FAQ
Can sharing a photo leak where I took it?
An original photo with GPS EXIF can. Check with this tool before sharing; most social platforms strip EXIF on upload.
Why does a photo show no metadata?
PNG stores EXIF in an eXIf chunk, which this tool reads. Screenshots, and images forwarded through messaging apps, are usually stripped; HEIC and AVIF cannot be parsed here.
Are photos uploaded?
No. Parsing happens entirely in your browser.
About this tool
Reads the shooting parameters and location data embedded in a photo: camera make and model, lens, capture time, exposure, aperture, ISO, focal length, 35mm equivalent, exposure bias, orientation, writing software, and GPS latitude, longitude and altitude when present. Parsing happens in the browser and the photo is never uploaded.
Three containers are supported: the JPEG APP1 segment, the PNG eXIf chunk and the WebP EXIF chunk - structurally all the same TIFF block in different wrappers. HEIC and AVIF use entirely different containers and cannot be read here; screenshots and images forwarded through WeChat or Weibo usually have the metadata stripped, so an empty result is normal there.
Why check first: GPS in an original photo pinpoints where you took it, typically to within a few metres. Checking before posting second-hand listings, rental photos or family pictures is far more effective than deleting afterwards. Most social platforms strip EXIF on upload, but email attachments, cloud drives and "send original" transfers keep it intact.
Readings that are easy to misjudge:
- Exposure shows as 1/159 s: cameras store an approximate value near 1/160, and the fraction is recomputed from the actual number, so odd denominators appear.
- Focal length and 35mm equivalent differ: the latter is normalised to a full-frame field of view, which is what tells you whether a lens counts as telephoto.
- Orientation 1-8: portrait phone shots commonly store 6 or 8, and viewers rotate the image according to this value - which is why one photo looks sideways in one app and upright in another.
- Capture time has no timezone:
2026:08:28 15:04:05is the camera local time, so photos taken while travelling need manual correction. - Altitude can be negative: images flagged as below sea level (underwater, basins below sea level) report a negative value.
Privacy note: this tool only reads. It deliberately does not strip EXIF. To remove metadata for real, re-export from an image editor (re-encoding drops the thumbnail and GPS along with everything else) or run exiftool -all=.