How to Turn Off Geotagging on iPhone (and Android)

By default, your phone records where you were standing every time you take a photo. Not approximately. To within a few metres, written into the file, travelling with it wherever it goes.

Turning that off takes about ten seconds.

iPhone: stop it at the source

Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → Never

That’s it. From that moment, new photos carry no coordinates. Existing photos are unaffected. They keep what they already have.

Two related settings worth knowing:

• Precise Location (same screen): leaving Camera on but Precise Location off gives a rough area instead of an exact point. A reasonable middle ground.
• Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → System Services → Significant Locations. Nothing to do with photos, but it’s a log of everywhere you regularly go. Worth a look while you’re in there.

iPhone: strip it per-share instead

If you want the location kept in your own library but not attached to what you send:

Select the photo → Share → tap Options at the top of the share sheet → toggle Location off → share.

This is per-share and resets each time, so it’s a habit rather than a setting. The upside is you keep your library organised by place while never leaking it.

iPhone: remove it from photos you already have

Select one or more photos → Share → scroll down → Adjust Location → Revert (iOS 15+).

This changes the photos in your library. If you only want a clean copy, use the per-share method above instead.

Android

Stop it at the source: open the Camera app → Settings → turn off Location tags (sometimes “Save location”, “Geotagging”, or “GPS tag”, since the wording varies by manufacturer).

Also check Settings → Location → App permissions → Camera and set it to Deny.

Remove from an existing photo: Google Photos → open the photo → ⓘ Details → Remove location.

Should you actually turn it off?

It depends, and the reflexive “yes, privacy” isn’t the whole answer.

Turn it off if you photograph your home a lot, you post photos taken at home, you’re photographing children in places they regularly are, or you’re in a situation where being locatable is a genuine risk.

Consider leaving it on if you travel and want your library sorted by place, you use Photos’ Places map, or your work depends on knowing where a shot was taken. Geotagging is genuinely useful. The sharing is what creates exposure, not the recording.

The middle path is what most people actually want: leave it on, strip on share. You keep the organisational benefit and give up nothing.

And it’s worth knowing that the big platforms already strip EXIF on upload: Instagram, Facebook, X, WhatsApp, Discord. The exposure is mostly from direct file sharing: email attachments, AirDrop, cloud links, forums, marketplace listings. That’s where the metadata survives intact and where the habit matters.

One thing turning it off doesn’t fix

Removing the coordinates doesn’t remove what’s visible. The house number, the street sign, the view from the window, the school uniform. Metadata is one channel; the image is another, and it’s the one people actually look at.

Related

• How to remove EXIF & GPS data from photos: every platform
• What is geotagging?: the whole picture
• Geotag a photo: the other direction, free and in your browser

FAQ

Does turning off location tags affect Find My iPhone? No. That’s a separate system.

Will my old photos lose their locations? No. The setting only affects photos taken afterwards.

Does turning geotagging off break the Places album? New photos won’t appear in it. Existing ones stay.

Do I still need to strip photos if I only post to Instagram? Instagram strips EXIF itself. The risk is in direct file sharing, not social posts.