How to remove EXIF data from a HEIC photo

Quick answer

HEIC is a container that the standard allows to carry Exif and XMP metadata, and Apple's Camera Formats setting changes the file type, not the metadata. To get a HEIC photo clean, open it in Safari: the tool opens it and re-saves it as a JPEG, which is a re-encode. A browser that cannot open HEIC cannot do this, so convert the photo to JPEG first and clean the result.

What Apple and the standard say

• Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices says iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra introduced HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) for photos, and that HEIF and HEVC "offer better compression than JPEG and H.264". To capture in the older format, open Settings, tap Camera, tap Formats, then tap Most Compatible: "All new photos and videos will now use JPEG or H.264 format." Choose High Efficiency to go back. That page does not mention metadata, so do not treat the setting as a way to remove any.
• The same page says that when you share by AirDrop, Messages or email and the receiving device does not support the newer formats, the media "might automatically be shared in a more compatible format, such as JPEG or H.264". For a manual conversion it points to File, Export in Photos or Preview on a Mac, then a format such as JPEG or PNG. It does not say whether either conversion keeps or drops metadata.
• The Library of Congress format description, High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) Format, says HEIF is defined by ISO/IEC 23008-12 (MPEG-H Part 12), first published in 2017. It says the specification "supports the carriage of metadata written in various metadata schematic languages, including Exif, XMP, and MPEG-7 in XML form", and that "HEIF-compliant readers do not need to support these metadata formats". It describes .heic as the extension for a HEIF file with HEVC coded image items, "the format introduced by Apple in 2017 as an in-camera format for iOS devices".
• The IANA registration for image/heic describes it as a high efficiency image file containing one or more HEVC coded image items, and names ISO/IEC 23008-12 as the published specification.

Put together: the standard lets a HEIC file carry Exif and XMP, and it does not require every program to show them, so a viewer that lists nothing does not prove nothing is there.

Clean the photo before you send it

1. In Safari, open the tool above and add the HEIC photo, up to 5 at a time. It runs entirely in your browser and your files are never uploaded.
2. The page re-saves the HEIC as a JPEG. That is a re-encode: the image is decoded and written out again as a new JPEG, rather than the metadata being cut out of the original file. For this route the page cannot list what the HEIC held beforehand, and says the re-save drops it.
3. Download the clean copy and look at it to make sure it is the right way up.
4. To check the result, add the downloaded JPEG to the tool again. It reads the file and lists what is left.
5. If your browser cannot open HEIC, convert the photo to JPEG first, for example with the Mac export route Apple describes. Apple does not say whether that export keeps metadata, so add the converted JPEG to the tool, read its before list, and clean it. JPG, PNG and WebP files are cut without re-encoding, with the ICC colour profile kept and, on JPEGs, a bare rotation flag kept so the photo stays upright. GIF is not supported.
6. Send the clean JPEG, not the HEIC original.

What this does not remove

• What is visible in the picture. Faces, street signs, house numbers and a recognisable view all stay.
• The file name. The original name carries over to the cleaned copy, so rename it yourself if it gives something away.
• Copies stored elsewhere. Your original HEIC, cloud copies, backups and anything already sent are untouched.

Related guides: removing location from an iPhone photo, removing EXIF on a Mac and what iMessage and AirDrop send.