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How to Remove Metadata from Videos (MP4, MOV, MKV)

— Written by Brendan, Founder of FileShot.io

Video editing timeline showing hidden metadata properties that need to be removed for privacy protection

Video files contain far more metadata than most people realize. Your phone records GPS coordinates, camera model, lens settings, and exact timestamps into every video. Screen recordings embed your operating system version and software name. Dashcam footage logs speed and location data. Before you share, upload, or publish a video, you need to know what metadata is inside and how to remove it.

What Metadata Do Video Files Contain?

Video metadata is stored in the container format (MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI) rather than in the video stream itself. Here is what each format typically embeds:

MP4 / M4V (MPEG-4 Container)

The most common video format. MP4 stores metadata in "atoms" (data boxes) within the file structure:

  • Creation and modification timestamps — Exact date and time the video was recorded, stored as seconds since 1904-01-01 (QuickTime epoch)
  • GPS coordinates — Latitude, longitude, and altitude where the video was filmed. Phones write this automatically unless location services are disabled
  • Camera make and model — "Apple iPhone 15 Pro", "Samsung SM-S928B", "GoPro HERO12 Black"
  • Software / encoder — The application that encoded the video (e.g., "Lavf60.3.100", "HandBrake 1.7.3", "Adobe Premiere Pro 2025")
  • Duration, dimensions, frame rate, codec — Technical specs of the video stream
  • Title, artist, album, comment — iTunes-style tags that some apps populate automatically
  • Thumbnail image — An embedded JPEG preview that can contain its own EXIF data

MOV (QuickTime Container)

Apple's native format, structurally identical to MP4. MOV files from iPhones and Macs include everything MP4 has, plus:

  • Motion metadata track — Gyroscope and accelerometer data for stabilization. Contains device orientation throughout the recording
  • Live Photo pairing — References to associated HEIC/JPEG files
  • Content identifiers — Apple's internal UUIDs for the media item

MKV (Matroska Container)

Open-source container popular for high-quality video. MKV stores metadata in EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language) elements:

  • Muxing application — The software that packaged the MKV (e.g., "mkvmerge v82.0", "FFmpeg")
  • Writing application — The original source encoder
  • Date UTC — Timestamp of when the file was created
  • Segment UID — A unique identifier for the file, used for linking segments
  • Chapter markers, subtitles, attachments — Can include fonts, images, or supplementary files
  • Tags — Arbitrary key-value metadata (title, director, comments, etc.)

AVI (Audio Video Interleave)

Microsoft's legacy format. AVI supports limited metadata through RIFF INFO chunks: title, artist, copyright, comment, creation date, and software name.

Why Video Metadata Is a Privacy Risk

  • GPS in phone videos: Every video recorded with location services enabled contains your exact coordinates. Sharing a home video reveals your home address. Sharing a vacation video reveals your travel itinerary
  • Dashcam metadata: Dashcam footage shared for insurance claims or social media contains continuous GPS tracks, speed data, and timestamps that map your driving route
  • Screen recordings: Screen recordings made with OBS, Bandicam, or built-in OS tools embed the recording software name and version, which can fingerprint your setup
  • Drone footage: DJI and other drone manufacturers embed GPS coordinates, flight altitude, drone serial number, and sometimes pilot account information
  • Timestamps on sensitive content: A video's creation timestamp proves when and where it was recorded, which can be relevant in legal, journalistic, or personal privacy contexts

Method 1: FFmpeg (Free, Cross-Platform)

FFmpeg is the standard tool for video processing. It can strip metadata without re-encoding the video, meaning the quality remains identical to the original:

# Strip ALL metadata without re-encoding (fast, lossless)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -c copy output.mp4

# Strip metadata and remove chapters
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -c copy output.mp4

# Strip metadata from MOV (same command)
ffmpeg -i input.mov -map_metadata -1 -c copy output.mov

# Strip metadata from MKV
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map_metadata -1 -c copy output.mkv

# Batch process all MP4s in a folder (PowerShell)
Get-ChildItem *.mp4 | ForEach-Object {
    ffmpeg -i $_.Name -map_metadata -1 -c copy "clean_$($_.Name)"
}

# Batch process (Bash/macOS/Linux)
for f in *.mp4; do
    ffmpeg -i "$f" -map_metadata -1 -c copy "clean_$f"
done

The -map_metadata -1 flag tells FFmpeg to discard all metadata from the input file. The -c copy flag copies the video and audio streams directly without re-encoding, so the process is fast and the quality is unchanged.

What FFmpeg Removes

  • Container-level metadata (title, artist, comment, creation date, encoder)
  • GPS location data
  • Camera make and model information
  • Software and encoder identification
  • Custom tags and chapter markers (with -map_chapters -1)

What FFmpeg Does NOT Remove

  • Embedded thumbnail images (use -map 0 -map -0:v:1 to exclude the thumbnail stream if present)
  • Subtitle tracks (use -sn to strip subtitles)
  • Per-frame timecodes burned into the video stream (these are part of the image data, not metadata)

Method 2: ExifTool

ExifTool supports video metadata for MP4, MOV, AVI, and other formats:

# View all metadata in a video file
exiftool video.mp4

# Remove all writable metadata
exiftool -all= video.mp4

# Remove only GPS data
exiftool -gps:all= video.mp4

# Remove metadata and overwrite original (no backup)
exiftool -all= -overwrite_original video.mp4

# Batch: all videos in current folder
exiftool -all= -overwrite_original *.mp4 *.mov *.mkv

ExifTool is especially useful for viewing metadata before removal so you can see exactly what information is embedded. It handles MP4/MOV QuickTime atoms, MKV tags, and AVI RIFF INFO chunks.

Method 3: HandBrake (Re-Encode)

HandBrake re-encodes video, which strips most metadata as a side effect. However, HandBrake adds its own encoder tag ("HandBrake" + version). Use this method when you also want to compress or convert the video:

  1. Open HandBrake and load your video
  2. Choose your output format and quality settings
  3. Start the encode
  4. The output file will have minimal metadata (just HandBrake's encoder string and basic technical info)
  5. To remove HandBrake's own tag afterward: exiftool -all= output.mp4

Re-encoding is slower than metadata-only stripping and introduces a small quality loss (with lossy codecs). Use FFmpeg's -c copy method if you only need to strip metadata without changing the video.

Method 4: MKVToolNix (MKV Files)

For MKV files specifically, MKVToolNix provides the most control:

# Remove all tags
mkvpropedit video.mkv --tags all:

# Remove title
mkvpropedit video.mkv --delete title

# Remove segment info (UID, date, muxing app)
mkvpropedit video.mkv --delete date \
    --delete muxing-application \
    --delete writing-application

# Or remux with mkvmerge, stripping everything
mkvmerge -o clean.mkv --no-global-tags --no-track-tags video.mkv

Method 5: FileShot Metadata Scrubber

For quick metadata removal without installing software:

  1. Go to FileShot Metadata Scrubber
  2. Drop your video file onto the page
  3. The tool processes the file in your browser — nothing is uploaded
  4. Download the cleaned file

This works for smaller video files. For large videos (over 500 MB), command-line tools like FFmpeg or ExifTool are more practical.

Special Cases

Dashcam Footage

Dashcams from Viofo, BlackVue, Thinkware, and others embed GPS tracks as a separate data stream or in proprietary subtitle tracks. To fully strip dashcam location data:

# Remove metadata AND subtitle/data streams (GPS track)
ffmpeg -i dashcam.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -map 0:v -map 0:a -c copy clean.mp4

This maps only the video and audio streams, discarding any GPS data stream, subtitle track, or auxiliary data the dashcam embedded.

Drone Footage

DJI drones embed extensive metadata including GPS coordinates, altitude, gimbal angle, and drone serial number in both the MP4 container and sometimes in a separate SRT subtitle file. Remove the SRT file and process the MP4 with FFmpeg as shown above. Some DJI firmware also embeds flight data in a proprietary binary stream — the -map 0:v -map 0:a approach handles this by only keeping video and audio.

Screen Recordings

OBS Studio, Bandicam, ShareX, and built-in OS screen recorders embed the software name and version. These are stripped by the standard -map_metadata -1 flag in FFmpeg. Screen recordings do not contain GPS data (no camera involved), but the encoder string can identify your operating system and recording setup.

How to Check If Metadata Was Successfully Removed

After stripping metadata, verify the result:

# Check with ExifTool
exiftool clean_video.mp4

# Check with FFprobe (comes with FFmpeg)
ffprobe -v quiet -show_format -show_streams clean_video.mp4

# Check with MediaInfo
mediainfo clean_video.mp4

After successful removal, you should see only structural metadata (codec, resolution, duration, frame rate) and no identifying information (no GPS, no camera model, no software name, no author).

Metadata Removal vs. Metadata Prevention

The most reliable approach is preventing metadata from being written in the first place:

  • Disable GPS on your phone's camera app — Settings vary by device, but look for "Location tags" or "Geotagging" in your camera settings
  • iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera > Never
  • Android: Open Camera app > Settings > Location tag > Off
  • Dashcams: Some models allow disabling GPS logging in settings, though this also disables speed overlay
  • Screen recorders: OBS allows disabling encoder metadata in Advanced Settings

Frequently Asked Questions

Does removing metadata reduce video quality?

No, if you use FFmpeg's -c copy method. This copies the video and audio streams bit-for-bit without re-encoding. Quality is identical to the original. Only re-encoding methods (HandBrake, etc.) can affect quality.

Does social media strip video metadata when I upload?

Most platforms strip some metadata during their re-encoding process, but this is not guaranteed, varies by platform, and changes over time. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter all re-encode uploaded video, which removes most container metadata. However, you should not rely on this — strip metadata yourself before uploading to be certain.

Can I selectively remove only GPS data and keep everything else?

Yes. With ExifTool: exiftool -gps:all= video.mp4. This removes only GPS-related tags and leaves everything else intact.

What about audio-only files (MP3, M4A)?

Audio files also contain metadata (ID3 tags in MP3, iTunes atoms in M4A). The same tools work: ffmpeg -i audio.mp3 -map_metadata -1 -c copy clean.mp3 or exiftool -all= audio.mp3.

Can removed video metadata be recovered?

No. Once the metadata is stripped and the file is saved, the data is permanently gone from that copy. The original file (if you kept it) still has the metadata.

Sharing Videos Securely After Metadata Removal

After stripping metadata, share your video through an encrypted channel. FileShot supports large video file sharing with zero-knowledge encryption, automatic expiration, and password protection. Strip the metadata first, then upload to FileShot for a secure, private share link.

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