Does removing metadata lower the video’s quality?
No. The video and audio streams are copied, not re-encoded, so every frame and every sample is identical. Only the descriptive boxes around them change.
Free · runs in your browser
Remove all metadata from a video
Clear the location, phone model, recording date, software tags and telemetry from a clip in one step. The picture and sound are copied untouched.
To remove metadata from a video, open it here, press Remove all metadata and then Download new file. The new copy has no GPS position, no phone or camera model, no recording date, no software tags, no XMP and no Content Credentials, while its video and audio streams are exactly the ones you started with.
Before you press anything, the Privacy section shows what the clip gives away and rates each item High, Medium or Low, so you can see whether there is anything to worry about. If you only want the location gone and would like to keep the date and camera, use remove location from video instead.
All of it happens in your browser. The video is not uploaded, there is no account and no watermark, and an MP4 or MOV of any size is rewritten in about a second because only the small metadata boxes change.
How to remove metadata from a video
Open the video
Drop the file on Drop a video or photo here or press Open a file (Ctrl/Cmd+O). MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MKV, WebM, AVI and MPEG-TS can all be cleaned.
Check what it reveals
The page opens on Privacy, which lists “What this file reveals”: exact location, serial numbers or owner names, date and time, device model and editing software.
Remove everything
Press Remove all metadata. Tick Keep chapters if the video has chapter markers you want to keep. On a phone the same option is under Edit & clean.
Download the clean copy
Press Download new file (Ctrl/Cmd+S). When “Your new file is ready” appears, What changed lists every field that was removed, found by reading the new file back.
Check it again
Press Inspect new file to open the copy in the viewer. Privacy should now show nothing rated High, and Location should say there is no location in the file.
What a phone video gives away
A clip straight from a phone or action camera usually carries forty or more fields alongside the picture. Most are harmless, but a few say exactly where you were, which device you own and when. Apple’s own help notes that sharing a photo or video from Photos includes its date and time, location, device and captions.
| What | Where it is stored | After Remove all metadata |
|---|---|---|
| GPS position (and on some phones altitude and accuracy) | iPhone: com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709; Android and cameras: ©xyz or loci; XMP | Removed |
| Phone or camera make and model, lens, software version | QuickTime keys, ©mak/©mod, vendor boxes | Removed |
| Recording date and time zone | creationdate key, movie and track headers | Removed; header dates set to “unknown” |
| Editing app and encoder | ©too, encoder tags, XMP history | Removed |
| GPS and sensor telemetry (GoPro, DJI, dash cams) | A separate data track | Track data overwritten with zeros |
| Content Credentials (C2PA) | A manifest box | Removed |
| Title, comment, artist, cover art | User data and item list | Removed |
| Chapters | Chapter track or list | Removed, unless Keep chapters is ticked |
To see a single field before you decide, the viewer explains each one with the ⓘ next to it. Where was this video taken goes into the location fields in depth.
What removing metadata cannot do
Metadata is the data about the video, not the video. Anything you can see or hear is part of the streams, and those are copied as they are.
- Faces, places and signs in the picture, and voices or names in the sound, stay exactly as recorded.
- Burned-in timestamps, such as the date printed on dash-cam or CCTV footage, are pixels, not metadata.
- Invisible watermarks that some AI video tools add to the pixels are untouched, and this tool cannot detect them.
- Copyright and duplicate detection on YouTube, TikTok and similar sites match the picture and sound, so stripping tags does not hide a clip from them.
- The file name and your computer’s dates.
IMG_0412.MOVhints at an iPhone; rename the download if that matters. Created and modified dates belong to your file system, not the video.
A clip you have already posted or sent is out of your hands. Cleaning your copy only protects the next time you share it, so it is worth doing before a video leaves your device.
Lossless: how the file is rewritten
Re-encoding a video to get rid of its metadata, as many converters do, costs quality and time. metadata.video avoids it. How the new file is written depends on the container:
| Container | How it is cleaned | Time |
|---|---|---|
| MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP | Only the metadata boxes are rewritten; the streams stay byte for byte | About a second, any size |
| MKV, WebM | Stream copy with ffmpeg.wasm (-c copy): no re-encode, but the container is rebuilt | Depends on file size |
| AVI, MPEG-TS, others | Stream copy with ffmpeg.wasm; these hold little metadata to begin with | Depends on file size |
The result is usually a few kilobytes smaller than the original, because the tags, maker boxes and sometimes a cover image are no longer in it. If the copy were megabytes smaller, something would have been re-encoded; here it never is. ffmpeg.wasm is about 10 MB and is loaded from this site only when an MKV or similar file needs it.
Other ways to remove video metadata
On iPhone
In iOS 26, tap Share in Photos, tap Options and turn off Location before sending. That removes only the location; the device and date still go with the file. Apple’s iOS 27 sharing page no longer lists this switch, so the iPhone location guide also covers removing the location from the video itself.
On Windows
Right-click the video, choose Properties, open Details and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. It works on the properties Windows can write for that file type, which for MP4 is a short list, so location, device and telemetry data it does not show can stay in the file. Check the result in the viewer if it matters.
With ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -c copy -fflags +bitexact output.mp4
-map_metadata -1 stops global and stream tags being copied, -map_chapters -1 drops chapters, -c copy copies the streams without re-encoding, and +bitexact stops ffmpeg adding its own encoder tag. By default ffmpeg keeps one video and one audio stream, so a GoPro-style telemetry track is left out unless you map it. The ffprobe guide shows how to check what is left.
With ExifTool
exiftool -all= input.mp4
ExifTool deletes the tag groups it can write and keeps a backup named input.mp4_original. It edits tags rather than removing whole tracks, so check that any GPS or sensor track has gone before you rely on the result.
Removing video metadata: questions
Will removing metadata stop copyright detection?
No. Content matching systems compare the picture and sound, not the tags, so a cleaned file is recognised just like the original.
Does it remove the “AI-generated” label?
It removes Content Credentials (C2PA) and other tags where AI tools record their involvement. Invisible watermarks in the pixels stay, and platforms that look for them may still label the video. The AI video guide explains the difference.
Why is the new file slightly smaller?
The metadata boxes, any maker data and any cover image are gone. A difference of a few kilobytes is normal; the streams themselves are the same size.
Does it change the date my computer shows for the file?
The download is a new file, so your computer gives it today’s date. The recording date inside the video is removed. To set a specific date instead, use change video date.
Can I remove metadata from a video on my iPhone?
Yes. Open this page in Safari, tap Open a file and choose the video from Photos or Files. Download new file saves the clean copy, and Share sends it on or saves it back to Photos.
Do WhatsApp and Instagram remove video metadata anyway?
Many apps strip some fields, but few say exactly which. See do apps remove video metadata for what vendors state and how to test an app yourself.
Can I edit some fields instead of removing everything?
Yes. The video metadata editor lets you change the title, date, location, make and model and more, and download the result the same lossless way.