How to Remove Location from a Photo: iPhone, Android and Online

A photo's location is stored in the file as GPS data, the geotag. On iPhone, turn Location off in the share sheet's Options; on a Samsung, tick Remove location data when you share; on any device, strip it online. To stop it happening again, turn off location in your camera's settings.

Checked against each platform's help pages on 5 November 2026.

The short answer

iPhone, when sharing: Share › Options › turn off Location
iPhone, the photo itself: More › Adjust Info › Adjust Location › No Location
Samsung: Gallery › Share › tick Remove location data
Google Photos: Can't remove a location the camera saved
Any phone or computer: Strip the GPS data online, nothing uploaded
Stop new geotags: Turn off location in the camera's settings

What a geotag is, and who can see it

When location is on for the camera, your phone writes the GPS position into each photo, along with the date, time and phone model. This hidden data, called EXIF, travels with the file. Anyone who gets the original file can read it and put a pin on a map, often to within a few metres.

Instagram, Facebook and X are reported to strip location from the photos they publish, and show only a place you tag yourself. Files you send directly are another matter: email attachments, AirDrop, cloud links, marketplace listings and WhatsApp's “send as document” usually keep everything. Removing the geotag before a photo leaves your phone means you don't need to know which is which.

Remove location from a photo on iPhone

Apple's steps, from its Personal Safety guide. They work in the Photos and Camera apps on iPhone and iPad.

For one share: select the photos, tap the Share button, tap Options at the top of the share sheet, turn off Location, then share as usual. The original keeps its location.
From the photo itself: open it in Photos, tap the More button, then Adjust Info, Adjust Location and No Location.
On a Mac: select the photos in Photos, then choose Image › Location › Hide Location.
For new photos: go to Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera and choose Never. Photos you already took keep their location.

Remove location from a photo on Android

On a Samsung Galaxy (One UI 3 or later), open Gallery, long-press the photos, tap Share and tick Remove location data before you pick the app. The person you send them to won't see where they were taken.

Google Photos can remove a location it estimated or one you added, from the photo's details, but not one your camera saved. For those, or on a phone whose gallery has no option, use the online tool below in Chrome.

To stop new geotags, open your camera app's settings and turn off its location setting. Google lists the name each brand uses:

The camera setting that adds location to photos, by phone brand
Phone	Turn off this camera setting
Google Pixel	Save location
Samsung	Location tags
OnePlus	Store location data
Xiaomi	Save location info
Vivo	Geographic locations
OPPO	Location
Motorola, Sony	Save location

From Google Photos Help, "Change your camera location settings". Names vary with the phone's software version.

Remove location online, on any phone or computer

If your phone has no option, or you're on a computer, strip the data with a browser tool. Remove Photo Location opens your photos in the browser, shows the GPS position, date and camera each one holds, and saves clean copies, several at once as a ZIP. The photos are never uploaded.

What the online tool does with each file type
File type	What happens
JPG / JPEG	Location and other metadata cut out; picture untouched, no quality loss
PNG	Location and other metadata cut out; picture untouched, no quality loss
WebP	Location and other metadata cut out; picture untouched, no quality loss
HEIC (iPhone)	Redrawn and saved as a new JPG with no metadata (one re-compression); needs a browser that can open the file
AVIF	Redrawn and saved as a new JPG with no metadata (one re-compression); needs a browser that can open the file

Colour profile and rotation are kept, so photos look the same and stay the right way up. HEIC opens in Safari on iPhone and Mac.

Remove the location from your photosSee the GPS position, camera and date hidden in your photos, and save copies without them.

Check that it worked

Open the cleaned copy in Remove Photo Location, or swipe up on it in your phone's gallery: it should show no location. Check the file you'll actually send. Some apps remove the location when they hand a photo to a website, so test the original the same way you'll share it.

Stamps and other clues the metadata doesn't cover

Apps like GPS Map Camera draw a map, address and coordinates onto the picture itself. That stamp is part of the image, not hidden data, so removing the geotag leaves it in place. Crop it off, or cover it with a box in Blur Faces, which also saves the photo without any metadata.

The picture can still give a place away: street signs, house numbers, a shop name or the view from a window. AI assistants have become good at guessing locations from such clues, as TechCrunch reported in April 2025, so blur them too if it matters.

Cover a stamp, number plate or signBlur or pixelate faces automatically, plus number plates and anything else, without uploading the photo.

Frequently asked questions

How do I remove the geotag from a photo?

On iPhone, turn off Location under Options in the share sheet. On a Samsung, tick Remove location data when you share. On any device, open the photo in a geotag remover and save a clean copy.

Does turning off location in the camera remove it from old photos?

No. It only stops new photos being tagged. Photos you already took keep their location until you remove it.

Can I remove the location from many photos at once?

Yes. On iPhone, select several photos before you tap Share and turn off Location once. Remove Photo Location takes as many as you like and saves them as one ZIP.

Does removing the location reduce quality?

Not for JPG, PNG or WebP: only the hidden data is cut out of the file. HEIC and AVIF are saved as a new high-quality JPG, which re-compresses the picture once.

Does removing the geotag remove a GPS Map Camera stamp?

No. The stamp is drawn into the picture. Crop it off or cover it with a box; removing metadata only clears the hidden GPS data.

Can ChatGPT find where a photo was taken?

It can often guess from what's visible, such as landmarks and signs. Removing the geotag stops anyone reading your exact coordinates from the file, but it can't hide what's in the picture.