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How to remove location data before sharing photos

Phone photos can carry the GPS coordinates of where they were taken. Here is how to remove them with light-view before you share.

What the problem is

Photo files from a phone carry EXIF data, and if location services were on, that includes latitude and longitude. When a photo is sent or uploaded as a file, the coordinates can go with it.

How to remove it

1. Open the Resize screen: in the installed copy, select photos in Explorer, right-click → Resize with light-view; in the portable copy, drop photos on the light-view window and choose Resize.
2. Check that Remove location under Metadata is ticked. It is on by default.
3. To keep the size, enter 100% on the Scale tab, or shrink the photos to suit where they are going.
4. Press Save. A new file such as name_small.jpg appears in the same folder; the original stays as it was.
5. Share the new _small file.

What stays and what goes

What stays is what helps you sort photos:

• the date taken and the time zone
• the camera make and model, and the lens
• exposure time, aperture, ISO and focal length

Location and everything else is left out. The photo is saved upright.

How to check

Open the saved file in light-view and press I for the info card. Show all lists every tag, so you can see that there is no location (GPS) entry.