METADATA NOW

Clean image metadata. Inspect the change.

Support

METADATA NOW cleans local copies of images and gives you a record of what changed: detected metadata, dimensions, page counts, source and output fingerprints, and encoding behavior.

Getting started

• On first launch, choose a folder where cleaned images should be saved. The app remembers the chosen folder for later launches while its access remains valid.
• Drag images onto the window, or click the drop zone to pick files.
• Cleaned copies appear in your chosen folder with _cleaned added to the filename. Repeated runs use a new name.
• Choose Inspect beside a result to compare the original and cleaned copy. Save a JSON receipt for one file or the whole batch.
• Try sample images creates clearly labelled synthetic JPEG and two-page TIFF examples and processes them through the real cleaner.

Frequently asked

Does it change my original files?
The app reads your originals and writes separate copies in your chosen destination folder. The receipt checks the source hash before and after processing so you can verify that it stayed unchanged.

Will my photos lose quality?
JPEG, PNG, supported HEIC and WebP use format-specific container cleaning that preserves compressed image data. TIFF is written through ImageIO, retains its pages, and is explicitly reported as re-encoded. Unsupported HEIC layouts fail instead of silently falling back to a lossy conversion. Review your cleaned copies before sharing; the receipt does not certify pixel-for-pixel identity.

Which formats are supported?
JPEG, PNG, supported HEIC, WebP and TIFF. GIF, SVG, PDF and other unsupported formats are not accepted.

What exactly gets removed?
The format parsers remove supported EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, C2PA/JUMBF and maker-note payloads. Receipts report metadata categories exposed by ImageIO before and after. Visible faces, text and locations inside the picture, filenames and filesystem attributes can still identify someone. The checks are not a universal forensic guarantee.

Why didn't my HEIC file get smaller?
HEIC stores data at fixed positions inside the file. Removing bytes would mean rewriting every internal offset, which risks corrupting the photo. For supported layouts, the cleaner zeroes the identified metadata item payloads and clears their extents while preserving image data. This can keep the file size unchanged. An unsupported layout returns an error.

Does it need an internet connection?
No. The app contains no networking code at all and works identically with Wi-Fi turned off.

Why does it ask for a folder?
macOS sandboxing means an app can only write where you have explicitly pointed it. The app saves a security-scoped bookmark so it can normally reuse your chosen folder on later launches. Moving or deleting the folder, or changing permissions, may require selecting it again.