OK, so a friend recommended ExifTool to me because I'm going to be posting a bunch of pictures and mp3s online, and I want to remain totally anonymous. In the case of the pictures, my friend recommended to delete the metadata of the location taken, etc (so nobody can trace me).
So... I downloaded ExifTool. But now what? How the heck do you use this thing?
I have a mac 10.6.4
THANK YOU!
Sorry, but apparently your friend doesn't know that ExifTool doesn't have the ability to edit metadata in MP3 files. So you will need another utility for this.
- Phil
Okay, but how about the jpgs?
How do you use ExifTool to view and edit metadata on a picture?
To view metadata in OS X:
- Launch the Terminal application (found in the /Applications/Utilities folder).
- Type "exiftool" followed by a SPACE in the Terminal window.
- Drag and drop one or more files or folders onto the Terminal window.
- Press RETURN in the Terminal window.
To write metadata in OS X:
- Launch the Terminal application (found in the /Applications/Utilities folder).
- Type "exiftool" followed by a SPACE in the Terminal window.
- Type in the information you want to write in the form: -TAG=VALUE followed by a space after each entry.
- Drag and drop one or more files or folders onto the Terminal window.
- Press RETURN in the Terminal window.
After writing information you will discover files with names ending in "_original". These are the backups of your original files.
For examples, see the Writing Examples (https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html#writing_examples) section of the application documentation, and for a complete list of tag names, see the Tag Name documentation (https://exiftool.org/TagNames/index.html).
- Phil
Ah! Perfect! So I get the first part just fine.
Now, I have a jpg and I want to DELETE metadata.
Specifically, this picture was taken with my iPhone and it includes the GPS coordinates where the picture was taken. How do I DELETE this information from the picture?
Thanks so much!!!!
To delete all metadata, use the -all= option:
exiftool -all= ...
- Phil
What do you put where you put the "..."?
Oh, so I'm guessing you you type "exiftool -all= "
and then drag the jpg into the Terminal window, right?
And then it should erase all the metadata?
Well, I tried that, and then when I go too LOOK at the metadata by typing "exiftool " and then dragging the file, all the same data (with the GPS and everything) is all still there
Yes that's right. What messages did you get after the command with -all=? There must have been an error if it didn't erase all the metadata. Either that, or you are looking at a different file.
- Phil
Edit: Or maybe the file doesn't have any metadata? ExifTool will extract the following basic JPEG properties from files which contain no metadata:
> exiftool a.jpg -all=
1 image files updated
> exiftool a.jpg
ExifTool Version Number : 8.47
File Name : a.jpg
Directory : .
File Size : 251 bytes
File Modification Date/Time : 2011:01:28 08:01:46-05:00
File Permissions : rw-r--r--
File Type : JPEG
MIME Type : image/jpeg
Image Width : 8
Image Height : 8
Encoding Process : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample : 8
Color Components : 3
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
Base Name : a
File Extension : jpg
File Type Description : Joint Photographic Experts Group
Image Size : 8x8
Jeez, OK. I THOUGHT I had it a few months ago, and now I'm doing it again, and I keep getting the "command not found" error.
Specifically, it says "-bash: exiftool: command not found"
The application must exist in a directory somewhere in your system path. Either that, or you must type the path when entering the command, ie)
path/to/exiftool a.jpg
- Phil