Remove EXIF Data — macOS Quick Action

Right-click any image in Finder to strip all EXIF/metadata in one click.

Phone photos carry a lot of information (GPS coordinates, camera settings, timestamps). I wanted a way to strip all that before sharing, without opening a terminal every time and use exiftool with a click.

Takes advantage of exiftool cli tool and Automator workflows in OSX.

Requirements

• macOS 12+
• Homebrew (auto-installed if missing)

One-line Install

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ToledoEM/QuickExifPurge/main/install.sh)

This will:

1. Install Homebrew (if missing)
2. Install exiftool
3. Copy the workflow to ~/Library/Services/
4. Refresh macOS services
5. Open System Settings → Extensions → Finder → i so you can toggle "Remove EXIF Data" on

Manual Install

Install exiftool

brew install exiftool

Install the Quick Action

1. Copy Remove EXIF Data.workflow to ~/Library/Services/

   cp -r "Remove EXIF Data.workflow" ~/Library/Services/

2. Refresh macOS services:

   killall pbs; /System/Library/CoreServices/pbs -update

Enable in Finder

1. Open System Settings → Extensions → Finder → i
2. Enable Remove EXIF Data

Or via the Finder right-click menu:

1. Right-click any image → Quick Actions → Customize...
2. Toggle on Remove EXIF Data

Usage

1. Select one or more images in Finder
2. Right-click → Quick Actions → Remove EXIF Data
3. A notification confirms how many files were processed

What it removes

All metadata: EXIF, IPTC, XMP — camera model, GPS location, timestamps, etc. Files are modified in-place (no copies created).

Before / After

Before	After

GPS coordinates, altitude, timestamps, camera model, and all other metadata are removed. Only basic image properties (dimensions, color profile) remain.