A photo metadata remover for Mac, built into the right-click menu.
Every photo you take carries where you were, when, and with what. Right-click it in Finder and Ricly writes a clean copy beside it, with the picture copied as it is.
Free account, no card · 299 MB · Apple silicon & Intel
Ricly▸Strip MetadataBalcony.jpgDone!Balcony.jpgHow to remove metadata from a photo with Ricly
- Install Ricly and open it.Turn on the Finder extension when it asks (one setting), then create your free account and verify your email. In Ricly › Modules, click Enable on Strip Metadata (it’s off at first).
- In Finder, right-click the photo.Select a whole shoot to clean it in one go.
- Choose Ricly › Strip Metadata.A copy named -clean lands next to the original, which stays untouched.
This is inside the photo you are about to post.
- GPS 48.8584, 2.2945
- Altitude 34 m
- 14 March 2026, 18:42:07
- Apple iPhone 15 Pro
- Back camera 6.86mm f/1.78
- iOS 19.2
- ISO 400 · f/1.78 · 1/120
That is one photo, straight out of an iPhone, and none of it shows when you look at the picture. Right-click it, pick Strip Metadata, and a clean copy appears beside the original. Which tags are there depends on the phone and its settings — the location almost always is.
See what else comes with itEXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP out; color and orientation kept
In the normal case the picture is copied as it is. What changes is everything written around it.
GPS, EXIF, IPTC, XMP and maker notes
The location, the exact date and time, the camera make and model, the software, the copyright fields, the XMP block, and the manufacturer blocks for Apple, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Pentax and Minolta. All of it set to nothing — then Ricly reads the clean copy back, and if anything would still reveal a place, a device, a person or a date, the copy is not delivered.
Color and orientation are kept
The ICC profile stays, so the picture looks the same. So does the right way up — the orientation tag lives inside the block that gets wiped, so Ricly puts it back deliberately after cleaning.
A clean copy, not an edit
The result is photo-clean.jpg, next to the original. Your photo is never modified in place, so you keep the version with the date on it if you ever need it.
Copied, not re-encoded
This is not a compression tool. A JPEG, a PNG or a HEIC is copied with the same pixels, bit for bit, and a TIFF is rewritten without loss. Only if that copy fails does Ricly rewrite a JPEG or a HEIC, at maximum quality.
Ricly vs. Photos, metadata sites and screenshots
Counted the same way as everywhere else on this site.
With Riclyleaves your Mac
WHAT IT REPLACES
A whole selectionfour at a time inside,
one clean copy each
Cleaning one photo is rarely the real job. A shoot, an export folder, a set going online — they all carry the same coordinates. One right-click on the selection gives you one clean copy per file, originals untouched. Doing that on a stripping site means uploading every photo you wanted to keep to yourself.
For photos in your library, macOS has its own. In Photos, select them and choose Image › Location › Hide Location. Preview shows where a photo was taken, with Tools › Show Location Info. Ricly removes the location and the rest — the date, the camera, the software, the maker notes — from any photo you right-click, and checks the clean copy before handing it over. This is the one comparison where the step count is the smaller argument: sending a photo to a stripping site means handing over the exact file you wanted to keep private. A screenshot works too, but you lose the resolution.
Nobody needs your address.
A photo posted from home carries the coordinates of your kitchen. Removing them should not require sending the photo to a stranger first.
You came for one tool. 16 more come with it.
Strip Metadata is not an app you install. It is one item in a menu that also carries 16 others — same download, same account, nothing extra to set up.
13 are free, 4 are Pro. They install themselves as they ship, so the menu grows without you doing anything. HEIC to JPG will convert the iPhone original first if you need it to open anywhere, and Compress Image will bring the clean copy down to mail size.
A free metadata remover, with no monthly limit
No monthly count on this tool. Privacy behind a paywall would be a strange thing to sell.
- This tool has no monthly count. Clean a whole camera roll if you want to.
- Select all the photos (⌘A), right-click once, one clean copy each.
- Seven formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF and TIF.
- A free account is required, with a verified email address.
€47.88 billed yearly, or €4.99 month to month.
- Pro adds nothing to this tool. It is already unlimited.
- The four Pro tools unlock: Extract Text, Upscale Image, Photo Grid, Batch Rename.
- Upload & Share goes to 20 GB and links last 30 days.
- 30-day trial for new subscribers · payment method required · cancel any time.
Removing photo metadata on a Mac: common questions
How do I remove the location from a photo on a Mac without installing anything?
For photos in your library, open Photos, select them, then choose Image › Location › Hide Location. Preview shows where a photo was taken, with Tools › Show Location Info.
Does it remove all EXIF data?
It removes EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, the TIFF block and the manufacturer maker notes, then checks the clean copy. It keeps the color profile and the orientation, so the photo looks the same and stays the right way up.
Is there a free metadata remover for Mac?
Yes. Strip Metadata is free in Ricly, with no monthly limit.
What exactly is removed?
EXIF and EXIF Aux, GPS, IPTC, XMP, the TIFF block, and the maker-note blocks for Apple, Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Olympus, Pentax and Fuji. In plain terms: where, when, with what, and by whom. Ricly then reads the clean copy back, and does not deliver it if anything would still reveal a place, a device, a person or a date.
Does the photo still look the same?
Yes. The color profile is kept, and in the normal case the picture is copied without re-encoding. The orientation is kept too, deliberately — that tag lives inside a block that gets wiped, so Ricly puts it back after cleaning.
Does it change my original?
No. You get a second file called photo-clean.jpg beside it. Run it twice and you get photo-clean 2.jpg — nothing is ever replaced.
Is the photo uploaded to check it?
No, and that is the whole point. Sending a photo somewhere to have its private data removed is the opposite of what you were trying to do. Everything happens on your Mac.
Which formats work?
JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF and TIF.
Does it remove a watermark or anything visible?
No. Nothing in the picture changes — only the data written around it. What you can see, you keep.
Right Click. Done.
17 file tools in the Finder menu. Free to start.
Free account, no card · macOS 13 or later
Send the link to your Mac.
Ricly is a Mac app. Drop your email and we send you the download link.
We email you the download link, then one short check-in the next day. One click to unsubscribe. We delete your address after that. · Free · macOS 13 or later · 299 MB
Share the link to your Mac.
Sent! Check your inbox on your Mac.
Open the email there and Ricly installs in about two minutes.
Or just type usericly.com/mac on your Mac.
Want the founder deal?
€69 instead of €99
Ricly Pro for life · pay once
Every tool, including the 4 Pro ones
Only for the first 200 members
You're in. Your deal is on its way to your inbox.
One email with the deal, one reminder before it ends. We'll also email you big Ricly news, rarely. Unsubscribe anytime.
Get Ricly on your Mac
Ricly is a Mac app. We'll email you the download link, so you can install it when you're at your Mac.
We email you the download link, then one short check-in the next day. One click to unsubscribe. We delete your address after that.
Share the link to your Mac.
Ricly is a Mac app.
Send the download link to your Mac.
We email you the download link, then one short check-in the next day. One click to unsubscribe. We delete your address after that.
Share the link to your Mac.