How to stop photos from recording where you took them, and remove it before sharing

When you take a photo with location on, your phone often writes the place into the photo file itself, sometimes down to a few meters. Anyone who receives the original file can read it. A picture of your kitchen can reveal your home address.

What is actually stored

A photo file contains the picture and a block of hidden notes called metadata: when it was taken, the phone model, and, if location was allowed, the coordinates. The iPhone maker’s safety guidance notes that the people you share a photo with can use this to find where it was taken.

Metadata is not the same as a caption or a tag you add. You don’t see it unless you look.

Step 1: stop recording location in new photos

iPhone

Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, choose Camera, then pick Never. If you still want the camera to use location for other purposes, you can turn off Precise Location instead. The same guidance says location metadata can only be collected if the Camera app has access to Location Services.

Android

Menus differ between phone makers, so there are two common routes.

• In the camera app’s settings, look for an option called something like “Location tags”, “Save location” or “Geotag”, and turn it off.
• Or in the phone’s settings, open Settings > Apps, choose your camera app, tap Permissions, then Location, and choose Don’t allow. Android Help describes this path for app permissions, though labels vary by phone and Android version.

Take a test photo afterward and check its details in your gallery. If there is no map or coordinates, it worked.

Step 2: remove location from photos you already have

Turning the setting off doesn’t touch older photos. They keep what they were saved with.

iPhone: when sharing

1. In Photos, select the photos.
2. Tap the share button, then tap Options at the top of the share sheet.
3. Turn Location off. A note saying location is not included appears.
4. Share as usual.

This applies to this one share, so repeat it each time. That page does not name the iOS versions it covers, and some versions label the options differently, so look for the Location switch under Options.

iPhone: removing it from the saved photo

Open the photo in Photos, tap the more button, then choose Adjust Info, then Adjust Location, then No Location. Menu names may differ by iOS version.

Android

Android has no single built-in switch, because the share screen belongs to your gallery app. Look in two places:

• The share screen or details panel of your gallery app, for a “remove location” option.
• The photo’s details, where some gallery apps let you edit or delete the location.

If your app has neither, send a screenshot of the photo instead. A screenshot is a new file with no location, though it also loses some quality.

Before you post or send

• Remove the location first if the photo shows your home, school, workplace or a child’s regular spots.
• Be careful with direct sends, email and file transfers, which usually keep everything.
• Remember that the background of a photo can give away a place without any metadata.

Where Silo fits

If you import photos into Silo, your phone’s photo library keeps its copies until you remove them. Silo encrypts what it imports so others can’t read the files, and what is inside the files, including any location, stays inside the encrypted file. When you export or share a photo out of Silo, treat it like any other file: check whether the location is still attached before you send it.