What does an AI metadata remover remove?
AI metadata is not one field. It is spread across several standards, and different apps use different ones. Drop a file above to see which of these yours carries. In the default mode, the remover takes out the following and leaves the rest of the file alone:
- C2PA manifest (Content Credentials): the signed block with the app name, the recorded edits and the AI declaration. It is removed as a whole.
- Links to an online manifest: an XMP pointer that tells a platform where to fetch Content Credentials stored on a server.
- IPTC Digital Source Type: the field that says “trainedAlgorithmicMedia” (generated by AI) or “compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia” (edited with AI).
- IPTC AI fields in XMP: AI System Used, AI System Version Used, AI Prompt Information and AI Prompt Writer Name.
- AI entries in the editing history: XMP history steps and creator-tool fields that name an AI tool.
- Generator traces: EXIF Software tags and comments that name an AI tool, and PNG text chunks with Stable Diffusion settings or ComfyUI prompts and workflows.
- AI tags in videos: C2PA boxes and container tags that name an AI tool.
What stays in the file in AI-only mode?
Everything else stays where it was: the camera make and model, lens and exposure settings, the date the photo was taken, the color profile that keeps colors correct, the orientation, and copyright or author fields. In XMP, only the AI entries are blanked. Other fields, such as a title or a copyright notice, stay unless they name an AI tool.
One detail matters for privacy: in this mode your GPS location stays too. If you don’t want to share where a photo was taken, turn on the option to also remove location and camera details.
AI tags only, or all metadata?
Choose the mode by what the file is for. In both modes the color profile stays, so colors don’t shift, and so does the data the image needs to display correctly. The two options:
- AI tags only (default): for a real photo that got a false label. You keep the camera data that photographers, clients and stock sites expect.
- Also remove location and camera details: for anything you post publicly or send to people you don’t know. This removes the EXIF block and writes back a minimal one with only the orientation. GPS, camera serial number, owner name, maker notes, capture dates, embedded thumbnails, comments, IPTC and XMP blocks, and the location and device tags in a video’s metadata are all removed. Some iPhone and Ultra HDR photos may then show without HDR, and motion photos lose their moving part.
Why lossless removal matters
Metadata sits in separate blocks next to the image data. The remover cuts those blocks out and copies the image data byte for byte. Nothing is decoded and saved again, so there is no extra compression, no change in resolution and no color shift. Video frames are not re-encoded either.
Some tools take a different route: they draw the picture on a canvas and save a new JPEG. That also drops the metadata, but it recompresses the image each time and can lose the color profile. If you deliver photos to clients or post high-quality work, lossless removal keeps the file exactly as you exported it, without the AI tags.
How to remove AI metadata from a photo or video
For a batch of client photos:
- Drop up to 10 photos or videos above. Each file gets its own list of AI tags and private details, so you can see which ones actually need cleaning.
- Pick the mode before you clean: keep the default for AI tags only, or switch on the option to also remove location and camera details.
- Tap “Delete AI label”, then download each file or all of them as one ZIP. On a phone, share the clean copy straight to the app.
Why does a real photo carry AI metadata?
Because the editing app wrote it. Photoshop and Lightroom (Generative Fill, Generative Remove, AI Denoise), Adobe Firefly and Express, Canva Magic tools, Google Photos Magic Editor, Samsung Galaxy AI and Apple Clean Up can all record AI edits in the file. One small fill in a corner can mark the whole export. Instagram and Facebook then show “AI content” (formerly “AI info”), TikTok shows “AI-generated” and Pinterest shows “AI modified”.
If you only used AI to tidy up a real photo, removing the tag fixes a label that describes your workflow, not your picture. If the image was fully generated by AI, keep the disclosure when you post: in that case the label is accurate.
Where AI metadata ends and the picture begins
Everything in the list above is stored next to the image. A few AI signals sit elsewhere:
- Invisible pixel watermarks such as Google SynthID. They are part of the image itself, and cleaning removes them along with the tags, so the clean copy carries no AI marks.
- Adobe’s online copy of Content Credentials. Adobe can keep the record on its servers and match it to the image again, even after the embedded copy is gone.
- A platform’s own AI classifier, which looks at the picture itself.