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What File Explorer’s Details tab shows for a video, what its built-in remover can and cannot clear, and how to see or edit the rest.
To see a video’s metadata on Windows, right-click the file in File Explorer, choose Properties and open the Details tab. It lists the length, frame width and height, data rate, total bitrate and frame rate, the audio format, and a few description fields such as the title and comments, on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
The same tab has a Remove Properties and Personal Information link, but it only offers the properties Windows itself understands for that file type. For MP4 and MOV videos that leaves out most of what matters for privacy: the GPS location a phone wrote, Apple and Android device keys, XMP, Content Credentials and telemetry tracks. Some people find the option missing for video files altogether.
For everything else, open the file in Edge or Chrome on metadata.video. The video is read on your PC, never uploaded, every field is explained, and you can edit or remove metadata losslessly. This guide covers the built-in route first.
In File Explorer, right-click the video and choose Properties. On Windows 11 it is in the first menu; you can also select the file and press Alt+Enter.
Choose the Details tab. Properties are grouped under headings; scroll to see the video and audio groups.
Look for Length, Frame width, Frame height, Data rate (the average video bitrate), Total bitrate (video plus audio) and Frame rate. The audio group lists the bit rate, channels and sample rate.
Some description fields can be edited by clicking the value. To clear properties, click Remove Properties and Personal Information at the bottom, choose an option, then Apply and OK.
Windows reads videos through its own property handlers, which map a fixed list of fields from each format. For MP4, MOV and M4V, that list covers the basics well and stops there.
| Shown in Details | What it means | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Running time | Rounded to the second |
| Frame width and Frame height | Stored picture size in pixels | A portrait phone clip often shows as 1920 wide by 1080 high, because the rotation flag is not applied |
| Data rate | Average video bitrate | An average: phone video varies a lot from second to second |
| Total bitrate | Video plus audio | Always larger than the data rate |
| Frame rate | Frames per second | Rounded; variable frame rate is not flagged |
| Audio bit rate, channels, sample rate | The sound track’s basics | Only one audio track is described |
| Title, subtitle, comments, tags, year, genre | Descriptive tags Windows can map | Apple and Android keys are not listed |
| An encoded or media-created date | Read from the file’s header; Microsoft stores it in UTC | Can be an hour or more off your local time, or a 1904 default |
The Created and Modified dates on the General tab belong to Windows’ file system, not the video. They change when you copy the file and say nothing about when it was filmed.
The link opens a dialog with two choices: Create a copy with all possible properties removed, or Remove the following properties from this file, where you tick fields (or Select All) and press Apply and OK. It is a reasonable tool for Office documents and JPEG photos. For video it has real limits.
If privacy is the reason you are cleaning a video, do not rely on the Details tab. Check the result in a tool that reads every field, such as Privacy on this site, which lists what a file reveals and rates each item.
On metadata.video, Remove all metadata clears every tag, the location, device and software fields, XMP, Content Credentials, maker boxes and telemetry tracks, then What changed confirms it by reading the new file back. MP4 and MOV are rewritten without re-encoding, so the picture is identical. The video metadata remover explains each step.
In the Details tab you can click some description fields, such as the title or comments, and type a new value. Windows writes those back into MP4 files it supports. It cannot change the recording date, location, device fields, cover art or chapters, and it does not handle many other formats.
| You want to change | Details tab | metadata.video |
|---|---|---|
| Title, comments, artist, genre | Some fields, for supported formats | Title, Description, Comment, Artist, Copyright, Keywords, Genre |
| Recording date and time zone | No | Recorded with Time zone and Shift by |
| Location | No | Location, typed or Pick on the map, or Clear location |
| Make, model, software | No | Make, Model, Software |
| Thumbnail shown in Explorer | No | Cover art (MP4 and MOV) |
| Chapters, track names, languages | No | Chapters, track Name and Language |
Explorer reads embedded cover art for its large icons, so an MP4 with a cover image shows that picture instead of a frame; see adding a thumbnail to an MP4. For the fields Windows, Plex and other apps read, the MP4 metadata editor and MKV metadata editor go into detail, and the general video metadata editor covers every format.
The Details tab hides empty fields and some groups. This short PowerShell script lists every property Windows’ handlers return for one file (change the folder and file name):
$shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$folder = $shell.Namespace("C:\Demo")
$item = $folder.ParseName("clip.mp4")
0..320 | ForEach-Object {
$value = $folder.GetDetailsOf($item, $_)
if ($value) { "{0}: {1}" -f $folder.GetDetailsOf($null, $_), $value }
}
It still only shows what Windows maps, so it will not reveal a phone’s location key either, but it is handy for checking a batch of files.
For complete technical detail on a PC, ffprobe (part of FFmpeg) and the MediaInfo desktop app are the standard tools; the ffprobe guide has the commands. If you cannot install software, for example on a work laptop, the file info report gives the same kind of output in the browser.
Windows only shows fields its property handler for that format understands. MKV, WebM, AVI and some camera formats show little or nothing, and an MP4 without standard tags shows only the technical fields. The file may still hold plenty of metadata in places Windows does not read.
Not reliably. It only offers properties Windows lists, and phone videos store location in keys Windows does not map. Check the cleaned file with a full inspector before sharing it.
Windows can only write fields its handler supports for that file type, and some formats are read-only to it. Recording dates, locations and device fields are not editable there for video.
The Created date on the General tab is when that copy arrived on your PC. The date in Details comes from the file header and is stored in UTC, so it can differ from local time; files sent through apps may carry a new date altogether.
The Details tab does not name the codec. Use the codec checker in your browser, ffprobe, or MediaInfo to see whether it is H.264, HEVC or AV1 and which profile.
No. Changing tags rewrites metadata, not the picture. The same is true on metadata.video, where MP4 and MOV edits rewrite only the metadata boxes.
Only the Details tab, which edits a handful of description fields for supported formats. For dates, location, device fields, cover art and chapters you need a separate editor.