When you take a photo with your iPhone, digital camera or SLR, all kinds of information is stored in the photo file. This data includes the GPS location, date, type of camera, ISO values, and so on. This also applies to images that you have downloaded from the internet.
This data is called EXIF data and are useful for sorting photos, for example on location and date. Exif stands for ‘Exchangelable Image File Format’. When you look at a photo, this information is not immediately visible. You can view the data via the info window in preview or the photos app.
If you would prefer not to keep this information in a certain photo for safety or privacy reasons, it is possible to delete the EXIF data.
View exif data in Finder
With the Finder in MacOS you can easily check whether an image or photo contains exif data. Follow the steps below for this.
- Finder
- Select the image
- Use the key combination now CMD +I
A new Infoven Dester now appears, in which you will find the exif information under the heading “More info”. Here you see data such as: brand device, model, date, time and GPS width and length.
Delete exif data under MacOS Terminal
Various apps are available in the App Store that can remove exif information. You have to pay for the majority of these apps. Yet there is also a free option to completely remove the EXIF data from an image.
With the help of Homebrew for macOS you can install a special exift tool and use it via terminal. Have you not yet installed Homebrew on your Mac? Then you can do that with the two commands below.
Install homebrew
$/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
$uname -m | grep arm64 && echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc
Install Exiftool with HomeBrew
After this, HomeBrew was installed and we still have to install exift tool within Homebrew. You do this with the command:
$brew install exiftool
View exif data with Exiftol
After the installation has been completed, you can start using Exiftool. With the command you can view the current EXIF data of an image:
$exiftool -n /path/naar/afbeelding.jpg
You can also type Exiftool -followed by a space in the Terminal window and then drag the image into the window. The entire path is then entered automatically. Then press Enter to view the data.
Remove exif data with Exiftool
It is also possible to remove the exif data from an image with the Exiftool, for this you use the Terminal Command below:
$exiftool -all= /path/to/image.jpg
After you have printed on Enter, all exif data will be removed, you can then check this with the exiftool -n Command, or via Finder as described above.
