Learn how to change or delete the date, time, location, and other metadata of a photo on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
What is photo metadata, and why should I care?
Photo metadata is the information about the image. It contains details such as where the picture was shot, the device used to take it, the date and time, and more.
Maybe you had a problem with the 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, or similar methods, you might want to remove or obscure 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 accidentally disclosed by journalists via 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.
Add, edit, or delete photo metadata on iPhone
1) Download and open the free Exif Metadata app, which was developed by the iDB team.
2) Tap Select Photos, allow the app to access your images, and then pick a photo.
3) You’ll now see all the metadata of that picture on your iPhone or iPad screen.
Go through it, use the easy buttons there to copy, edit, or remove metadata, and then tap Save if visible on the screen:
- Set Location (you’ll see this when the photo has no location)
- Edit Location
- Remove Location
- Edit Exif (use this to add or change photo date, time, author, title, description, comment, keywords, copyright, camera maker, camera model, camera lens model, aperture, digital zoom, exposure bias value, exposure time, focal length, ISO, and software)
- Remove Exif
- Copy All Metadata (you can paste this copied data into notes or anywhere you want)
- Remove All Metadata
4) After you have added, changed, or deleted the location data from the image, it is saved as a new image with new metadata. You can delete the original image by tapping Yes in the pop-up. You can also delete it by going to the Photos app and then removing it from the Recently Deleted section.
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 built-in iPhone Photos app has you covered.
- Open the Photos app, tap an image, swipe up or tap the info button ⓘ.
- Tap Adjust next to the current date or location.
- Set any other date, time, or location for this image. Tap No Location to remove it.
- In the future, you can follow the same steps and tap Revert to remove the changes.
How to change photo metadata on Mac
You can change the date, time, and location of an image on a Mac directly inside the Photos app.
- Open the picture in the macOS Photos app and access the metadata by right-clicking the photo and selecting Get Info. Or if the photo is open, click the info button ⓘ in the toolbar.
- In the small window that appears, double-click the date and time near the top.
- A larger window will appear. 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, or seconds to change the time.
- Enter the new information using the arrows to the right or type it in with your keyboard, and click Adjust at the bottom to save your edits.
On a related note: How to view the EXIF metadata of any photo on Mac