Inspect
HEIC EXIF & GPS Viewer
Before you share a HEIC photo, see what it tells a stranger: where and when it was taken, on what device, and who owns it.
Input
Drop HEIC or HEIF files here
or choose them from your device
HEIC or HEIF · up to 100 MB per file · processed on your device
At a glance
- Answers
- What does this photo reveal about me?
- Location
- Hidden until you press Reveal, with sanity checks
- Also lists
- Serials, owner name, identifiers, thumbnail, with severity
- Next step
- Links to remove GPS or all metadata
What this tool does
The point of this page is to answer one question before you send a photo: what would the recipient learn? A headline sentence gives the short version ("Shot on Apple iPhone 15 Pro on 2026-09-14, with its location attached"). Beneath it, "The photo" block reads the way a photographer would: an exposure line such as ƒ/1.8 · 1/120 s · ISO 64 · 24 mm equivalent, then the capture time with its UTC offset, camera, lens, software, exposure program, metering, flash, white balance and orientation. Fields the file does not record are marked as not recorded rather than hidden.
The location block keeps coordinates hidden until you press Reveal location, so they do not appear in a screen share or over someone's shoulder. Revealed, you get decimal and degrees-minutes-seconds coordinates, altitude, camera heading, speed, the GPS clock in UTC and the reported accuracy. Then come location checks, which are the part most viewers skip. The page flags coordinates outside the valid range, exactly 0°, 0° (the "Null Island" placeholder a device writes when it had no fix), a missing N/S or E/W letter that makes the sign a guess, impossible minutes or seconds, an implausible altitude or direction, a GPS fix marked void, and a GPS clock that sits far from the capture time, which suggests a stale or copied location. A photo can have a GPS block that is not a real location, and the headline says so when that is the case. Open in OpenStreetMap is opt-in and leaves this site when clicked. No map is embedded here and no map tiles are requested.
The privacy exposure panel then lists, by severity, the specific things found: an exact location and how finely it is stored, camera and lens serial numbers, an owner or author name, place names or GPS repeated in XMP, face regions, the capture time and zone, captions and keywords, identifiers that link a photo to others (a Live Photo pairing ID or burst ID), Apple device telemetry and an embedded thumbnail. Values stay masked until you choose Reveal values, and a "Not found in this file" line shows what was checked and is absent. Buttons hand you off to Remove HEIC GPS or Remove HEIC Metadata. For every raw tag rather than this interpreted view, use the metadata viewer.
How to use it
- 01
Choose the photo
Pick one HEIC or HEIF file. A file with no Exif block says so plainly, and one whose Exif block is damaged says that instead.
- 02
Read the headline sentence
It names the camera, the capture date and whether a usable location is attached, whether the GPS field is not a real location, or whether there is no location at all.
- 03
Review the photo block
The exposure line and the camera, lens, time, time zone and software fields show what the file records about how the picture was made.
- 04
Reveal the location if there is one
Press Reveal location to see coordinates, altitude, heading and the GPS clock, then read the Location checks underneath for anything suspicious.
- 05
Work through the privacy exposure list
Findings are ordered High, Medium, Low. Reveal values shows the actual serial numbers, names and times behind each entry.
- 06
Strip what you do not want to share
Use Remove GPS location to drop the location, or Remove all metadata to clear everything, then check the cleaned copy here again.
When to use it
Posting a photo taken at home
If the Location panel shows coordinates with a reported accuracy of a few metres, the photo identifies the building. Seeing that before you post is the point of this page.
Selling a phone or camera, or posting its photos
Body and lens serial numbers are unique to the device and are rated High. They can link every photo you publish to one owner, and the panel shows whether yours carry them.
Questioning a location claim
A GPS clock days or years from the capture time, a 0°, 0° fix or a missing hemisphere letter are all flagged. They do not prove a location is false, but they show where to be cautious.
Confirming a clean-up worked
Run a file through a remover, then open the result here. The panel should read "Nothing identifying was found", and if something remains it is named.
Good to know
- 01It only reports what the file contains, and metadata is a claim, not proof. A wrong camera clock or an edited or copied GPS block will be displayed as stored. The sanity checks catch inconsistencies, not lies that are consistent.
- 02The privacy list covers metadata, not content. A recognisable street sign, a face or a reflection in the picture is outside what this page can assess.
- 03No map and no reverse geocoding. Open in OpenStreetMap sends the coordinates to openstreetmap.org when you click it, and that is the only time they leave the page.
- 04If the capture time has no recorded UTC offset, the time shows without a zone and the GPS-versus-capture comparison is imprecise, which the page notes.
- 05If DateTimeOriginal is missing, the capture time falls back to DateTimeDigitized and then to DateTime, which is a modification time. The page tells you which one it used.
- 06Nothing is removed here. This page is read-only, and cleaning needs one of the two remover tools.
Technical notes
Privacy and limits
Your file stays on your device
This tool runs in your browser with WebAssembly. The file is read into the tab, processed there and discarded when you close it — there is no upload and no account. You can check this yourself in your browser's network panel, and the privacy page lists what analytics does and does not receive.
Limits and checks
Up to 100 MB and 100 megapixels per file; batches of up to 50 files and 500 MB. Files are treated as untrusted input and every output is re-opened and validated before it is offered — see how we handle untrusted files.
Frequently asked questions
Related tools and reading
Last updated: . Something wrong or out of date? Tell us — corrections are recorded in the changelog.