ByteScope

Remove Video Location

Find where a video says it was filmed, and clear it — without re-encoding, without uploading, and with a report of what was and was not checked.

Your files never leave your browser — all processing is local.

Videos and Live Photos

Drop videos here

or click to browse — MP4, MOV, M4V and 3GP, plus the matching HEIC or JPG of a Live Photo

What this page checks

  • QuickTime keys (iPhone): com.apple.quicktime.location.* — coordinates, accuracy and place name.
  • ©xyz atoms in the movie and in every track (Android, many cameras).
  • 3GPP loci atoms in the movie and in every track (ffmpeg MP4 output).
  • iTunes ©xyz items inside the metadata list (exiftool GPSCoordinates on MP4).
  • QuickTime keys in the movie's udta/meta and in every track's meta, not just the top-level meta.
  • QuickTime XMP_ atoms in udta.
  • XMP blocks stored in a uuid box.
  • Per-frame GPS tracks (GoPro, DJI, possibly iPhone): reported only, never cleared.
  • A Content Credentials (C2PA) record: reported only, because it is not a location. Content Credentials in a video may also record capture details, including location, and this tool does not remove them.

What it does not check or clear

The picture itself (street signs, house numbers), the audio, the file name, the location your cloud album keeps separately, and anything a platform records when you upload. Clearing overwrites values with zeros in place: the file size does not change and a hex editor shows the zeros, by design. This page reports what it found and what it did; it cannot tell you a video is safe.

Originals are never changed. Cleaned copies are named …-noloc.

Browser support

Renaming and deleting files where they sit needs the File System Access API, which only Chromium browsers ship. Everything below happens on your machine either way — nothing is ever uploaded.

capabilityChromeEdgeFirefoxSafari
Open a folder from diskwindow.showDirectoryPicker — Chrome/Edge 86 and later, desktop only✓supported✓supported✗not supported✗not supported
Rename a file in placeFileSystemFileHandle.move — Chrome/Edge 111 and later✓supported✓supported✗not supported✗not supported
Delete a file in placeFileSystemDirectoryHandle.removeEntry✓supported✓supported✗not supported✗not supported
Remember the folder for next timethe handle is kept in IndexedDB on this device; permission is asked again✓supported✓supported✗not supported✗not supported

detected in this browser

  • window.showDirectoryPicker …
  • FileSystemFileHandle.move …
  • indexedDB …

On Firefox or Safari, or on any phone or tablet, this page can explain the job but cannot do it. Open it on desktop Chrome or Edge.

Need to check several kinds of files at once? Use Metadata Check

About this tool

Phones and cameras write the place a video was shot into the file itself. An iPhone stores it in the moov metadata as an ISO 6709 coordinate string such as +25.0330+121.5654/, Android and many cameras use a ©xyz atom, and some editing software leaves an XMP block behind. Drop a video in and this page lists every one of those it finds, with the raw coordinates it read and where in the file each one lives, then clears the ones that can be cleared. It checks the keys table for ISO 6709 and the other location keys, the udta atoms for ©xyz, and XMP uuid boxes, and it tells you what it checked even when it found nothing.

Nothing is re-encoded. A video is mostly one huge mdat box of compressed frames, and the location sits in the small moov box beside it, so the tool reads only moov and writes the video back with just those few bytes changed. The picture and sound are not touched, quality is not lost, and the file is exactly the same size as before. That also makes it safe for very large files: a 4 GB video is never loaded into memory, only the metadata box is. The cost of in-place editing is visible if you look — a hex editor shows runs of zeros where the location used to be. That is the clearing working, not something left over.

Some things this tool reports but does not clear. Action cameras and drones such as GoPro and DJI, and sometimes an iPhone, record a GPS reading for every frame in a separate timed-metadata track, and rewriting that safely is not something this version does. When one is present you get a plain warning that the track exists, and for an iPhone track the wording says it may contain location, not that it does.

It also cannot see what is not metadata at all: a street sign or house number in the picture, a voice in the audio, a filename like home-garden.mov, the location a cloud album keeps for the file, or whatever a platform records when you upload. So the report never says a video is safe or that its location is completely removed. It says what was found, what was cleared, and what was not checked. If a part of the file cannot be read, the result is "could not determine", which is different from "found nothing".

If the video is the second half of a Live Photo, drop the matching HEIC in too and the two are handled together by file name, with the photo cleaned in location-only mode so its other metadata is left alone.

Frequently asked questions

Which places in the file does it check for location?

Three kinds of carrier get cleared: the QuickTime keys table, where iPhones store com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709 and related location keys such as accuracy and place name; the ©xyz atom in udta, used by Android and many cameras; and XMP stored in a uuid box, which some editing software leaves behind. It looks in the movie header and in each track. A fourth kind, a timed-metadata track with per-frame GPS, is only reported, not cleared. Everything it checked is listed in the result, including the places where it found nothing.

Does the video get re-encoded, and why is the file size the same?

It is not re-encoded, and that is why the size is identical. The tool reads the small moov box, overwrites the location values with zeros, renames the location keys to neutral placeholders of the same length, and writes the rest of the file back byte for byte. Nothing before or after those few bytes moves, so the picture, the sound, the seek table and the file size are unchanged. If you compare the two files in a hex editor you will see zeros where the location used to be. That is the intended result.

My GoPro or drone video still shows location data — why?

Those cameras record GPS for every frame in a separate metadata track, not in a single tag, and this version of the tool does not rewrite that track. It reports that the track exists and leaves it alone. On an iPhone, a track of the same kind may or may not contain location, so the report says it may. If per-frame GPS matters to you, treat the video as still carrying a location trail and do not assume the other cleaning covered it.

Can I trust that the location is completely gone?

No tool can promise that, and this one does not. It reports which locations it found and cleared, and re-reads the output to show what is still present. It does not check the picture itself, such as a street name or a landmark, the audio, the filename, the location your cloud photo album stores separately, or anything a platform records when you upload. When it cannot parse part of the file, it says it could not determine the result instead of claiming there was nothing there.

iPhone can already turn off location when sharing — why use this?

It can. In the Photos share sheet, tap Options and switch Location off, and the copy you send has no location. If you remember to do that every time, you may not need this page. Where this one helps is the files that already exist: videos saved to your computer or an external drive, clips from an Android phone or a camera, a whole folder you want to clean at once, and files you are about to send from a computer rather than from the share sheet.

What about the video part of a Live Photo?

A Live Photo is a HEIC still plus a short .MOV, and the .MOV carries the location too. Drop both files in together and they are paired by name, for example IMG_1234.HEIC and IMG_1234.MOV. The video is cleared here, and the photo is cleaned in location-only mode so the pairing information inside its EXIF is not discarded. If you drop in only one half, the page reminds you that the other half has coordinates as well.

Is my video uploaded anywhere, and can it handle a 4 GB file?

It is never uploaded. The file is opened locally and only the small metadata box is read into memory, not the video itself, so a 4 GB recording is no heavier than a short clip. The cleaned copy is written back to your disk, and the original is left as it was. The page is a static file with no server behind it, so the video has nowhere to go, and it keeps working with the network switched off.

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