Use this command to install ExifCleaner with WinGet:
winget install --id=szTheory.exifcleaner -e
ExifCleaner is a desktop application designed to clean metadata from images, videos, PDFs, and other files. It provides users with a straightforward way to remove sensitive or unnecessary information embedded in files.
Key Features:
Support for Multiple File Types: Clean metadata from various file formats including images, videos, PDFs, and more.
Batch Processing: Clean metadata from multiple files at once, saving time and effort.
Selective Data Removal: Choose which types of metadata to remove or retain, offering precise control over the cleaning process.
Preview Before Cleaning: Review metadata before deletion to ensure only unwanted data is removed.
Drag-and-Drop Interface: Easily add files or folders for processing with a user-friendly interface.
Scheduled Tasks: Set up automated tasks to clean metadata on a regular basis.
Audience & Benefit:
Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and professionals who handle sensitive information. ExifCleaner helps protect privacy by removing potentially revealing metadata from files, ensuring compliance with data protection standards or simply safeguarding personal details.
ExifCleaner can be installed via winget, making it easy to integrate into your workflow.
README
ExifCleaner
> Desktop app to clean metadata from images, videos, PDFs, and other files.
Features
Fast batch processing via ExifTool's stay-open protocol
Drag and drop files or folders
Free and open source (MIT)
Cross-platform: macOS, Windows, and Linux
Supports 90+ image, video, and document formats (full list below)
Privacy controls: preserve orientation, save as copy, remove macOS extended attributes, preserve timestamps
Folder recursion — drop a folder to process all files inside
Metadata inspection — expand any file to see before/after diff
Dark mode (follows OS preference)
25 languages with in-app language switching
No automatic updates or network traffic — zero telemetry, zero phone-home
Every release verified by CI against the actual installed app on macOS, Windows, and Linux
What's New in v4.0
ExifCleaner v4.0 is a complete modernization — the first release since v3.6.0 (May 2021). Highlights:
5 new privacy features: preserve orientation, save as copy, xattr removal, preserve timestamps, folder recursion
Metadata inspection: expand any processed file to see exactly what was removed
Language switching: change language from settings without restarting (25 locales)
For Linux, the AppImage needs to be made executable after download.
> Your OS will warn you the first time you open it. ExifCleaner is not code-signed —
> see Opening unsigned builds for the one-time steps, and why.
Arch Linux users can install from the AUR:
paru -S exifcleaner-bin
Opening unsigned builds
ExifCleaner is not code-signed. On first launch your OS will warn you. This is
expected, it is a one-time step, and it does not mean the download is unsafe — verify
the checksum below if you want certainty.
macOS
macOS 14 (Sonoma) and earlier: right-click (or Control-click) the app → Open →
click Open in the dialog.
macOS 15 (Sequoia) and later: right-click → Open no longer works. Double-click the
app once and let it be blocked, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security,
scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the ExifCleaner message.
Windows
Windows Defender SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info →
Run anyway.
Linux
No gatekeeping. The AppImage just needs chmod +x (above). .deb and .rpm install
normally.
Why isn't it signed?
Signing macOS builds requires an Apple Developer certificate at $99/year, and the
certificate embeds the holder's legal name, which macOS then displays in the
Gatekeeper dialog. Windows requires a separate EV certificate at $200–600/year tied to a
verified legal identity. For a privacy tool maintained anonymously, that tradeoff isn't
one this project is willing to make.
What you get instead:
Published SHA-256 checksums for every artifact (below) — verifies the download is
byte-for-byte what CI built.
Every release is built in public by GitHub Actions
from tagged source you can read, not on anyone's laptop.
CI installs and runs the actual artifact before it can be released — it mounts the
DMG, installs it, launches it, and strips metadata from a test image. A build that
doesn't work never reaches the release page.
> Only download from the GitHub releases page.
> Builds shared through other channels are not ours and are not verified.
Verifying checksums
Each release includes a SHASUMS256.txt file. Download it from the release page and verify your download:
Below is the intake list derived from formats for which ExifTool exposes write operations. Acceptance does not guarantee complete, irreversible removal for every container; the important exceptions are documented immediately after the list.
3G2, 3GP2 – 3rd Gen. Partnership Project 2 a/v (QuickTime-based)
3GP, 3GPP – 3rd Gen. Partnership Project a/v (QuickTime-based)
RAF – FujiFilm RAW Format (currently refused without writing; see limitations)
RAW – Panasonic RAW (TIFF-based)
RW2 – Panasonic RAW 2 (TIFF-based)
RWL – Leica RAW (TIFF-based)
SR2 – Sony RAW 2 (TIFF-based)
SRW – Samsung RAW format (TIFF-based)
THM – Thumbnail image (JPEG)
TIFF, TIF – Tagged Image File Format
VRD – Canon DPP Recipe Data
WEBP – WebP image format
X3F – Sigma/Foveon RAW
XMP – Extensible Metadata Platform sidecar file
Known limitations by format
ExifCleaner relies on ExifTool's writer support. Some formats impose structural limits
that prevent ExifCleaner from making an irreversible-removal guarantee:
Format
What ExifCleaner can guarantee
Status
RAF
The operation is refused before writing because ExifCleaner cannot currently guarantee a safe cleaned RAF artifact.
Source is left unchanged
PDF
ExifTool writes a reversible PDF update; the original metadata remains recoverable, so ExifCleaner cannot securely erase PDF metadata.
ExifTool exposes Matroska metadata for reading but does not provide writable tags, so ExifCleaner cannot reliably remove it without a separate remuxing engine.
The PDF behavior is documented in the
ExifTool application documentation, and
ExifTool's Matroska tag table marks the
container's extracted tags as non-writable. TIFF and AVIF remain open because their
reported behavior may still be addressable without introducing a separate file-format
engine.
File writer limitations
ExifCleaner has the same writer limitations as the underlying exiftool it depends on. Taken from the official website:
ExifTool will not rewrite a file if it detects a significant problem with the file format.
ExifTool has been tested with a wide range of different images, but since it is not possible to test it with every known image type, there is the possibility that it will corrupt some files. Be sure to keep backups of your files.
Even though ExifTool does some validation of the information written, it is still possible to write illegal values which may cause problems when reading the images with other software. So take care to validate the information you are writing.
ExifTool is not guaranteed to remove metadata completely from a file when attempting to delete all metadata. For JPEG images, all APP segments (except Adobe APP14, which is not removed by default) and trailers are removed which effectively removes all metadata, but for other formats the results are less complete:
JPEG - APP segments (except Adobe APP14) and trailers are removed.
TIFF - XMP, IPTC, ICC_Profile and the ExifIFD are removed, but some EXIF may remain in IFD0. (The CommonIFD0 Shortcut tag is provided to simplify removal of common metadata tags from IFD0.)
PNG - Only XMP, EXIF, ICC_Profile and native PNG textual data chunks are removed.
PDF - The original metadata is never actually removed.
PS - Only XMP and some native PostScript tags may be deleted.
MOV/MP4 - Most top-level metadata is removed.
RAW formats - It is not recommended to remove all metadata from RAW images because this will likely remove some proprietary information that is necessary for proper rendering of the image.
Translations
New translations and corrections are welcome. See Contributing for the small-string workflow. Current translation status:
Built with Electron, React 19, and TypeScript in strict mode. A hand-rolled ExifTool adapter uses the -stay_open protocol for fast batch processing. The engineering guide explains the architecture and traces a file end to end.
Run the app in dev mode
git clone https://github.com/szTheory/exifcleaner.git
cd exifcleaner
yarn install
Pull down the latest ExifTool binaries (requires Perl, macOS/Linux only):
Edit .resources/locales/.json, then run yarn i18n:write and
yarn i18n:check. See CONTRIBUTING.md for
placeholder, review, and testing guidance.
Publishing a new release
Releases are built by GitHub Actions. To publish:
Run yarn verify:release. If it reports known-gap release blockers, fix or remove the blocking marker before publishing; if it reports release-note drift, run yarn known-gaps:write and review the managed block.
Make sure RELEASE_NOTES.md is current — it becomes the release body verbatim
Trigger the Release workflow via workflow_dispatch in the GitHub Actions UI
CI builds all platforms unsigned, then installs and smoke-tests one representative
artifact per platform — mounts the Apple Silicon DMG / runs the NSIS installer / extracts the AppImage,
launches the installed binary, and strips metadata from a test image. macOS
additionally runs the Gatekeeper regression gate. The remaining four binaries receive
exact-inventory, non-empty, and format-structure checks. A build that fails any of these
cannot reach the release page.
A draft GitHub release is created with all artifacts and SHASUMS256.txt
Download the DMG through a browser and confirm it opens (this is the one check CI
cannot do — neither codesign nor spctl can tell "shows a dialog you click through"
from "launches cleanly")
Review the draft and publish when ready
Contributors
Thanks to all the people who submitted bug reports, fixes, and translations. If I've missed you, let me know and I'll add you.
@m1chu - Polish translation, Mac dock bug fix, Unicode filename debugging
ExifCleaner
