How to remove metadata from a whole batch of images

For a folder, run ExifTool recursively with `exiftool -r -all= -o cleaned/ originals/`, which writes cleaned copies into a separate directory. Then audit the result with `exiftool -r -csv cleaned/ > audit.csv` and scan the table for leftover fields. Keep the originals until the audit is clean.

Last updated: 2026-10-08

Why a batch needs a plan

Cleaning one file by hand is simple. Cleaning two hundred is a different task, because the failure you care about is quiet. One file with a leftover field is easy to miss in a folder, and if the folder goes out as a set, that one file is the one someone reads.

The plan has three parts: a source you never change, an output you can regenerate and an audit that reads the output rather than trusting the command.

Setting up the folders

Keep the originals in one place. Give the cleaned files a separate destination, so that a mistake in the command costs a re-run and not a loss. This also lets you compare a cleaned file with its original when something looks wrong.

ExifTool's -o option writes the result to a new location and leaves the source alone. With -r, the tool recurses into subfolders. A command such as the one in the answer above handles both and keeps the folder structure inside the output directory, which helps when file names repeat between subfolders.

Choosing what to remove

-all= clears every writable metadata group. That is the right setting when the goal is a clean file. It also removes things you may want to keep, so decide that first.

• Orientation. Without it, some pictures display rotated. Add it back with -Orientation in the same command, or rotate the pixels first.
• Color profile. The ICC profile controls how colors display. Leaving it out can shift colors, so keep it if the files will be used for print or color-critical work.
• Copyright. If you want your name to stay on the work, write it again after the removal, deliberately.

For files that came from an AI tool, add the JUMBF group, since a signed manifest is stored there. The guide on how to remove C2PA covers that group in detail.

Auditing the result

The audit is what separates a batch you can rely on from one you only hope is clean. A recursive CSV dump gives one row per file and one column per tag, which you can open in a spreadsheet and filter.

Look at three things. Columns that should be empty and are not: Software, CreatorTool, Comment, any prompt or parameters field. Rows that differ from the rest, which usually means one file came from a different source. And file types that ExifTool listed but could not write, which it reports as warnings during the run. Read those warnings. A format that was skipped is a file that was not cleaned.

When the files need pixel work too

Metadata removal is the first step only. If the goal also involves the pixels, as with AI images that need sensor-style grain or a device profile, a tool that processes them as a set saves effort. PassReal takes up to 20 images in a batch, re-encodes each one and shows a report per file of the markers found before and after, by family. That is a convenience, and the same discipline applies: look at the report, then spot-check a file with a second tool.

For a mixed folder of photos, documents and videos, a general metadata tool is the better choice, as the page on the Metadata2Go alternative explains. For a long list of images where you only want fields removed, ExifTool with the audit above is free and exact.

What a batch cannot remove

Two things survive any metadata command, however carefully you run it. The first is anything stored in the pixels. A watermark such as SynthID is part of the picture, so a folder with every tag gone can still carry it, as the guide to how SynthID works explains. The second is a copy of the original somewhere else: a cloud backup, a sent email or a published post. Cleaning the files on your disk does nothing about those.

Plan for both before you send a set out. If a client needs to know how the images were made, tell them, and treat the metadata work as housekeeping, not as a way to change the answer.

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