How to remove location data from photos on iPhone before sharing

When the Camera app has location access, it saves the coordinates of where you stood into the photo file. Anyone who receives the original file and opens it in a tool that shows metadata can see them. A photo taken at home can therefore point to your home, and one of an item for sale can point to where you keep it.

Many chat and social apps remove or hide this when you post, but what they do differs from app to app and changes over time, so don't assume every app does it. The safe habit is to send a copy that no longer has the location.

This is the quickest fix, and it leaves your library alone: it only changes the copy you send.

1. 1Open the photo in the Photos app and tap Share.
2. 2Tap Options at the top of the share sheet.
3. 3Turn Location off (on some iOS versions this sits under All Photos Data), then tap Done.
4. 4Choose where to send it, such as Mail, AirDrop or a message.

Two limits apply. This works when you share from Photos; if you attach a picture from inside another app's own picker, you may not get this option. And it removes the location, but the copy can still carry other details such as the date or camera, depending on the iOS version, so don't count on it as a full clean.

1. 1Open the photo and swipe up, or tap the info (i) button, to see the map.
2. 2Tap Adjust next to the location and choose to remove it (the wording is No Location on recent iOS versions).

Photos keeps the original, so you can bring the location back later with Revert. That makes it a good fit for a photo you will keep sharing, and a poor fit if you want the original to be gone for good.

1. 1Open Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services.
2. 2Scroll to Camera and choose Never.

New photos will no longer carry coordinates. Older ones keep theirs, so you still need the steps above for those. The trade-off is that your photos will no longer sort by place in Photos and Memories.

If you keep photos in Lockboxy, sharing one from the vault goes through the same idea, with the clean copy as the default.

1. 1Open the photo in Photos & Videos and tap Share (or Save a copy).
2. 2An options sheet appears first. By default it says location and camera details are removed from the copy, and that the original in Lockboxy stays exactly as it is.
3. 3Tap Share. Lockboxy decrypts the photo only long enough to prepare the copy, and wipes that temporary copy when the share finishes.

Videos get the same treatment. For photos, the copy is a freshly written image rather than your original with a field switched off, and it is checked before it is handed over: if location, make, model or capture date survived, Lockboxy refuses to share it instead of sending it anyway. A PNG stays a PNG; other photos are saved as JPEG.

If you ever need the original details, the sheet has a Keep original metadata switch, off by default. Image files saved in Lockboxy's Files area, such as a scanned ID saved as images, have the same Share option.

• Removing location and camera details from a shared or saved copy is free. Premium adds an optional watermark for photos, such as “Only for apartment rental” and the date, which helps when you must send a photo of an ID or a document. See how to store photos of your ID safely.
• It protects copies that leave Lockboxy. It does not change what is written on the picture itself, so a visible street sign or house number is still there. Look at the photo before you send it.
• Importing a photo into the vault makes a copy, so the original, with its location, remains in Photos until you delete it. See how to hide photos on iPhone.

Prices and which plan includes what are on the Premium page; the app shows the exact price before you buy.