How to check photo metadata on any device (and what each method won't show you)

Before you can decide what to do about a photo's hidden data, you need to see it. Every operating system has a built-in way to look — but each one shows a different slice, and none of them shows everything. This guide covers the built-in method on every device, what it reveals, and what it quietly leaves out.

The short version of what you're looking for: EXIF (GPS, device, timestamps, camera settings), IPTC and XMP (editorial and tool data), AI-generation tags, and C2PA Content Credentials. Built-in viewers were designed decades before the last two existed — which is exactly where they fall short.

In your browser — the complete view

Drop any image into the CleanImages checker. The report shows GPS coordinates, device and lens details, timestamps, editing software, AI-generation tags (including Stable Diffusion prompts hiding in PNG chunks), C2PA manifests with their signer, and embedded thumbnails — the full picture in one place, on any device with a browser.

Checking is free, doesn't count against any limit, and the photo never leaves your device — the read happens locally, which you can verify by going offline first. It's also the natural first step: look, then decide whether to clean.

On a Mac

Quick look: select the file in Finder → Cmd+I (Get Info) → expand "More Info" for dimensions, device, and capture date.

Deeper: open the photo in Preview → Tools → Show Inspector (Cmd+I) → the ⓘ tab. You'll get EXIF details, and a GPS tab with a small map if location data exists.

What it won't show: XMP contents, AI-generation tags, C2PA manifests, embedded thumbnails. Preview knows a lot about camera EXIF and almost nothing about the 2020s metadata layers.

On Windows

Right-click the file → Properties → Details tab. You'll see camera model, capture date, dimensions, and — scrolled down — GPS coordinates if present.

What it won't show: XMP, IPTC in most cases, AI tags, C2PA. Windows also displays only fields it recognizes; vendor maker notes and unknown blocks are simply invisible, which is why a photo can look "clean" in Properties and still carry plenty.

On iPhone

Open a photo in Photos → tap the ⓘ button (or swipe up). Since iOS 15 this shows camera, lens, shutter settings, file details, and a map if the photo has location — you can even tap "Adjust" to change or remove the location from your library copy.

What it won't show: anything beyond the curated summary — no raw EXIF field list, no XMP, no AI/C2PA data. And note the trap we cover in the removal guide: adjusting location here changes your library copy's display, but what gets shared depends on how you share it.

On Android

Open a photo in Google Photos → tap ⓘ or swipe up: capture date, device, settings, and a map if geotagged. Samsung Gallery's Details view is similar and lets you edit some fields.

What it won't show: same story — a curated summary, varying by manufacturer, with no visibility into XMP, AI tags, or provenance data.

The command line (power users)

ExifTool shows everything, including maker notes and unknown blocks: exiftool photo.jpg for the summary, exiftool -a -u -g1 photo.jpg for the exhaustive dump. It's the reference tool the rest of the industry tests against. The cost is a terminal workflow and output verbose enough that you need to know what you're looking for.

Why the built-in viewers all miss the same things

Two patterns explain nearly every gap above. First, OS viewers show recognized fields, not raw contents — anything they don't have a label for might as well not exist. Second, they predate the provenance era: none of the built-in viewers on any platform will tell you an image carries a C2PA manifest or AI-generation tags — the exact metadata that decides whether Instagram labels your photo "AI info" and that reveals which generator made an image. In 2026 that's not an edge case; it's often the most consequential data in the file.

So the practical workflow: use your OS viewer for a quick "is there a map pin on this?", and use a full checker (or exiftool) when it matters — before selling, publishing, sending to strangers, or posting anything you'd rather not have flagged.

Check, then decide

Seeing the metadata is half the job. The other half is deciding what travels with the file: remove what's sensitive, keep what's useful (copyright), or add protective signals if you're publishing work you don't want scraped for AI training. The checker report links straight into cleaning, so the whole loop — look, decide, strip, verify — takes under a minute.

TL;DR

Mac Preview, Windows Properties, and your phone's ⓘ panel all show the basics — device, date, and (crucially) location. None of them show XMP, AI-generation tags, or C2PA Content Credentials, the layers that increasingly matter most. For the complete picture use the in-browser checker or exiftool, and make checking a habit for any photo that's about to leave your hands.