Image Metadata Viewer: See EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC and C2PA in One Place

What a complete check covers

A thorough metadata viewer reads every block in the file, not just EXIF:

• EXIF — camera or phone model, exposure, capture time, lens and orientation.
• GPS — latitude, longitude, altitude and direction, if location was on.
• XMP — editing software, history, descriptions, ratings and AI fields.
• IPTC — captions, keywords, creator, copyright and DigitalSourceType.
• C2PA — Content Credentials: who signed the file, what actions were recorded, whether AI was involved.
• PNG text chunks — Stable Diffusion parameters, ComfyUI workflows and other embedded text.
• ICC profile and thumbnails — color information and hidden preview images.

Built-in viewers and their blind spots

Windows shows metadata under Properties › Details; macOS under Preview’s Inspector or Finder’s Get Info; iPhone when you swipe up on a photo; Google Photos in the details panel. These are fine for a quick look at date, camera and location, but they show a curated subset of EXIF and usually ignore XMP, IPTC, C2PA and PNG text entirely. A file can look clean in Explorer and still carry a full AI prompt.

The privacy catch with online EXIF viewers

Many “online EXIF viewer” sites work by uploading your image to their server, reading it there and sending back a report. For a privacy check that is backwards: the very photo you are worried about — with its GPS position — has now been copied to a third party. Prefer a viewer that reads the file locally. A simple test is to load the page, disconnect from the internet and see whether the viewer still works.

Reading a file in AI Label Remover

Lay the image on the table at the top of this page. Three tabs organise the result:

• “What it reveals” — a plain summary of place, people, time and device, with GPS decoded to decimal coordinates.
• “AI traces” — C2PA manifests, IPTC source types, generator names and prompts, with a verdict.
• “Raw metadata” — every field grouped by source: EXIF IFD0, Exif, GPS, XMP namespaces, IPTC, C2PA and PNG text chunks.

Fields worth reading first

• GPSLatitude / GPSLongitude — the exact spot; paste into a map to see what it reveals.
• DateTimeOriginal versus ModifyDate — when the photo was taken versus last saved.
• Make, Model, BodySerialNumber, LensSerialNumber — can tie photos to one device.
• Artist, Copyright, OwnerName — names you may not realise are embedded.
• Software and CreatorTool — which apps touched the file, including AI tools.
• DigitalSourceType and the C2PA claim generator — how the image says it was made.

When the viewer shows almost nothing

An image saved from a social feed, a screenshot or a file sent through a chat app has often been re-encoded and stripped. Little or no metadata is normal in those cases and tells you nothing about whether the picture is real, edited or AI-generated. Ask for the original file if the origin matters.

Viewing is not verifying

Ordinary metadata is plain text that anyone can edit, so treat it as a clue rather than proof. C2PA is different because it is signed, but a viewer showing the manifest is not the same as validating the signature; use an official Content Credentials verifier for that. When you have seen enough and want the data gone, press “Wash all images” to remove it without changing the picture — the EXIF data remover page explains exactly what goes.