Scrub Image Metadata

Remove EXIF / IPTC / XMP metadata from images in place (or to a copy), with preview and logging. Wraps exiftool — do not hand-roll metadata parsing.

When to use

• Before publishing photos to a public blog, social media, or client deliverable.
• Bulk-cleaning an archive that may contain GPS or serial-number metadata.
• Preparing reference images for distribution where only orientation should be preserved.

Procedure

1. Establish scope

Ask the user (and confirm before touching files):

• Target path — single file, folder, or recursive tree. Default: current working directory.
• Recursive? If the target is a folder, ask whether to descend into subfolders. Default no (flat, current folder only) unless the user says "recursive" or supplies a root.
• Backup first? Default yes — exiftool keeps _original sidecars automatically, but offer an explicit backup/ copy for the nervous case.
• Whitelist — fields to preserve. Common sensible default: keep Orientation so the image renders right-way-up. Ask if the user wants to preserve anything else (ColorSpace, ICC profile, copyright).
• Dry run vs apply — always preview first.

2. Check tooling

command -v exiftool || echo "exiftool not installed — install with: sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl"

Abort if missing.

3. Preview what will be stripped

Run a read-only pass and show the user a summary:

# Show metadata currently present on a sample file
exiftool -G1 -a -s "sample.jpg"

# Count files that would be touched
find <target> -maxdepth <1|999> -type f \
  \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' \
     -o -iname '*.heic' -o -iname '*.webp' -o -iname '*.tif' \
     -o -iname '*.tiff' \) | wc -l

Print:

• File count by extension.
• Which tag groups will be removed (EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, MakerNotes, Thumbnail).
• Which tags will be kept (the whitelist).
• Whether a backup/ copy will be made.

Wait for user confirmation.

4. Backup (if requested)

mkdir -p backup/
cp -r <target>/. backup/

Note that exiftool also keeps its own <file>_original sidecars in-place unless -overwrite_original is passed — decide with the user whether to keep those or clean them up at the end.

5. Strip metadata

Two patterns — pick based on scope:

Folder (non-recursive):

exiftool -all= -tagsFromFile @ -Orientation \
  -ext jpg -ext jpeg -ext png -ext heic -ext webp -ext tif -ext tiff \
  "<target>"

Recursive tree:

exiftool -r -all= -tagsFromFile @ -Orientation \
  -ext jpg -ext jpeg -ext png -ext heic -ext webp -ext tif -ext tiff \
  "<target>"

If the user asked to keep additional fields, extend the -tagsFromFile @ -Field1 -Field2 ... list. If the user asked to preserve nothing (full nuke), drop the -tagsFromFile clause — just -all=.

To discard the _original sidecars in the same run, append -overwrite_original. Only do this if a backup was made in step 4, or if the user explicitly waived backup.

6. Verify

Sample a few output files and show their remaining metadata:

exiftool -G1 -a -s "<sample-output>.jpg"

Confirm only whitelisted tags remain. If unexpected metadata survived (common with PNG text chunks or XMP sidecars), flag it and offer a second pass with -xmp:all= or a manual exiftool -ext xmp -overwrite_original -all= <path>.

7. Log

Write notes/scrub-metadata-{YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS}.md in the target folder (or the cwd if the target was a single file). Include:

• Target path and whether recursive.
• Backup taken? Where?
• Whitelist used.
• File count processed, count skipped, count failed.
• Sample before/after metadata dump for one file.
• Any warnings (XMP sidecars found, MakerNotes that resisted strip, etc.).

If notes/ doesn't exist, create it.

Notes

• exiftool is the only sane tool for this — don't use convert -strip (ImageMagick) as the primary path; it silently drops colour profiles and doesn't touch XMP sidecars reliably.
• GPS is the most common sensitive leak — always explicitly confirm it's gone in step 6 (exiftool -GPS:all <file> should return nothing).
• For HEIC from iPhones, there are often two copies of EXIF (container + embedded). exiftool -all= handles both, but verify.
• For PNGs, metadata lives in tEXt / iTXt / eXIf chunks — exiftool -all= covers them. Do not rely on optipng -strip all as a primary scrubber.
• Never operate on the only copy of irreplaceable originals without a backup. If the user is working on an archive, insist on step 4.
• Do not push scrubbed files anywhere automatically — that's a human decision.