ExifCleaner vs Photo Metadata Editor

ExifCleaner is a desktop app for removing metadata from supported images, media files, and PDFs. You can drop files or folders into it and process large batches, then inspect a before-and-after diff of the metadata fields removed from each file. Options include preserving image orientation and timestamps, saving copies, and removing macOS extended attributes. The project states that the app has no automatic updates or network traffic, zero telemetry, and no phone-home behavior. It supports macOS 12 or later, Windows 10 or later, and 64-bit Linux, and includes 25 languages with in-app switching. Its tested intake list includes image formats, media such as MP4 and MOV, and PDFs. Some formats, including RAF, MKV, TIFF, AVIF, and certain RAW files, may be only partly handled or unsupported. PDF metadata removal is reversible, so original metadata remains recoverable rather than securely erased. ExifCleaner is open source under the MIT License. It is free.

Photo Metadata Editor is a free Windows desktop app for editing EXIF, XMP, IPTC, and QuickTime metadata in photos and videos. It opens JPG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, HEIF, WEBP, MOV, and MP4 files, using a bundled ExifTool runtime. Editable fields include titles, descriptions, keywords, creator and copyright details, capture time, camera and software information, GPS, and location. It also displays read-only details such as dimensions, megapixels, lens, ISO, focal length, aperture, and shutter speed. Camera and GPS presets, a dark theme, Chinese and English interface options, and optional local OCR date detection are included. OCR depends on local Windows OCR languages, Tesseract, or installed PaddleOCR resources; there is no cloud fallback. The project says files are processed locally and not uploaded. Writes keep ExifTool _original backups by default and check important fields by reading them back. Restores create a verified _before_restore copy and can roll back after failed verification. Readable files are not necessarily writable: support depends on the file, permissions, and ExifTool tag tables. Windows downloads include an MSI and portable ZIP; release artifacts may be unsigned.