Remove EXIF Metadata from Photos with exiftool

Productivity Sauce
Sometimes, it is a good idea to scrub EXIF metadata from photos before sharing them, and there is no better tool for the job than exiftool. The command below nukes all EXIF metadata in a photo in one fell swoop (replace foo.jpg with the actual file name):
exiftool -all= foo.jpg
This command removes EXIF metadata from the specified photo, but what if you need to process multiple photos? Then you can use the following command which cleans all the photos in the current directory:
for i in *.jpg; do echo "Processing $i"; exiftool -all= "$i"; done
Instead of purging all EXIF metadata from a photo, you can also remove individual fields. For example, the following command can come in handy when you need to remove geographical coordinates embedded in the photo:
exiftool -geotag= foo.jpg
And the command below can help you to remove geotags from multiple photos in one go:
for i in *.jpg; do echo "Processing $i"; exiftool -geotag= "$i"; done
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
other geographical data...
[code]exiftool -gps:all= *.jpg[/code]
to remove the information
ExifTool processes directories
exiftool -all= SOME_DIRECTORY
And add a -r option to recursively process subdirectories too.
This will process any type of file that is writable by ExifTool, but if you only want to process jpeg images, add "-ext jpg" and maybe "-ext jpeg" to the command. (No need to add "-ext JPG" because the -ext option is case insensitive).
More info on exiftool
exiftool -r -overwrite_original -P -all= -copyright="My Name" *.jpg *.jpeg *.JPG
Might be more to the point.