Video metadata: what it stores and how to remove GPS

A video remembers more than you’d think: when and on what it was shot, where you were and which app you edited it in. Here’s what’s inside, why it’s worth cleaning for privacy, and what metadata doesn’t solve.

What video metadata stores

• Recording date and time (the creation_time tag).
• Device — phone make and model, OS version.
• GPS coordinates of where it was shot — many phones record them if the camera has location access.
• App, used to save or edit the file (the encoder and software tags).

All of this sits in the file’s “wrapper” next to the picture and sound. Viewers don’t see it, but anyone who has the file itself can read it.

Why remove it

The main reason — privacy. Coordinates in a video mean where it was shot — sometimes your home or studio address. The file doesn’t only go to social media: it goes to chats, the cloud, clients, editors. Many platforms re-encode video on upload and drop some tags themselves, but don’t count on it — the original file can reach people without any platform involved.

The second is tidiness: a file for a client doesn’t carry an old date and the name of the editing app.

How to view it

All tags are shown by exiftool and ffprobe. File properties on a phone or computer don’t show everything: coordinates and the app tag are often hidden there.

How to remove it without losing quality

If you only need to strip the metadata, here’s the right way — remux: video and audio are copied as is, without re-encoding, and the tags aren’t carried over. For example: ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -map 0 -map_metadata -1 -c copy out.mp4. Quality, length and sound stay 1:1; only the “wrapper” changes. Check the result with exiftool.

The simplest option is not to record coordinates at all: turn off location saving in your camera or phone location settings.

What metadata doesn’t solve

Whether a platform recognizes a video you’ve already posted depends on its content — how it looks and sounds — not on tags. A new date and a clean “wrapper” don’t make the video new to the platform. More in the article about video hashes and fingerprints.

Metadata in VARIA

In “Repost”, each version is re-encoded from scratch and the original metadata is removed entirely: coordinates, the editing app name, the old date. Each version gets its own technical tags and a fresh creation date. But that’s not the main point of a repost — the main point is the differences in the video itself: the frame, speed, color and sound change, so you can post a new version of your video again to the same account, for example several versions at once as trial Reels. The platform still decides what to show; there are no guarantees.

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