Grouped metadata viewer
See File, Camera Lens, Exposure, Date Time, GPS and Other details for every photo, with friendly names. Copy it all as text with Shift-Command-C.
Open source · macOS 14+ · Universal binary · Files & Conversion
See what your photos reveal.
Scrub it before sharing.
Drop JPEG, HEIC, PNG or TIFF photos onto the window or Dock icon to inspect their hidden metadata, then remove everything or just the location. Scrub All is Shift-Command-S.
Free & MIT licensed · Apple Silicon & Intel · Latest release
Features
Inspect first, then scrub.
Everything runs locally on your Mac with Apple frameworks only, from reading metadata to writing clean copies.
Three scrub modes
Remove Everything, Remove Location Only, or Custom to pick which groups go. Orientation is always kept so photos still display the right way up.
Batch drop for many photos
Drop several images or whole folders at once. A sidebar shows thumbnails with a red pin on photos that contain GPS data.
Map for geotagged photos
Photos with coordinates show a MapKit pin. Address lookup is off by default because it sends coordinates to Apple.
Safe output options
Write copies with a suffix such as -clean to a folder you choose, or replace originals after a confirmation with the old files moved to the Trash.
No recompression where possible
The compressed image data is copied and the metadata replaced, then re-read to verify it is clean. If that fails, it re-encodes at maximum quality and tells you which files.
Screenshots
See it in action.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
PhotoMetaScrub is open source and not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID, so macOS needs one extra step the first time.
- Download PhotoMetaScrub-macOS.zip and unzip it.
- Move PhotoMetaScrub.app to your Applications folder.
- Clear the quarantine flag once, then right-click the app and choose Open:
xattr -cr /Applications/PhotoMetaScrub.app
- No special permissions are required macOS may ask for access to folders like Desktop or Documents when you open photos from them.
Download
Get PhotoMetaScrub for macOS
Free, forever. Built for macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Not notarized: on first launch right-click PhotoMetaScrub.app → Open.
- macOS 14 Sonoma+
- Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- MIT licensed · open source
- No ads, no accounts, no telemetry
- Built with Claude Code · how and why
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is PhotoMetaScrub really free and open source?
Yes. It is released under the MIT license, the full source is on GitHub, and there are no ads, accounts or subscriptions. If it is useful to you, there is an optional Support button that opens the author's Ko-fi page.
What permissions does it need?
None beyond the files and folders you choose. It does not request Accessibility, Screen Recording, Camera, Microphone or Photos-library access. The only network use is MapKit map tiles and the optional address lookup, and you can turn off both in Settings.
Where is my data stored?
Nothing is uploaded or collected, and there is no analytics or backend. Cleaned copies go to the output folder you choose, or replace the originals beside them if you enable that, and the app keeps only your preferences in Settings.
Why isn't the app notarized?
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account, and this is a free open-source project. Right-click the app and choose Open once to get past Gatekeeper, or build it yourself from source with Xcode.
Was this written by AI?
Yes. PhotoMetaScrub was generated by Claude Code from a written spec as a clean-room reimplementation, with no code or assets from any commercial app. The full source is on GitHub under MIT, so you can read every line before you run it. It has had less human review than a hand-written app, so bug reports are welcome.
Support ❤️
Built by one person, given away for free.
PhotoMetaScrub is a free, open-source alternative to paid utilities. If it earns a spot on your Mac, a coffee keeps the updates coming.
☕ Support Or on Ko-fi