Privacy-first metadata scrubber for images, documents, audio & video.
Important
ZMetadata Stripper performs a full metadata wipe — not just EXIF. It removes GPS coordinates, author identity, device fingerprints, software signatures, and embedded thumbnails from 25+ file formats. Once stripped, this data is unrecoverable.
Note
Downloads are available exclusively through the official landing page. No third-party mirrors.
Every file you create carries hidden metadata — your name, GPS location, device model, software version, timestamps. ZMetadata Stripper scrubs all of it before you share.
| Metadata type | Examples removed |
|---|---|
| GPS & Location | Latitude, longitude, altitude, GPS timestamp, direction |
| Identity | Author, artist, copyright, creator, "Last Modified By" |
| Device | Camera model, lens info, serial number, firmware |
| Software | Editing software, version strings, processing history |
| Timestamps | DateTimeOriginal, ModifyDate, CreateDate, file dates |
| Embedded data | Thumbnail images, MakerNotes, XMP, IPTC, ICC (optional) |
| Images | JPEG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, BMP, GIF, AVIF, RAW (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG) |
| Documents | PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP |
| Audio | MP3 (ID3v2), FLAC, OGG, M4A |
| Video | MP4, MOV, MKV |
| Preset | What it does |
|---|---|
| Max Privacy | Full forensic-safe wipe — strips everything including ICC profiles and all timestamps |
| Keep Quality | Strips GPS & author identity, preserves ICC color profile and exposure data |
| Social Media | Strips GPS & author, preserves color profile for platform delivery |
| Documents Only | Focused PDF & Office metadata scrub |
Tip
The Max Privacy preset triggers a full PDF rewrite via lopdf — no incremental update history, no rollback-recoverable data. Standard forensic tools cannot reconstruct the original metadata.
The Social Media preset includes an optional toggle to write back a minimal non-identifying EXIF block after stripping:
Software: ZScrub 1.0
ColorSpace: sRGB
Orientation: 1 (Normal)
This prevents some platforms (Instagram, X/Twitter) from auto-flagging completely metadata-free images. Off by default. Every injected field is marked [injected] in the audit report.
- Before / after diff viewer with red (removed) / green (kept) field highlighting
- Collapsible field categories: GPS, Camera, Author, Software, Timestamps
- Sensitive score indicator — shows how identifying the metadata is
- Click any field to toggle it in or out of the strip operation
- Drag entire folders into the queue
- Configurable concurrency (1–16 threads via Rust rayon)
- Per-file status: Pending → Processing → Clean / Failed
- Right-click context menu per card: Preview, Inspect, Strip Solo, Remove
- Overwrite — replace original in-place
- Save copy — writes
filename_clean.extalongside the original - Custom folder — pick once, applies to entire batch
Warning
Do not run untrusted binaries. Always download from the official page.
| Platform | Package |
|---|---|
| Linux | .AppImage (universal), .deb (Debian/Ubuntu), .rpm (Fedora/RHEL) |
| Windows | .exe NSIS installer |
Requirements: Rust 1.77+, Node.js 20+, pnpm 9+
git clone https://github.com/TheHolyOneZ/ZMetadata-stripper
cd ZMetadata-stripper
pnpm install
pnpm tauri buildImportant
This project uses pnpm exclusively. Do not use npm or yarn — the lockfile will conflict and the build will fail.
Binaries are output to src-tauri/target/release/.
| Layer | Technologies |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v4, Framer Motion, Zustand |
| Backend | Rust, Tauri v2 |
| Metadata libs | lopdf, img-parts, kamadak-exif, id3, metaflac, mp4ameta, quick-xml, zip |
| Design | Deep Void dark theme, glassmorphism bento cards, Inter + JetBrains Mono |
Released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.