ExifCleaner
Removes metadata for the most popular image and video formats. It also supports PDF files and comes with batch-processing to process multiple files at once. Drag and Drop…
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
Replace today: Adobe Acrobat
Metadata Removal & Data Redaction Tools in 2026
Private alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, vetted against our public criteria.
Showing 5 of 5
Grouped by threat level
Covered Easy start and good defaults for everyone
Hardened Some setup and real gains for the willing
MAT2
MAT2 (Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit 2) removes embedded metadata from images, PDFs, audio files, office documents, and more. It runs as a CLI tool or as a file-manager extension for Nautilus and Dolphin on Linux.
ExifTool
ExifTool is a long-standing Perl library and command-line tool for reading, writing, and erasing metadata across an exceptionally wide range of file formats, including JPEG, RAW camera formats, PDF, video, audio, and Office documents.
No matches for those filters.
How they compare
| Tool | Removes | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| | All metadata | Free |
| | All metadata | Free |
| | All metadata | Free |
| | Image EXIF | Free |
 | Image EXIF | Freemium |
Every photo you take and most documents you create carry hidden metadata: GPS coordinates, the device model, timestamps, and author names that ride along invisibly when you share the file. These tools strip that information out before it leaves your hands, so a holiday snapshot does not also publish your home address and a shared document does not reveal who wrote it or what was edited out. The result looks identical. Only the details you never meant to send are gone.
Why platforms can’t be trusted to strip it for you
Relying on the apps and networks you share through is the gap that catches people out. Some platforms remove location from photos on upload, others keep it, and the rules shift between apps and over time with no notice, so you cannot know from the outside what survived. Documents are worse, since most services pass them through untouched, author names and revision history and all. The metadata is created at capture and removed only if something deliberately strips it, and the one place you fully control that is your own device before you hit send. That is what every tool on this page is for.
How we pick
Every tool here is measured against our public listing criteria. We require that a tool truly removes metadata rather than merely hiding it, since a black box over text or a flag that conceals a field leaves the data recoverable. We favour open source so the behaviour can be inspected, broad format coverage so one tool handles your photos and documents, and a way to inspect a file first and confirm the output is clean afterwards. We only list a tool we would run on our own files before sharing them.
What to look for in a redaction tool
Four qualities separate a real metadata remover from a cosmetic one. First, genuine removal, so the stripped data is gone from the file and not just out of view. Second, wide format support, so the same tool covers EXIF in photos and the author and revision data in documents. Third, an inspect step, so you can see what a file carried before you clean it. Fourth, a clear confirmation that the output is empty. MAT2 and ExifCleaner handle the common cases simply, while ExifTool gives power users fine control and batch processing for large sets.
Will removing metadata break my files?
No, and this is the worry that keeps people from doing it. Metadata sits beside the actual content rather than inside it, so stripping it leaves a photo’s pixels and a document’s text exactly as they were. A cleaned image opens and prints identically, and a cleaned document reads the same. The only difference is that the invisible extras, your location, your device, your name, and the edit history, no longer travel with the file. The visible thing you meant to share is untouched, which is precisely the point.
How to use them
Make metadata removal the last step before a file goes out, the same way you would proofread before sending. For photos headed to anyone you do not fully trust, strip the location and device data first, in a batch if you are sharing many. For documents, clear the author and revision history, which is where forgotten names and deleted text hide. If the files are sensitive enough to scrub, they are usually sensitive enough to protect at rest too, so pairing this with encrypted photo storage or file encryption covers the whole life of the file, not just the moment you share it.
Frequently asked
- Doesn't my phone or social network already remove this for me?
- Only partially, and never reliably. Some apps strip location from photos on upload, plenty do not, and documents are rarely touched at all. The behaviour also changes between apps and platforms without warning, so the only way to know hidden data is actually gone is to remove it yourself before the file leaves your hands.
- What exactly is EXIF data?
- EXIF is the block of metadata that cameras and phones embed inside a photo file: GPS coordinates, the device model, the lens and exposure settings, and timestamps. It is genuinely useful for sorting your own library, but it quietly travels with the image when you share it, which is how a single photo can give away where you were and what you shoot with.
- Does stripping metadata change how my photo looks?
- No. Metadata is descriptive information stored alongside the image, separate from the pixels, so removing it leaves the picture itself untouched. A cleaned photo looks identical and prints the same. What changes is only the invisible details attached to the file, like location and device, that you did not intend to publish.
- What kinds of hidden data live in documents, not just photos?
- Plenty. Office files and PDFs often carry the author's name, the organisation, edit and revision history, comments, and tracked changes, and sometimes earlier text that was deleted but not purged. These leak who made a file and how it evolved, which can expose more than the visible content does, so documents deserve a clean-up step just as photos do.
- Is redacting a PDF by drawing a black box over the text safe?
- Often not. A black rectangle laid over text can leave the original words selectable or recoverable underneath, so the information is hidden to the eye but still present in the file. True redaction removes the underlying content rather than covering it. When the data must really be gone, use a tool that strips it out instead of one that merely conceals it.
- Can I clean a large batch of files at once?
- Yes. Several of these tools are built for exactly that, processing a whole folder of photos or documents in one pass instead of one file at a time. That makes a routine practical: point the tool at everything headed out the door, let it strip the metadata, and confirm the output before you share, without it becoming a chore for each individual file.