to remove metadata from files. This is especially true when that metadata can be used to personally identify or track you. For example, maybe you want to remove metadata from video files or images before sharing them on social media so that others cannot pinpoint the time or geo-location of the file.

Thankfully, Windows makes it easy to remove metadata (EXIF data). In this guide, I will show you two methods. The first one uses the built-in Windows options, and the other uses a popular free and open-source tool that gives you more control and options. You can use the method of your choice. Let’s get started.

Remove File Metadata Using Windows Options

1. Right-click the file for which you want to remove metadata.
2. Select “Properties“.
3. Go to the “Details” tab.
4. Click the “Remove Properties and Personal Information” link at the bottom.
5. Select “Remove the following properties from this file“.
6. Click “Select All“.
7. Click “OK“.
8. With that, you’ve removed metadata from the selected file.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, find the file from which you want to remove the metadata. Next, right-click it and select the “Properties” option.

In the “Properties” window, go to the “Details” tab. You will see the currently available metadata under this tab. Since we want to delete the metadata, click the “Remove Properties and Personal Information” link at the bottom.

Select the “Remove the following properties from this file“. Next, you can select a specific metadata field to remove by selecting the checkbox under the property column. Alternatively, to clear the metadata completely, click the “Select All” button. Click the “OK” button to remove the selected metadata from the file.

Finally, click the “OK” button in the main window, and you are done.

Use ExifTool To Completely Remove the Metadata From Any File

While the built-in Windows option lets you delete metadata from a file, it is limited in terms of file support, may not show/clear all the metadata, offer you less control, and you cannot bulk delete metadata. In such cases, we can use the free and open-source tool called ExifTool. Here’s how.

Note: This process is a bit involved, but once you set it up, it works like a dream.

First, we need to download ExifTool. To do that, head over to this page and click the download link in the “Windows” section.

Note: Unless you are using Windows 10 on an old computer, download the 64-bit version.

After downloading, open File Explorer (press Windows key + E), find the downloaded ZIP file, right-click it, and select “Extract All“.

Click the “Extract” button. This will extract the ZIP to a new folder in the same directory as the ZIP file.

Note: I recommend moving the extracted folder to a more permanent location, such as an another drive, to prevent accidental deletion.

Next, open the extracted folder and double-click the folder inside it. You should see the “exiftool(-k).exe” file. Rename it to “exiftool.exe“.

Note: If you didn’t enable file extensions, you will see a file named “exiftool(-k)”. Rename it to “exiftool”.

Next, click the address bar, ensure the folder path is selected, and press “Ctrl + C” to copy the path.

Open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows key”. Next, search for “Edit Environment Variables” and click the top result.

Under the “User variables” section, double-click the “Path” variable.

Click the “New” button and then paste the earlier copied path by pressing the “Ctrl + V” shortcut. Click “OK“. Click “OK” in the “Environment Variables” window to save the change.

Now, we need to download the GUI (Graphical User Interface) to use the ExifTool. To do that, head over to this page and click the “ExifToolGUI_X64.exe” link under “Assets” to download ExifToolGUI. After downloading, open File Explorer (press Windows key + E), find the downloaded EXE file, and double-click it.

On the left sidebar, select the folder with the files for which you want to delete metadata. When you select the folder, the files will appear in the center panel. On the right panel, you will see the metadata (EXIF) for the selected file.

In the center panel, select the files for which you want to delete the metadata, and select the “Modify” > “Remove metadata” option on the top bar.

Now, you can either select individual tags under the “Tag name” section. Or, select the “remove all metadata” checkbox at the top to delete all the EXIF data from the selected file(s). Next, click the “Execute” button.

As soon as you click the button, the tool instantly deletes the metadata from all the selected files. You can close the ExifToolGUI window.

That is all. It is that simple to delete the metadata from files in Windows. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.

Thank you,
Vamsi.