Private • Local • Metadata cleaning

Remove metadata from HEIC and iPhone photos

Take EXIF and GPS out of the photos your iPhone actually saves, without converting them to JPEG and without touching a single pixel.

No upload
No account
Runs in your browser

Clean locally

Your image pixels stay unchanged.

Review clearly

See what was removed before download.

Keep control

Choose a mode or fine-tune advanced settings.

Short answer: HEIC is the format an iPhone saves photos in by default, and it carries the same EXIF and GPS data as a JPEG. AI Remover Pro removes that metadata inside your browser by overwriting it in place, so the file stays a valid HEIC at exactly the same size, the encoded image is untouched, and nothing is converted to JPEG. Writing new metadata into HEIC is not supported, and in-pixel watermarks such as SynthID are not metadata and cannot be removed by any tool.

Your iPhone photos are HEIC, and they know where you were

Since iOS 11 the default camera format has been HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container). It is a different container from JPEG, but it stores the same things: camera make and model, lens, exposure, the exact time — and, if location services were on, the GPS coordinates of where you stood.

Sharing the original file — by email, in a chat that preserves originals, or on a site that does not re-encode — shares all of it.

Cleaned in place, not converted

Most tools handle HEIC by decoding it and saving a JPEG. That silently changes your file: different format, re-encoded pixels, usually a different size, and any HDR or depth information gone.

AI Remover Pro does not decode the image at all. It locates the metadata inside the container and overwrites those exact bytes, which is why the output is the same length as the input, still opens as HEIC, and contains the identical encoded image. You can verify it: run ExifTool on the result and the EXIF and GPS are gone while the file type still reads HEIC.

What HEIC cannot do here

This tool does not write metadata into HEIC. Adding an item to the container means rebuilding its internal item table and shifting every byte offset after it, which is how HEIC files get corrupted, so the tool refuses rather than producing something that looks valid and is not. If you need to store a copyright, alt text or licence in a photo, convert it to JPEG yourself first — deliberately, not behind your back.

How to remove metadata from an iPhone HEIC photo

Open AI Remover Pro on your phone or computer and drop the HEIC file in.
Keep Full clean to remove everything, or use AI-only to keep the camera data.
The EXIF and GPS are overwritten in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Check the result panel, which re-reads the output to confirm the metadata is gone.
Download the cleaned HEIC — same format, same image.

Frequently asked questions

Will my HEIC be converted to JPEG?

No. The file stays HEIC. Metadata is overwritten inside the existing container, so the format, the resolution and the encoded image data are unchanged.

Does this remove the GPS location from an iPhone photo?

Yes. GPS lives inside the EXIF block, and a full clean removes it. You can also remove only the location and keep the camera details.

Why is the cleaned file the same size as the original?

Because the metadata is overwritten in place rather than cut out. Removing the bytes would shift every offset in the file and break it, so they are zeroed instead — the values are genuinely gone, and every offset stays valid.

Can I add a copyright or alt text to a HEIC?

Not in HEIC. Adding metadata means rebuilding the container's item table, so the tool refuses instead of risking a corrupt file. Title, description, creator, copyright, keywords, GPS, alt text and licensing can all be written into JPEG, PNG and WebP.

Does it work with HEIF and iPhone Live Photos?

HEIF files are detected the same way, by their container signature rather than the file name. A Live Photo is a HEIC image plus a separate video file; this cleans the image.