How to edit photo metadata
Editing is useful when metadata is wrong rather than unwanted: a camera clock left on the previous time zone, or a photo library with inconsistent authorship.
6 min read · Updated
What you can change
The editor offers only fields it can genuinely write, each backed by a real encoder that produces a valid tag. For JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF that is twenty-eight fields: camera make and model, lens make and model, serial numbers, ISO, exposure time, aperture, focal length and its 35 mm equivalent, exposure compensation and program, metering, white balance, flash, colour space, orientation, all three dates, software, artist, copyright, description, and GPS coordinates with altitude.
For MP4 and MOV it is eleven fields, written as QuickTime atoms. WebM cannot be edited in this build, and the interface says so rather than offering a control that quietly does nothing.
Common reasons to edit
Correcting a timestamp after shooting with a camera whose clock was wrong. Setting consistent authorship and copyright across a set of your own photographs. Removing a serial number while keeping the exposure data that makes a photo useful to study.
The "replace all existing metadata" option is useful when you want a file to carry exactly the fields you specify and nothing else — it drops every existing block first.
Device profiles
A profile fills a coherent set of values for a given camera or phone at once: the maker and model strings that device actually writes, a matching lens, a plausible focal length and aperture for the lens you pick, and a shutter speed consistent with the ISO you choose.
The values are internally consistent by design — the lens model, focal length and aperture all come from the same lens entry, so you cannot accidentally produce a combination no real device would write. Location is always opt-in: a profile never adds coordinates by itself.
What editing does not do
Metadata is editable by design, and always has been. That means it is evidence of nothing on its own: any field in any file can be changed by anyone with the right tool.
Editing metadata does not make a file originate anywhere, does not change what a platform can detect about an image, and should never be treated as proof of provenance. This tool will not help with forging documentation or defeating verification systems, and the disclaimer next to the profile picker says exactly what these fields are worth.
Everything is checked
After applying changes, the produced file is read back from scratch and shown against the original, listing every field that was added or changed with its before and after values.
Fields you did not touch are preserved exactly, including tags the tool has no display name for. Embedded thumbnails are always dropped on edit, since keeping one after a change risks leaking the earlier version of the image.
Questions
Does editing re-encode the image?
No. Only the metadata sections are rewritten; the compressed image data is copied unchanged. Editing is lossless however many times you do it.
What happens to fields I do not touch?
They are preserved exactly as they were. Unless you tick "replace all existing metadata", editing is additive and surgical rather than a rewrite from scratch.