Remove GPS and metadata from a video — without re-encoding it
Drop in an MP4, MOV, 3GP, MKV, WebM or AVI and get the same recording back with the location, the recording date, the device and the editing history taken out — including the location *track* an action camera or a dashcam writes while it runs. The video and audio are not re-compressed: they are copied through untouched, so nothing is lost from the recording. It all happens in your browser, and the file never leaves your device.
Read the saved file back and check it is gone
When this helps
A phone video records where it was shot. Posting it publishes that along with the picture, and nothing on screen hints at it.
Remove the metadata first, then upload the result.
These cameras record a position several times a second for the whole clip. Sharing the file shares the route you drove or rode.
Strip the file — the location track is blanked along with the rest.
Clips from a site visit or an incident carry the device, the timestamp and often the coordinates, and go out by email exactly as recorded.
Clean the file before it is attached.
An editing suite leaves its own XMP history and the source device's details inside the export.
Remove what the render carried over, without touching the picture.
FAQ
- Is the video uploaded anywhere?
- No. Everything happens in your browser. The result is assembled from pieces of the file you picked plus the blanked ranges, so even a very large recording is written back without being loaded — and if the in-browser run ever fails, nothing is uploaded unless you click a button that says so.
- Does the video quality change?
- No. The picture and the sound are not decoded and not re-compressed: the compressed data is copied through exactly as it was, and only the parts of the file *around* it are overwritten. That is different from the usual approach — re-encoding the video and dropping the metadata on the way — which costs a generation of quality every time.
- Why is the file the same size afterwards?
- Because nothing is deleted, it is overwritten. In an MP4 the video data is found through a table of absolute positions in the file; shortening anything would move all of it, and the result would still open and play garbage. So each removed block is replaced by a "skip me" block of exactly the same length. The metadata is gone; the file is the same size.
- What about the location track?
- Its contents are erased. A GoPro or a dashcam records positions continuously in a separate track, and every one of those samples is overwritten with zeros. The empty track remains declared in the file, because removing it entirely would mean rebuilding the index the player depends on. Nothing is left to read from it.
- What exactly is removed?
- The GPS location, the recording and modification dates, the device make and model, the software that wrote or edited the file, titles and comments, XMP editing history, embedded cover art, maker-specific blocks, and the samples of any location track. The result tells you which of those your file actually had.
- How do I check it worked?
- Use the Show video metadata tool on the result. It reads the same file and should come back with nothing.
Related tools
- Show video metadata — Read the saved file back and see that it is gone
- Remove image metadata — The same removal, for a photo rather than a recording