Scrub

About

Scrub removes the hidden metadata your phone bakes into every photo: GPS location, camera make and serial, capture timestamp, editing software, and device identifiers. It reads location from everywhere it hides: EXIF, XMP, Content Credentials (C2PA), and camera MakerNotes. It also removes the extra data modern phones append after the image itself, such as a motion-photo video, an Ultra HDR gain map, or multi-frame (MPF) copies that each carry their own GPS. The free tier strips everything from a JPEG or PNG in one tap, shows the metadata before and after, and saves a clean copy without ever modifying the original. On Android, you can also send a photo to Scrub from any share sheet, or clean it in place with "Edit with Scrub" straight from your gallery.

A one-time $2.99 Pro unlock adds per-field selective control, metadata editing, batch processing up to 50 files, HEIC / WebP / TIFF / RAW support, and MP4 / MOV video scrubbing. All processing happens on the device; photo and video data never leave your phone.

Scrub is on Google Play now and is coming to the App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS and iPadOS 15 or later); the Android share-sheet and "Edit with Scrub" hand-offs are Android-only for now. The Pro unlock is a one-time purchase on whichever store you buy it from; because each store handles its own purchases, an unlock bought on Google Play does not carry over to the App Store, or the reverse.

What it does

• One-tap Strip All for JPEG and PNG, free forever
• Before-and-after metadata viewer that reports honestly what remains
• Finds GPS wherever it hides: EXIF, XMP, Content Credentials (C2PA), and MakerNotes
• Removes appended data other tools miss: motion-photo video, Ultra HDR gain maps, and MPF frames
• On Android, send to Scrub from any share sheet, or clean in place with "Edit with Scrub" from your gallery
• Selective keep, metadata editing, and batch up to 50 files (Pro)
• HEIC, WebP, TIFF, RAW (CR2 / NEF / ARW / DNG), and MP4 / MOV video support (Pro)
• Local processing only; the sole network use is verifying your purchase

What you get free, and what the $2.99 unlock adds

Accuracy and limitations

Scrub removes hidden file metadata; it does not alter the visible content of a photo or video, so anything identifying that is actually pictured (a street sign, a face, a screen) remains. For images, Strip All removes the entire metadata block and truncates any data appended after the image itself (a motion-photo video, an Ultra HDR gain map, or MPF frames), each of which can carry its own location. For MP4 and MOV video, Scrub zeroes the identifying fields in place (location, camera make and model, software, serial number, and the capture and modification timestamps) while preserving playback byte offsets, so the file stays playable; per-field selective keep and metadata editing are available for images only in this version.

Privacy at a glance

• No personal data is collected by Scrub.
• All app data is stored on your device.
• No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting.
• No account is required to use the app.

Read the full Scrub privacy policy or learn about account and data deletion.

Permissions Scrub requests

Media location · Android only

Lets Scrub read the GPS location tags embedded in the photo or video you select, so it can show what will be removed and then strip it. Without this, Android silently hides that location from Scrub, defeating its whole purpose. The location is used only on the device to build the before/after view and is removed from the output; no location data is ever sent anywhere.

Storage (legacy read, Android 12 and below) · Android only

On Android 12 and below (capped at API 32), used in place of the Photo Picker to load the photo or video you select.

Storage (legacy write, Android 9 and below) · Android only

On Android 9 and below (capped at API 28), used to save the cleaned copy back to your gallery. Android 10 and newer use scoped storage and require no write permission.

Internet · Android only

Used only to verify and restore your Pro purchase with Google Play. Photo and video data, and all metadata, are processed on the device and never sent anywhere.

Photo library (add only) · Apple only

On iPhone and iPad, used only to save the cleaned photo or video back to your Photos library. Scrub needs no photo-library permission to pick a photo in the first place: the system picker hands Scrub the file directly without granting broad library access. The original photo is never changed.