EXIF Viewer
See the camera settings, timestamps and GPS coordinates inside a photo - and whether they should be stripped before sharing.
Every photo taken with a phone carries a dossier: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lens model, a capture time precise to the second - and, less known, GPS coordinates. Post the original to a group chat or a forum and you have effectively published where it was taken. Knowing exactly what a photo contains before you share it is the entire purpose of this tool.
Parsing happens entirely in your browser: the tool reads JPEG APP1 segments and WebP EXIF chunks byte by byte, following the TIFF/EXIF specifications directly, with no third-party parsing service involved. Beyond the standard tags it shows the file's byte-level layout - each segment's type, offset and size - down to details like whether extra bytes trail the end-of-image marker.
Which EXIF fields are actually sensitive
GPS coordinates top the list: they resolve to meter-level accuracy where the phone was standing, which maps straight to a home or office address. Capture time and device serial numbers come next - useful for reconstructing routines or attributing a device. The tool flags location data prominently when found. Note that screenshots, wallpapers and anything re-saved by social platforms usually arrive with EXIF stripped; "no metadata" there is normal, not a sign of tampering.
Why the parameter table is sometimes empty
EXIF only lives comfortably in JPEG and some WebP files: PNG does not carry it; WeChat, Weibo and most platforms strip metadata on re-save to save bandwidth and protect users; many editors drop it on export by default. Camera-native HEIC is not supported by this parser yet - convert to JPEG first if you need to inspect one.
What the byte-level layout is good for
The segment table lists every marker in the JPEG: JFIF is the baseline header, ICC is the color profile, XMP is the editing history written by Adobe software, and Photoshop/IPTC segments may carry copyright and author fields. Extra bytes after the EOI marker mean something was appended to the file - an editor's cache, or data someone deliberately hid there.
Frequently asked questions
- Does viewing EXIF upload my photo?
- No. The parsing code runs in your browser and reads a local file. The page has no upload path at all and works offline.
- How do I remove EXIF and GPS from a photo?
- This tool is read-only. Common routes: send without the "original quality" option in messaging apps, use the system share sheet's "remove location" action, or re-save through an editor (most strip metadata by default). Check the photo here first so you know exactly what will be removed.
- Why do the settings differ from what my camera showed?
- EXIF records what was written at the moment of capture. After cropping, grading or format conversion some fields survive, others get rewritten (pixel dimensions, for example). The file's record describes this file, not the original shoot.
- What can I do with the GPS coordinates?
- The tool converts degrees/minutes/seconds to decimal degrees and generates a maps link that opens the capture location. Accuracy depends on how the phone positioned itself: GPS outdoors is meter-level, indoor Wi-Fi fixes can be off by a hundred meters or more.