How to remove location from photos on a Mac

A photo straight from a phone can tell people more than you think. Unless location is turned off for the Camera, it usually stores exactly where it was taken, often precise enough to find a house, plus the date, time and the phone that took it. Here’s how to see that information on a Mac and remove it before you send or post a photo.

First, check whether a photo has a location

• In Preview: open the photo and choose Tools › Show Location Info. If the item is gray, there’s no location; if not, you’ll see where the photo was taken on a map.
• In Terminal: mdls IMG_4471.HEIC | grep -i itude prints the latitude and longitude, if there are any.

1. Preview: remove the location from the photo

1. Open the photo in Preview

   Double-click it in Finder.

2. Show its location

   Choose Tools › Show Location Info. If that item is gray, the photo has no location in it and you’re done.

3. Find the GPS section

   The Inspector opens on the photo’s GPS details, with the place it was taken on a map.

4. Click Remove Location Info

   It’s at the bottom of the GPS section. Then close the photo. Preview saves the change to that file, so make a copy first (File › Duplicate) if you want to keep the original.

2. Photos: export a copy without the location

For photos in your Photos library, select them, choose File › Export › Export Photos…, and turn off Location Information in the export options (and Title, Keywords and Caption if you like). The exported copies have no location; the photos in your library keep theirs. Image › Location › Hide Location hides it inside Photos too.

3. Finder: Convert Image without metadata

Select one or many photos in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions › Convert Image. Turn off Preserve Metadata and click Convert. The new copies leave out the photo’s metadata, including its location, and the originals stay as they were.

4. exiftool: strip a whole folder

ExifTool is a free command-line tool (install it with Homebrew: brew install exiftool). To remove only the GPS location from every photo in a folder:

exiftool -gps:all= -overwrite_original *.jpg *.HEIC

Leave out -overwrite_original and exiftool keeps a backup of each file with _original added to its name.

5. Shelfy: one right-click before you share

With Shelfy, the file shelf beside the Dock, right-click a photo on the shelf and choose Remove Hidden Info. You get a copy with the location, camera and date removed, ready to drag into a message, and your original isn’t touched. It’s handy because the photo you’re about to send is usually already on the shelf.

According to Shelfy, Remove Hidden Info drops a photo’s location, camera and date into a new copy, on your Mac, so nothing is uploaded and the original keeps its information.

Stop new photos recording where you are

On an iPhone, open Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera and choose Never. New photos won’t store a location at all. Photos you already took keep theirs, so you’ll still want one of the methods above for those.

Questions about photo location and metadata

Do photos really contain my location?

Often, yes. When location is on for the Camera, iPhones and most phones save the latitude and longitude inside each photo, along with the date, time and camera model. Anyone who gets the original file can read it.

How can I check if a photo has location data on a Mac?

Open it in Preview and choose Tools › Show Location Info; if it’s gray, there’s no location. In Terminal, “mdls photo.jpg | grep -i itude” shows the latitude and longitude if there are any.

Do Messages and Mail remove location when I send a photo?

Don’t count on it. Some apps and websites strip location when you share or upload, others keep it. Removing it yourself before you share is the only way to be sure.

Does a screenshot contain my location?

No. Screenshots on a Mac don’t store a GPS location. They do keep the date and time they were taken.

What is the fastest way to remove location from many photos?

Select them in Finder and use Quick Actions › Convert Image with Preserve Metadata turned off, or run exiftool on the whole folder. Both work on many photos at once.