--- title: "EXIF Viewer: See Photo and Video Metadata | metadata.video" description: "Read the EXIF, XMP and IPTC data in a photo: camera, lens, exposure, dates and GPS on a map, each field explained. Videos too. Free, and nothing is uploaded." url: https://metadata.video/exif-viewer --- Free · runs in your browser # Read the EXIF data in a photo, field by field Open a JPEG, HEIC, PNG or WebP and see which camera made it, how it was exposed, when and where, with a plain-English note next to every value. An EXIF viewer shows the hidden data a camera or phone writes into a photo: the make and model, the lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, the moment the picture was taken and, when location was switched on, the GPS position. Drop a photo onto the box above and every one of those fields appears, grouped and explained, with the coordinates plotted on a map. EXIF is only one of three layers you will find. Editing apps add XMP, news and stock libraries add IPTC captions and credits, and phones tuck a private block of maker notes inside the EXIF itself. This metadata viewer reads all three and shows where each value came from, so you can tell a camera’s own record from something an app added later. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded. Nothing about the photo leaves your device unless you press **Show street map**, which fetches map tiles for the area shown. If what you find is more than you want to share, the same page can [remove the metadata from the photo](https://metadata.video/remove-metadata-from-photo) without touching the pixels. ## How to view the EXIF data of a photo 1. ### Open the photo Drag the file onto **Drop a video or photo here**, press **Open a file** (Ctrl/Cmd+O), or paste an image you have copied (Ctrl/Cmd+V). JPEG, HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, PNG, WebP, TIFF and GIF all open. 2. ### Read the summary **Overview** opens first with a one-line description of the photo and its key facts. Press the ⓘ beside any field for what it means. 3. ### Look at the camera and exposure Open **Device** for make, model, lens, software, exposure time, aperture, ISO and focal length. **Date & time** lists every date the file holds and flags any that disagree. 4. ### Check the location Open **Location** to see the GPS position on a world map drawn on your device, with altitude and accuracy when stored. **Show street map** loads a detailed map; **Copy coordinates** copies the numbers. 5. ### Export the full list Open **Report** for every tag in one place, then **Copy**, **Download JSON**, **Download text** or **Download CSV**. Press `/` at any time to search all fields. ## What EXIF records EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a standard from the Japanese camera industry body CIPA. It defines a few hundred numbered tags that a camera fills in at the moment of capture. Most photos carry thirty to eighty of them; a modern phone often writes more, because it adds its own maker notes. Inside a JPEG: the EXIF block sits in an APP1 segment near the start of the file, holding a main directory (IFD0), the camera settings directory, a GPS directory, a small thumbnail and the maker notes, all before the compressed image data. __The EXIF groups metadata.video reads, and how much each one gives away.__ | Group | Typical tags | What it tells you | Privacy weight | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | Camera | Make, Model, LensModel, Software, BodySerialNumber | Which device and app produced the image | Medium (a serial number is high) | | Exposure | ExposureTime, FNumber, ISOSpeedRatings, FocalLength, Flash, WhiteBalance | How the shot was taken | Low | | Dates | DateTimeOriginal, DateTimeDigitized, DateTime, OffsetTimeOriginal, SubSecTimeOriginal | When it was taken, and when it was last saved | Medium | | GPS | GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude, GPSAltitude, GPSImgDirection, GPSHPositioningError, GPSDateStamp | Where the camera was and which way it faced | High | | Image | Orientation, PixelXDimension, PixelYDimension, ColorSpace | How to display it | Low | | Maker notes | Manufacturer-specific block | Anything the maker chose: focus points, scene detection, sometimes a serial number | Varies | ### Exposure values, in plain terms * **ExposureTime** is the shutter speed. `1/250` freezes most movement; anything longer than about `1/30` in a hand-held shot hints at low light or a tripod. * **FNumber** is the aperture. A small number such as `f/1.8` lets in a lot of light and blurs the background; `f/11` keeps more of the scene sharp. * **ISO** is how much the signal was amplified. Phones in daylight sit near 50–100; a night scene can run into the thousands, which is where grain comes from. * **FocalLength** is the real focal length of the lens, which on a phone is tiny (around 6 mm). **FocalLengthIn35mmFilm** converts it to the familiar full-frame figure, so 24 mm means a wide view and 77 mm a short telephoto. ### Dates and time zones **DateTimeOriginal** is when the shutter fired. **DateTime** (also shown as Modify Date) changes whenever software re-saves the file, so a gap between the two often means the photo was edited or exported. Older EXIF has no time zone at all; the **OffsetTimeOriginal** tag, added in Exif 2.31, records it as `+01:00` or similar. GPS has its own timestamp in UTC, which can be used to work out the zone when the offset is missing. ### Orientation A phone usually stores the sensor image as it came off the chip and sets **Orientation** to tell viewers how to turn it. Value 1 means upright, 3 means upside down, 6 means turn 90° clockwise and 8 means turn 90° anticlockwise. When a picture looks sideways in one app and correct in another, the first app is ignoring this tag. ## EXIF, XMP and IPTC: three layers in one file Search results and apps use “EXIF data” for all photo metadata, but a single file often holds three separate records written by different software at different times. They can disagree, and knowing which is which helps when a date or caption looks wrong. Three layers of metadata stacked on one image: EXIF written by the camera, XMP added by editing and cataloguing software, and IPTC fields for captions, credit and copyright. __Where each metadata layer is stored in the common photo formats.__ | Layer | Who writes it | Typical contents | Where it lives | | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **EXIF** | The camera or phone, at capture | Settings, dates, GPS, device, maker notes | JPEG APP1; PNG eXIf chunk; WebP EXIF chunk; HEIC Exif item | | **XMP** | Editors and photo libraries (Lightroom, Photoshop, phone editors) | Edit history, ratings, keywords, copies of EXIF dates, AI and source tags | JPEG APP1 (a second one); PNG iTXt; WebP XMP chunk; HEIC XMP item | | **IPTC** | Photographers, agencies, newsrooms | Headline, caption, creator, credit line, copyright, city and country shown | JPEG APP13 (legacy IIM) and inside XMP (modern IPTC Core) | XMP is text-based and extensible, so it is where newer ideas land: an editor’s history of changes, a star rating, or the IPTC **Digital Source Type** that some AI image tools use to say a picture was generated. Content Credentials (C2PA) go a step further with a signed manifest; the **Provenance** section shows one when it is present, and [the Content Credentials viewer](https://metadata.video/content-credentials-viewer) explains what it can and cannot prove. Maker notes are a private block inside EXIF whose layout each manufacturer decides for itself. No viewer decodes every brand, and some phones keep data there that is not shown anywhere else. If you plan to share a photo, assume the maker notes say more than the visible fields. ## Why a photo shows little or no EXIF An empty result does not mean the viewer failed. It usually means the copy you have is not the original. Metadata disappears at several points between the camera and your screen: * **Social media and messaging.** Most large platforms strip EXIF from images they publish, partly for privacy and partly to save space. A photo saved from a post or a chat is a re-encoded copy. See [which apps remove metadata](https://metadata.video/do-apps-remove-video-metadata) for what to check. * **Screenshots.** A screenshot is a new image of the screen, so it carries the date of the screenshot and the device, not the original camera data. * **Export for web.** Many editors offer to drop metadata when exporting, and some image compressors remove it by default. * **Format conversion.** Converting HEIC to JPEG, or anything to PNG, can lose fields if the converter does not copy them across. * **Location switched off.** The camera still writes EXIF, just without the GPS directory. When there is no GPS, the **Location** section says so instead of guessing. For ways to place a picture without coordinates, see [where was this photo taken](https://metadata.video/where-was-this-photo-taken). ## EXIF in videos People search for “exif video” expecting the same fields from a clip, and the answer is that true EXIF is rare in video files. MP4 and MOV store their metadata in boxes of their own: QuickTime keys on iPhones, user-data tags on many Android phones and cameras, and XMP from editing software. A few cameras embed an EXIF-style block as well, and photos from some phones are paired with a short video, but the familiar EXIF tag names mostly do not apply. __The same facts, stored under different names in photos and videos.__ | What you want | In a photo (EXIF) | In an iPhone MOV | In an Android or camera MP4 | | ------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------- | | Location | GPSLatitude / GPSLongitude | com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709 | ©xyz or 3GPP loci | | Date taken | DateTimeOriginal | com.apple.quicktime.creationdate | Creation time in the movie header | | Device | Make / Model | com.apple.quicktime.make / .model | ©mak / ©mod, or a vendor tag | | Exposure | ExposureTime / FNumber / ISO | Usually not stored | Usually not stored | This tool reads both, so you can drop a clip into the same box and get the equivalent fields. For the video side in depth, see [what video metadata is](https://metadata.video/what-is-video-metadata) or go straight to the [video metadata viewer](https://metadata.video/). ## EXIF viewer questions ### Is my photo uploaded when I view its EXIF data? No. The file is read by code running in your browser, and the results stay on your device. The only optional network request is **Show street map**, which loads OpenStreetMap tiles for the area on screen. ### Can EXIF data be faked? Yes. EXIF is ordinary data in the file and any metadata editor can change it, including the date and GPS position. Treat it as a strong hint about an original camera file and a weak one about a copy of unknown origin. Signed Content Credentials are harder to alter without leaving a trace. ### How do I see EXIF data on an iPhone? Open the photo in Photos and swipe up, or tap the Info button, to see the camera, lens, settings and map. It shows a short selection; for every field, open the original in this viewer in Safari. The [iPhone metadata guide](https://metadata.video/view-video-metadata-iphone) walks through both. ### Why does the viewer show a different date from my gallery? Galleries often sort by their own database date, which can be the upload or import time, while EXIF holds the capture time. A missing time zone can also shift the clock by a few hours. **Date & time** shows every date side by side so you can see which is which. ### Does a HEIC photo have EXIF? Yes. HEIC stores EXIF as a separate item inside the file rather than in a JPEG segment, and this viewer reads it the same way. Converting HEIC to JPEG usually keeps the EXIF if the converter copies it, but not always. ### How do I remove EXIF data after viewing it? Press **Remove all metadata** in the **Privacy** section, or open **Edit & clean**, then **Download new file**. JPEG, PNG and WebP are cleaned without re-compressing the image. Details are on the [photo metadata remover](https://metadata.video/remove-metadata-from-photo) page. ### Can it read RAW files? It is built for the formats people share: JPEG, HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, PNG, WebP, TIFF and GIF, plus videos. Camera RAW formats are not on that list, so for those use the camera maker’s software or ExifTool. ## Related metadata guides * [ Video metadata viewer See, explain, edit and remove everything a video or photo says about itself. ](https://metadata.video/) * [ Remove metadata from a photo Strip EXIF, GPS and XMP from JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC images without re-compressing them. ](https://metadata.video/remove-metadata-from-photo) * [ Find where a photo was taken Read the GPS position in a photo’s EXIF data and see it on a map, without uploading it. ](https://metadata.video/where-was-this-photo-taken) * [ See video and photo metadata on iPhone Use the Photos Info panel, then see the codec, HDR, bitrate and tags it leaves out. ](https://metadata.video/view-video-metadata-iphone) * [ What video metadata is Every family of video metadata explained, with links to check or change each one. ](https://metadata.video/what-is-video-metadata) * [ Content Credentials (C2PA) viewer Read a file’s C2PA manifest: claim generator, actions, AI assertions, ingredients and signer. ](https://metadata.video/content-credentials-viewer) * [ Do apps remove video metadata? What Discord, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and others say about stripping metadata, and how to test. ](https://metadata.video/do-apps-remove-video-metadata)