What this removes
- The recording location, in every place phones store it
- Make, model, software and other details written by the camera
- Creation and modification times
- Telemetry tracks with GPS and motion data
- Track labels and encoder names that identify the device, and leftover data in unused space
What it keeps
The video and audio, exactly as they were, and the note that says which way up the picture is.
What it can’t remove
What you filmed and what was said. A video of your street is still a video of your street.
A worked example
Someone sells a car and films a walk-around on the driveway. The MOV file records the driveway’s coordinates and the phone model. After cleaning, the clip plays identically and reports neither.
Questions
- Does this reduce video quality?
- No. The picture and sound are not decoded or re-encoded. The metadata is blanked where it sits in the file, and the result is the same size as the original.
- Will it work on a large video?
- Yes. Only the file's index is read into memory, not the video itself, so a multi-gigabyte clip works on a phone.
- What about GoPro and drone videos?
- Action cameras record a separate track of GPS and motion readings for the whole clip. That track's data is blanked and the track is retired.
- Why is the cleaned file the same size?
- Because the removed parts are overwritten with blank space instead of being cut out. Cutting them would mean rewriting the file's index, which is where mistakes happen.
Your file stays on this device
The tool above runs in a sealed frame that cannot send your file anywhere. It works with airplane mode on, and the counter above it stays at 0. Here is how you can check that yourself.
Related tools
- Remove location from a photo Take the GPS position out of a photo and keep everything else.
- Fix a sideways video Turn a video the right way up without re-encoding it.
- MOV to MP4 Change the container of a video without re-encoding it.
- Remove metadata Strip location, device and hidden previews from photos and documents.
- Remove EXIF data Take the camera, date and location data out of a photo without changing the picture.
- Remove metadata from a PDF Remove the author, software, dates and earlier versions from a PDF.
- Remove metadata from a Word document Remove author names, comments' authors, tracked-change names and template paths from Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
- View EXIF data See the location, camera and dates stored in a photo before you share it.
- Redact PDF Black out names, emails and numbers so they are gone for good.
- Redact image Cover parts of a screenshot or photo with solid boxes.