A phone video usually stores one location: where you pressed record. GoPro and drone footage can store your position every fraction of a second, along with your speed, altitude and heading. That's a map of the whole ride, flight or run, hidden inside the file. Share the original, and anyone with the right app can trace where you went, where you started and where you ended up. Often that's home.

We tested real files to see what's in them, what the usual free fixes leave behind, and what actually removes it.

What we found in real GoPro files

GoPro publishes sample videos from its own cameras for developers. We took four of them (from a HERO5, a HERO8, a MAX and a Karma drone) and read everything inside:

File GPS points in the file Also inside
HERO5 Black 619 recording date, firmware version
HERO8 Black 231 camera serial number, model, date
GoPro MAX 192 camera serial number, model, date
HERO5 on a Karma drone 47 recording date, firmware version

The GPS isn't a single tag. It's a separate data track that GoPro calls "GoPro MET", running alongside the video and sound. Next to it sit a timecode track and one more GoPro data track. Video players ignore all three, which is why you've probably never seen them. But apps like GoPro Quik, and overlay tools that draw speed and maps onto footage, read them easily. So can anyone else.

On the HERO8 and MAX, the camera's serial number is also in the file. That links every clip you post to the same camera.

Drones: the flight log in the file

DJI drones record a flight log with every clip: date and time, GPS position, height, and camera settings for every frame. Depending on the model and your settings, it ends up in one of three places:

  • A separate .SRT file with the same name as the video (DJI Fly calls the setting "Video Subtitles" or "Video Captions").
  • Inside the video file, as a subtitle track. Some models, such as the DJI Mini 4K, store it this way.
  • Inside the video file, as a binary data track on newer models.

We built a test clip with a flight log in DJI's own format (the same format open-source DJI tools read), embedded as a subtitle track the way the Mini 4K stores it, plus the drone model and a location tag. The log held 300 GPS readings for 10 seconds of footage.

Other drones do similar things. Parrot's Anafi, for example, embeds its telemetry in the video too.

What the usual fixes leave behind

We ran the common free methods on the same files.

ExifTool (exiftool -all= file.mp4) is the go-to metadata remover. On the GoPro HERO8 file it left all 231 GPS points and the camera's serial number. On our DJI test clip it left all 300 flight-log readings. ExifTool clears the file-level tags, but the GPS lives in its own track, which it doesn't touch. Run a check afterwards and the file still says where you've been.

ffmpeg with -map_metadata -1 -c copy did remove the tracks in our tests, because by default ffmpeg copies only one video and one audio stream. But the common "keep everything" version, -map 0, copies the data tracks too (on the GoPro file it simply failed to write). And ffmpeg on its own leaves some tags on the video stream unless you add -map_metadata:s -1.

Editing apps like GoPro Quik, DaVinci Resolve or Premiere create a new file when you export. Whether telemetry comes along depends on the app and the export settings. Some keep it on purpose, so overlays still work.

How to remove it in one step

Our video metadata remover rebuilds the file with only the video and the audio. Everything else stored inside is left out: GPS tracks, flight logs, timecode and data tracks, subtitles, the serial number, dates and the device model.

We ran all five test files through it:

  • 0 GPS points left in any of the GoPro files, and 0 flight-log readings in the DJI clip.
  • Serial numbers, firmware versions and dates gone.
  • Video and audio byte-for-byte identical to the originals, checked frame by frame. Nothing is re-encoded, so there's no quality loss.

It handles MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MKV and WebM, which covers GoPro and DJI footage. Files go to our server in Germany and are deleted straight after cleaning. The clean copy is deleted after its one download, or after 15 minutes. A free account gets 3 cleans a month; Pro gets 100, with batches of 10.

Stop recording it (if you don't need it)

  • GoPro: turn off GPS in the camera's settings (under Preferences, in the regional or GPS section, depending on the model). You'll lose the speed and map overlays in Quik.
  • DJI: turn off "Video Subtitles" or "Video Captions" in the DJI Fly camera settings if you don't use the .SRT files. The drone still needs GPS to fly, so this only stops the log being saved with your footage.

If you like having the data for your own edits, keep recording it, and clean the copy you share instead.

Don't forget the sidecar file

If your drone saved a separate .SRT file, that file is the flight log. It's plain text: anyone can open it and read your coordinates line by line. When you share footage, send only the video, and leave the .SRT behind.

Frequently asked questions

Does GoPro video contain GPS data?

Yes, on models with GPS switched on. It's stored as a separate data track with several position readings per second, plus speed and altitude. In GoPro's own sample files we found between 47 and 619 GPS points per clip. The HERO8 and MAX files also contained the camera's serial number.

Does exiftool remove GPS from GoPro videos?

Not fully. In our test, exiftool -all= cleared the file-level tags but left all 231 GPS points and the camera's serial number in a HERO8 file, because the GPS is stored in its own track. You need a tool that rebuilds the file with only the video and audio.

Where does a DJI drone store its flight data?

In a separate .SRT file next to the video, inside the video as a subtitle track, or inside the video as a data track, depending on the model and settings. The log records GPS position, height and camera settings for every frame.

Will removing the GPS track lower the video quality?

No. Our cleaner copies the video and audio without re-encoding and checks every frame against the original. In our tests the video and audio were byte-for-byte identical.

Can I keep the GPS for my own edits and still share safely?

Yes. Keep the original with its telemetry for editing and overlays, and share a cleaned copy.

Does removing metadata remove a speed or GPS overlay drawn on the video?

No. If the speed, map or coordinates are drawn onto the picture, they're part of the video itself, not metadata. Turn the overlay off before exporting, or crop it out.