Adding, changing, removing and stripping metadata tags

Photos and videos carry metadata beside the dates: the camera and lens, exposure settings, the author and copyright, IPTC captions and locations, and GPS coordinates. Four actions work on these tags in batches. The info pane lists the tags a selected file actually contains.

Add or change metadata tag(s)

Each row of the table names a tag and the value to write. Pick the tag from the list, which covers:

• EXIF camera and image tags: Make, Model, Software, Artist, Copyright, ImageDescription, UserComment, OwnerName, SerialNumber, LensMake, LensModel, LensSerialNumber, FocalLength, ExposureTime, FNumber and others.
• IPTC tags: By-line (the creator), Headline, Caption-Abstract (the description), ObjectName (the title), Keywords, City, Province-State, Country, the country code, Sub-location, CopyrightNotice, CreditLine, Writer-Editor, Contact and the creator’s address, telephone and e-mail fields.
• Location: GPSCoordinates takes a complete position in one field, for example 42 deg 29' 11.88" N, 10 deg 4' 49.89" W or the same position in decimal degrees; GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude and their Ref fields can also be set individually.
• Time zone offsets: OffsetTimeOriginal, OffsetTimeDigitized and TimeZoneOffset, for files whose camera did not record the zone.

A tag that does not exist in the file is added; one that exists is replaced. Typical uses are adding a copyright notice and creator before delivering files, filling in the lens for a manual lens, or stamping a location onto photos from a camera without GPS.

Remove EXIF/ IPTC/ GPS metadata tag(s)

Select the tags to delete from the same list. Everything else in the file stays. Professional photographers use this to remove equipment and exposure information before sending files to clients or stock sites while keeping copyright and captions.

Remove geolocation metadata tag(s)

Two checkboxes: Remove EXIF GPS meta-data deletes the coordinates, altitude and GPS time; Remove IPTC City, State & Country meta-data deletes the written location. This is the action for sharing photos without revealing where they were taken.

Strip all metadata tags

Removes all EXIF, IPTC, XMP and other metadata, including camera, lens, date and GPS information, from JPEG, HEIC, PNG, TIFF, RAW and QuickTime-based video files (.mp4, .m4a, .m4v, .3gp). Preserve colour profile (ICC) is on by default: the profile describes how colours should be displayed and contains no personal data, so leave it on unless you specifically need a profile-free file. To remove only the dates, use Remove EXIF content creation timestamp.

Remove WhereFroms

macOS records where a downloaded file came from in a Spotlight attribute (the Where from line in the Finder’s Get Info window). This action removes it. Spotlight takes a few seconds to re-index, so refresh the preview before concluding that nothing happened.

Notes

• Metadata changes rewrite the file. Keep a backup of originals you cannot replace.
• The file system creation and modification dates are not touched by these actions; macOS does update the modification date when a file is rewritten, as it does for any edit.