Every video your phone records can carry the exact spot where you filmed it. On an iPhone, that location sits inside the video file next to the phone model, the iOS version and the minute you pressed record. Android phones do much the same when location is switched on for the camera. Send the original file to someone, upload it to a forum, or attach it to an email, and all of that travels with it.

This guide shows how to check whether your video has a location, how to remove it on iPhone and Android, and what the built-in options leave behind.

What a phone video actually carries

We opened a real iPhone 13 Pro video, sent by AirDrop with "All Photos Data" switched on, and read everything inside it. Besides the picture and the sound, the file held:

  • GPS location: latitude, longitude and altitude, precise enough to point at a house.
  • Phone make and model, plus the lens that was used.
  • The iOS version the phone was running.
  • The recording date and time, with the time zone.
  • Five extra data tracks that most people never hear about. They held face detection for every frame (1,876 frames of face positions and angles), light levels in the scene and Live Photo details.

Those face-detection tracks are not a picture you can watch, so no video player shows them. They are still in the file, and anyone with the right tool can read them.

Android videos vary more by brand, but a typical file from a Pixel or Samsung phone holds the location (when the camera is allowed to save it), the phone model, the date and the name of the camera app.

How to check if your video has a location

On iPhone: open the video in Photos and swipe up, or tap the info button (the "i"). If a map appears, the video has a location.

On Android: open the video in Google Photos or your Gallery app, tap the three dots or swipe up, and look for a map or a place name in the details.

On a computer: you can drop the file on our video metadata page. Without an account, it reads the file right in your browser, without uploading it, and lists what it found: location, phone model, dates, AI labels and more.

One catch: the Photos app on your phone can show a location that is not in the file itself. It may come from your photo library's own records. The file check above tells you what actually travels when you send it.

How to remove the location from a video on iPhone

Option 1: turn it off when you share

  1. Open the video in Photos and tap Share.
  2. At the top of the share sheet, tap Options.
  3. Switch Location off, then share as usual.

The copy you send has no GPS. The original in your library keeps it. This is the quickest fix for a one-off message.

Option 2: remove it in Photos

  1. Open the video and swipe up (or tap the "i").
  2. Tap Adjust next to the location.
  3. Choose No Location.

This changes the location in your library, so later shares will not include it either.

Option 3: stop recording location at all

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera and choose Never. New videos will have no GPS. Old videos keep theirs.

What the iPhone options leave behind

Turning location off only removes location. The phone model, the iOS version and the recording date and time usually stay in the file. Whether those matter depends on who you are sending to. For most messages to friends, removing the location is enough. For a public post, evidence you send to a stranger, or a video you are selling or licensing, you may want everything gone.

How to remove the location from a video on Android

Stop the camera from saving it

  • Pixel (Google Camera): open the camera, go to settings, and switch off Save location.
  • Samsung: open the camera, tap the settings gear, and switch off Location tags.
  • Other brands: look in the camera app's settings for "location", "GPS" or "geotag".

As on iPhone, this only affects new videos.

Remove it from a video you already have

Android has fewer built-in options for video than for photos. Recent Samsung Gallery versions offer a "remove location data" switch in the share panel, and Google Photos can hide location in items you share by link. Neither changes the original file on your phone, and neither touches the other details such as model and date.

If you need the file itself cleaned, use a tool that rewrites it (see below).

Remove everything at once, on any device

Our video metadata remover works from any browser, including the phone the video is on. Here is what it does:

  1. Location, phone model, iOS or Android version, recording dates, author and comments are removed. So are hidden AI labels (C2PA) if the video has them.
  2. Only the video and the sound are kept. The extra data tracks (face detection, light levels, subtitles, cover art) are dropped.
  3. The video is not re-encoded. The picture and the sound are copied across untouched, so there is no quality loss. We check every frame of video and audio against the original before you get the file.
  4. The file is read again after cleaning to confirm nothing identifying is left.

Once the upload is done, the clean takes seconds even for a large file, because nothing is re-compressed. Videos are uploaded over an encrypted connection to our server in Germany, and deleted straight after: the original as soon as it is cleaned, and the clean copy after its one download (or after 15 minutes if you never download it).

A free account gets 3 video, PDF or RAW cleans a month. Pro gets 100 a month, with batches of up to 10 files.

When removing the location matters most

  • Selling something online. A video of the item you are selling, filmed at home, can show where you live.
  • Posting clips of your kids, or of a place you visit every day.
  • Sending a video to someone you don't know, such as a landlord, a buyer or a stranger in a group chat.
  • Sharing evidence or a news clip where the person who filmed it could be at risk.
  • Travelling. A video posted while you are away says your home is empty. A clip filmed at home can give away your address.

Not every app keeps the location. Many social apps rewrite videos when you upload them. But you cannot always know what a given app does with a given file, and a file sent by email, AirDrop, cloud link or a messaging "send as file" option usually arrives exactly as you sent it. Cleaning it first means you do not have to know.

Frequently asked questions

Does turning off location on my iPhone remove it from old videos?

No. Switching the camera's location access to Never only stops new videos from being tagged. Videos you already recorded keep their location until you remove it in Photos (Adjust → No Location) or clean the file.

Does the iPhone share option remove all metadata from a video?

No. Switching Location off in the share sheet's Options removes the GPS location from the copy you send. The phone model, iOS version and recording date usually stay in the file.

Can someone find where a video was filmed from the file?

Yes, if the file still has its GPS location. The coordinates are stored as plain numbers inside the file and any metadata viewer can show them on a map. Remove the location before you send the original file.

Does removing metadata reduce the video quality?

Not with our tool. The picture and sound are copied across without re-encoding, and we check that every frame of video and audio matches the original before you download the clean file.

What video formats can I clean?

MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MKV and WebM. That covers video from iPhones, Android phones, most cameras and screen recorders. AVI is not supported; convert it to MP4 first.

Is it free?

Yes, with a free account you can clean 3 videos, PDFs or RAW photos a month. Signed out, you can still see what your video carries, read in your browser without uploading it. Pro raises the limit to 100 a month.