How to edit or delete photo metadata on iPhone and Mac

If you have photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac with wrong or missing metadata, we show you the easy ways to add that data. After following the steps below, you can add, remove, or change the photo’s location, date and time when it was taken, and several other details (metadata).

Edit Exif Metadata for Photo on iPhone

What is photo metadata, and why should I care?

Photo metadata is the information about the image. It contains details like where the picture was shot, the device it was taken with, the date and time, and much more.

Maybe you had a problem with date or time settings on your device, or perhaps you didn’t capture the photo yourself, and the date and time are missing.

Once you add the correct or custom metadata, it becomes easy to reference, sort, search, and identify photos by date, time, location, etc.

And if you are sending uncompressed images via email, AirDrop, and such, you might want to change or delete your location coordinates from the photo to maintain your privacy.

The secret location of John McAfee, the millionaire and “semi-fugitive” founder of the famous McAfee antivirus, was disclosed accidentally by journalists via the photo metadata! We suppose you aren’t a fugitive, but at times, you may still want to remove the photo location to prevent your location from being disclosed.

How to add, edit, or delete photo metadata on iPhone

Here’s how to easily change or remove the date, time, location, and other photo details on iPhone or iPad. We will use the free Exif Metadata app in all these steps below. This was developed by the iDB team.

Add, edit, or remove location data from an image

1) Open the Exif Metadata app, tap the plus icon, and select an image.

2) To add a location: You will see the Set Location button when the photo has no location. Tap it and choose the desired place from the map. Finally, tap Save.

Set Location for image on iPhone

3) To edit photo location: Scroll down and from below the map, tap Edit Location. Now, use the search box to find the desired location. Tap Save to set the new geo-location for the image.

Edit Photo location on iPhone

4) Remove location data from an image: Inside the Exif Metadata app, tap Remove Location.

Remove Location from photo on iPhone

5) Once you have added, changed, or deleted the location data from the image, it is saved as a new image with new metadata. After that, you can delete the original image by tapping Yes in the popup. You can also delete it by going to the Photos app.

Sometimes, if you don’t delete the original image, there is a possibility that you’ll unintentionally share the original image instead of the image with edited location data.

Delete image after removing metadata

Add or change the date and time of an image

1) Open the image inside the Exif Metadata app.

2) Tap Edit.

3) Tap Date to add or edit the image date.

4) Do the same by tapping Time.

5) Finally, tap Save.

Add or change date and time date of an image

Add, edit, and remove other metadata

Follow these quick steps to change a bunch of different metadata of your photo like camera used, ISO, software, exposure time, zoom, flash, focal length, camera lens, and more.

1) Open the image in the Exif Metadata app.

2) Tap Edit from the top right or scroll to the bottom and tap Edit Exif.

3) From here, tap the individual fields to add new values or edit the current ones. Finally, tap Save.

4) You can also tap Remove Exif to eliminate these details.

Add edit and remove other metadata image

Remove all metadata from an image

1) Open the image inside the Exif Metadata app.

2) Scroll to the bottom and tap Remove All Metadata.

Remove all metadata from an image

Copy all metadata of an image

1) Make sure you have installed the free Exif Metadata app from the App Store.

2) Launch the iPhone Photos app and open an image.

3) Tap the share icon and choose Exif from the iOS Share Sheet. If you don’t see it, tap Edit Actions and enable the toggle for Exif.

4) Scroll to the bottom and tap Copy All Metadata. You can paste it into notes or anywhere you want.

5) Alternatively, after you copy all metadata, you can open a different image in the Exif Metadata app  > Edit and tap Paste metadata from clipboard to use the metadata you copied in step 4.

Copy All Metadata of a photo on iPhone

If you want to edit the metadata of several images together, you can upgrade to the pro version of the Exif Metadata app. Both yearly subscription and one-time payment options are available.

How to edit date, time, and location metadata using the Photos app

Using the Exif Metadata app, you can edit and remove dozens of details from the photo. Plus, with its pro version, you can work on multiple photos at once. However, if you only want to change an image’s date, time, and location, the inbuilt iPhone Photos app has you covered. Here’s how:

1) Open the Photos app and tap an image.

2) Swipe up or tap the info (i) button.

3) Tap Adjust next to the current date, set a custom date and time, and tap Adjust to save the changes.

4) Tap Adjust next to the current location and use the search box to find and set any other location for this image. Tap No Location to remove it.

5) In the future, you can follow the same steps and tap Revert to remove the changes.

Change metadata in iOS Photos app

How to change photo metadata on Mac

You can change the date, time, and location of an image on Mac directly inside the Photos app. There’s no need for an additional tool.

1) Access the metadata by right-clicking the photo and selecting Get Info or if the photo is open, click the info (i) button in the toolbar.

2) In the small window that appears, double-click the date and time near the top.

3) A larger window displays. At the top, next to Adjusted, select the exact spot you’d like to change. You can select the month, date, or year to change the date or hour, minutes, and seconds to change the time.

4) Enter the new information using the arrows to the right or type it in with your keyboard.

5) Click Adjust at the bottom to save your edits.

Change Photo Date and Time on Mac

Check out next: