Explained, not dumped
A one-sentence summary, a map, a timeline of dates, codec cards and HDR diagrams, with a plain-English note behind every field.
Free · runs in your browser
See every detail inside a video file
A video metadata viewer that explains what it finds: where and when it was recorded, the device, codec, HDR and frame rate. Then edit it, or remove it all, without re-encoding. Photos too. Nothing is uploaded.
Why inspect files here
Edit or wipe, losslessly
Remove everything or just the location, or change the title, date and place. MP4 and MOV keep their picture and sound byte for byte.
Read on your device
Files are opened in your browser and never uploaded. No account, no watermark, and the inspector works on phones as well as computers.
What it reads
Everything a video says about itself
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Location
GPS from iPhone and Android keys, ©xyz, 3GPP loci and EXIF, plotted on a map drawn on your device.
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Date & time
Recording time with its time zone, header dates, tag dates and GPS time, with warnings for 1970 and 2001 defaults.
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Device
Make, model, lens, software and firmware, serial-style ids, GoPro, DJI and Samsung maker data.
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Video
Codec, profile and level, resolution and rotation flag, frame rate with variable-rate detection, bitrate over time, key frames.
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HDR & colour
SDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG or Dolby Vision with profile and level, primaries, transfer, mastering display, MaxCLL.
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Provenance
Content Credentials (C2PA) claims, AI-generation assertions, XMP history and signs of re-saving.
How it works
How to view, edit and remove video metadata
Open a video or photo
Drop a file on the card, press Open a file, or paste one. MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, MTS, JPEG, HEIC, PNG and WebP all open, and nothing is uploaded.
Read what it reveals
The Overview sums the file up in a sentence; Privacy lists what it gives away; Location, Date & time, Device, Video, Audio and HDR & colour explain each part with pictures.
Edit & clean, then download
In Edit & clean choose Remove all metadata or Remove location only, or change any field, then press Download new file. The new file is read back to show exactly what changed.
Three readers look at every file: a box reader written for MP4 and MOV, the open-source Mediabunny library and MediaInfo, compiled to run in your browser. Between them they find the tags phones and cameras write (where a video was taken, when it was recorded, which device made it) and the technical detail behind it: codec and profile, resolution, frame rate, bitrate over time and HDR format. Photos get the same treatment through their EXIF, XMP and IPTC data, which you can also read in the EXIF viewer.
To share a clip without giving away where you live, remove the metadata from the video or strip only its location. To fix a title or a wrong date, use the video metadata editor. For everything at once, the full file report copies or downloads as text, JSON or CSV. New to all this? Start with what video metadata is.
Guides
Check, change and understand your files
Check a detail
- Find where a video was taken Read a video’s GPS location and see it on a map, with altitude, accuracy and country.
- Check which codec a video uses See the video and audio codec, profile, level, bit depth, chroma and codec tag of any file.
- Check a video’s resolution Exact width and height, the 720p/1080p/4K label, coded vs displayed size and pixel aspect ratio.
- Check a video’s frame rate Average, minimum and maximum fps from real frame timing, with variable frame rate detection.
- Check a video’s bitrate Video and audio bitrate, plus a graph of bitrate over time measured from the file’s packets.
- Check if a video is HDR SDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG or Dolby Vision, with profile, bit depth, primaries and MaxCLL explained.
- Full video file info report A MediaInfo-style text report, JSON and box tree for any video, with hashes on request.
- Content Credentials (C2PA) viewer Read a file’s C2PA manifest: claim generator, actions, AI assertions, ingredients and signer.
- EXIF viewer for photos See camera, exposure, date and GPS tags in a photo, with each EXIF, XMP and IPTC field explained.
- Find where a photo was taken Read the GPS position in a photo’s EXIF data and see it on a map, without uploading it.
- Extract subtitles from a video Save the text subtitle tracks inside an MKV or MP4 as SRT, ASS or VTT files.
Change or clean a file
- Remove metadata from a video Strip location, device, dates, XMP and telemetry from MP4, MOV and MKV files without re-encoding.
- Remove location from a video Clear GPS tags and location tracks from a clip while keeping its date, camera and title.
- Edit video metadata Change title, date, location, camera and track fields without re-encoding the video.
- MP4 metadata editor Edit MP4 and MOV tags such as ©nam, ©day and ©xyz, plus cover art, with no re-encode.
- Check and change a video’s date See when a video was recorded and fix wrong dates, time zones and 1970 defaults.
- MKV metadata editor Rename tracks, set languages and Default/Forced flags, and change the MKV title losslessly.
- Add a thumbnail to an MP4 Embed cover art from a frame or an image in an MP4 or MOV, with no re-encode.
- Add chapters to an MP4 Write named chapter markers into an MP4, MOV or MKV without re-encoding.
- Add 360° video metadata Inject or remove spherical metadata in an MP4 or MOV, the browser alternative to an injector app.
- Remove metadata from a photo Strip EXIF, GPS and XMP from JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC images without re-compressing them.
Guides
- Remove location from iPhone photos and videos Turn off Camera location, use Adjust Location and No Location in Photos, and share without location.
- Fix “video codec not supported” errors Find which stream a device can’t decode and choose between another player, an extension or a converted copy.
- What video bitrate means How bitrate links file size, length and quality, with recommended numbers and a calculator.
- HEVC vs H.264 compared File size, quality, compatibility and editing compared, with the iPhone format setting explained.
- How to tell if a video is AI-generated Provenance, watermarks, metadata, visual tells and sources: what each check can prove.
- See video and photo metadata on iPhone Use the Photos Info panel, then see the codec, HDR, bitrate and tags it leaves out.
- Change a video’s date on iPhone Use Adjust Date & Time in Photos or Google Photos, and fix the date inside the file.
- Do apps remove video metadata? What Discord, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and others say about stripping metadata, and how to test.
- What video metadata is Every family of video metadata explained, with links to check or change each one.
- How to see video metadata on Android Google Photos About and Samsung Gallery details, their limits, and removing location.
- How to see video metadata on Windows Properties → Details, the limits of Remove Properties for MP4, and the full view.
- How to see video metadata on a Mac Finder Get Info, QuickTime’s Movie Inspector and mdls in Terminal, compared.
- How to use ffprobe Real ffprobe commands for streams, tags, HDR and frame counts, and ffmpeg for stripping.
- Video forensics with metadata Dates, encoder tags, GOP and bitrate changes and C2PA history that reveal re-saving.
Video metadata questions, answered
Files are read on your device. For a specific phone, app or format, the guides above go further.
What metadata does a video file contain?
Two kinds. Technical details describe the streams: codec, resolution, frame rate, bitrate, colour and HDR, audio channels and length. Descriptive tags say where it came from: the recording date and time zone, often a GPS position, the phone or camera model and its software, and sometimes a title, an author or editing history. Open a file above to see both, explained field by field.
Can you tell where a video was taken from its metadata?
Only if the camera stored a location and nothing removed it since. iPhones and most Android phones write GPS into videos when the camera has location access; GoPro and drone footage can carry a position for every second. Messaging and social apps usually strip it, so a clip you received or downloaded rarely has one. The Location section shows it on a map drawn on your device.
How can I see when a video was actually recorded?
Look at the dates inside the file, not the date your computer shows (that is when the copy was saved). Phones store the recording time, often with a time zone, and every MP4 or MOV has creation dates in its headers. The Date & time section lists each one on a timeline and warns about defaults such as 1 January 1970.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and rewritten in your browser. The only things that can be downloaded are tools, and only when you ask: MediaInfo and the face model come from this site, the converter for unusual containers comes from this site, and the optional speech model comes from Hugging Face. Show street map loads map tiles from OpenStreetMap. Your file is never sent to any of them.
Does removing or editing metadata reduce quality?
No. For MP4 and MOV only the metadata boxes are rewritten; the picture and sound are copied byte for byte, so it is instant even for large files. Other containers such as MKV are copied stream by stream into a new file, still without re-encoding. Photos keep their image data untouched.
Do WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Discord remove video metadata?
Most big platforms re-encode uploads and drop location and device tags, but what each keeps changes over time and differs between sending as media and as a file. The safest habit is to clean a file before you send it, or test an app yourself: send a clip to yourself and open the copy you receive here. The guide on whether apps remove metadata walks through it.
Why does my video show the wrong date?
Usually because something rewrote it: a messaging app, an export from an editor, or a camera whose clock was never set. Dates like 1 January 1970, 1 January 2001 or 1904 mean a field was left at zero. You can change a video’s date here, including its time zone.
Can metadata prove a video is real or show it was made with AI?
Not on its own. Tags can be stripped or typed in by anyone. Content Credentials (C2PA) are signed records that some cameras, editors and AI tools attach; the Provenance section reads what they say, and contentcredentials.org can verify the signature. A missing record proves nothing. See how to judge whether a video is AI.
Will removing metadata stop copyright or duplicate detection?
No. Platforms identify videos by their picture and sound, not by tags, so a clean file is matched just the same. Removing metadata is about privacy, not about hiding where a video came from.
Does adding a title or tags to the file help on YouTube?
YouTube uses the title, description and tags you enter in YouTube Studio. Tags embedded in the file are not a documented ranking factor, so set those in Studio rather than relying on the file.
Which formats, phones and cameras does it support?
Videos in MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MKV, WebM, AVI, MTS/M2TS and more, and photos in JPEG, HEIC, AVIF, PNG, WebP and TIFF. It recognises the tags iPhones, Android phones, GoPro, DJI, Samsung and pro cameras write. Editing works on MP4/MOV (losslessly, in place), on MKV, WebM and other containers (by a stream copy), and on JPEG, PNG and WebP photos.
What is the difference between EXIF and video metadata?
EXIF is the photo standard: a block of tags inside JPEG, HEIC and other image files. Videos mostly use their container’s own system instead: QuickTime and MP4 boxes, Matroska tags, and sometimes XMP. True EXIF inside a video is rare, which is why EXIF-only tools often miss a video’s location.
Can I use it on my phone?
Yes. On a phone the inspector is one long page with an Edit & clean button at the bottom. On iPhone, pick the original from Photos or save it to Files first; some share sheets hand over a copy with fewer details.