Can someone who downloads my photo tell exactly when I took it?
Often, yes. EXIF can hold the capture date and time down to the second, the digitized time and the last edit time, and PNG files can carry a tIME chunk with the last modification time. The metadata tool shows the ones it finds and removes them along with the rest of EXIF and the PNG text chunks.
Where the dates hide
- DateTimeOriginal: the moment the shutter was pressed, with day, hour, minute and second.
- DateTimeDigitized: when the image became a digital file, usually the same as capture time on phones.
- DateTime: when the file was last modified, written by an editing app when you save.
- GPSDateStamp: a date from the positioning system, present alongside location data when there is any.
- tIME in PNG files: the last modification time, which the tool shows in UTC.
What a date alone gives away
A date looks harmless, but repeated across photos it draws a pattern. Picture a seller who shoots products at home and posts daily. Anyone collecting her photos learns that she shoots every evening between nine and ten, and that she shot nothing during the week she said she was travelling. Add location and the date gets more serious: a specific place at a specific time, again and again.
There is a business angle too: if you present a product as 'just arrived' and the photo carries a capture date from a year ago, anyone who checks the file will notice.
How to see the dates in your file
- Open the Image metadata inspector and remover tool and choose the photo.
- In the detected metadata list, look for fields starting with DateTime, or for tIME. Each shows its value exactly as stored in the file.
- If no date appears, the file does not carry one. The tool never guesses or fills anything in.
Removing them
Press 'Remove metadata'. EXIF dates go with the whole EXIF segment, and the PNG tIME chunk goes with the text chunks. The tool then re-scans the output and shows the 'After removal' list, so you can see for yourself that each date field is marked removed. The pixels do not change, and the verification proves it.
A date the tool does not remove
Your device's file system keeps a created and modified date for every file, outside the image itself. That is not metadata inside the file, and the clean copy you download will carry the download date. Some platforms also show a posting date next to the photo, which is outside the file as well. The tool cleans what is inside the image only.
Common questions
Can I change the date instead of removing it?
No. The tool inspects and removes; it does not write new values.
Will removing the date change the order of photos in my phone gallery?
It can, since some gallery apps sort by the EXIF capture date. Keep the original in your gallery and post the clean copy.
Does a screenshot carry a date?
It depends on the device and app. Open it in the tool to know for sure.