A free WordPress plugin. When a PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or image file is uploaded, it blanks the author, last-saved-by, company and revision fields, then shows you what it removed and what it could not.
Status: version 0.1.0 is finished and waiting for listing in the WordPress.org plugin directory. Once listed, search for “Upload Metadata Scrubber” under Plugins > Add New. This page will link to it.
| Field | As uploaded | After the plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Jane Doe | Removed |
| Last saved by | M. Ortiz | Removed |
| Company | Acme Legal LLP | Removed |
| Revision number | 14 | Removed |
| Date created | 3 Mar 2026 | 3 Mar 2026 (left in place) |
Example values. Dates stay in the file, and the plugin’s report says so for every file.
It works on your own server when a file reaches the Media Library, and it never changes a file if it cannot do so safely. Here is the short version; the limits page has the detail.
Author, last saved by, title, subject, keywords, revision number, last printed date, editing time, company, manager, custom properties and the preview thumbnail.
Text in the document itself, tracked changes, comments, headers and footers, embedded photos, and created and modified dates. The report lists them when found.
Author, title, subject, keywords, creator, producer and XMP details, where the structure of the file allows a safe change.
Dates and the document ID. Digitally signed PDFs, and PDFs that keep their document information in a compressed block, are reported but not changed.
Camera and date taken, GPS location, XMP and text chunks, without re-compressing the picture.
Orientation and colour profile, so images still look right.
The Media Library list gets a Metadata column that says whether each file was cleaned, had data found but not removed, or had nothing to find. Open a file to see the full list.
By default the report records the kind of data removed (for example “Author”), not the value, so names are not copied into your database. You can switch values on in the settings.
Files that cannot be cleaned safely are left exactly as uploaded, with the reason written next to them.
Sites where people other than you upload or publish files that visitors can download: agencies, law and accounting firms, real-estate sites, nonprofits, membership sites and photographers. A Word contract or a price list carries the name of whoever saved it last, and anyone can read that by opening the file’s properties.
The free plugin only cleans new uploads. A separate Pro add-on is planned for sites that need more:
Planned price: $29 a year per site. It will be a separate download, never part of the free plugin, and nothing on this page can be bought yet.
The plugin is built and tested but is not in the WordPress.org directory yet. Leave your address and you get a single email the day it is listed, and nothing else. You confirm by link first, and every email has an unsubscribe link. Privacy.
No, and no tool can promise that. It removes the standard author and revision fields listed above and tells you what else it found. Names typed into the body of a document, tracked changes and comments are not removed. It is not a guarantee, and it is not legal or compliance advice.
No. Only new uploads are processed. Cleaning the existing library is what the planned Pro add-on is for.
The plugin writes a new copy, checks that it opens, and only then replaces the upload. If anything looks wrong, the file stays exactly as uploaded and the report says why. Images are not re-compressed.
No. Everything runs on your server, and the plugin makes no requests to any other service.
WordPress 5.8 or later and PHP 7.4 or later. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files need the PHP Zip extension, which most hosts provide; without it those files are left untouched and the report says so. It is licensed GPLv2 or later.
It cleans files that go through the standard WordPress upload handling, which includes the Media Library and the block editor. A plugin that stores uploads its own way may bypass it. Dedicated coverage for those is part of the planned Pro add-on.