Remove Metadata from Photos & Documents Online – Free Cleaner

Privacy risk

Author · company · timestamps

Leak potentialMedium–High

Lossless

Visible content unchanged

Content impactNone

Automation

CLI & batch scripts

Batch-readyExcellent

1. Audit what's inside a DOCX

A DOCX is a ZIP archive. Core properties live in docProps/core.xml, app data in docProps/app.xml, custom properties in docProps/custom.xml.

# Peek into a copy (do not modify originals)
cp "doc.docx" "copy.docx" && unzip -l "copy.docx" | sed -n '1,40p'

# Extract properties for inspection
unzip -p "copy.docx" docProps/core.xml   | xmllint --format -
unzip -p "copy.docx" docProps/custom.xml | xmllint --format -

2. Remove via Document Inspector

The fastest GUI method. Works on Word 2016+ and Microsoft 365.

File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document

Remove All selected categories

Open DOCX → File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document.
Tick: Document Properties and Personal Information, Comments, Revisions, Hidden Text.
Click Remove All for each found category → Save As a clean copy.

⚠️

Tip — IRM-protected or OneDrive-shared files with sensitivity labels — remove protection first.

3. PowerShell automation (Windows)

Uses Word COM automation — requires Word installed on the machine. Ideal for batch pipelines.

# Clear core & custom properties and remove comments/accept revisions
# Requires Word installed on the machine (COM automation)
$path = "C:\docs\input.docx"
$word = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application
$word.Visible = $false
$doc = $word.Documents.Open($path)

# Accept revisions & delete comments
$doc.AcceptAllRevisions()
foreach ($c in @($doc.Comments)) { $c.Delete() }

# Clear built-in properties
$props = $doc.BuiltInDocumentProperties
$props.Item("Author").Value          = ""
$props.Item("Last Author").Value     = ""
$props.Item("Company").Value         = ""
$props.Item("Manager").Value         = ""
$props.Item("Category").Value        = ""
$props.Item("Keywords").Value        = ""
$props.Item("Comments").Value        = ""
$props.Item("Title").Value           = ""
$props.Item("Subject").Value         = ""

# Clear custom properties
$custom = $doc.CustomDocumentProperties
for ($i = $custom.Count; $i -ge 1; $i--) { $custom.Item($i).Delete() }

# Save as new file
$out = "C:\docs\clean.docx"
$doc.SaveAs([ref]$out)
$doc.Close()
$word.Quit()

ℹ️

For large batches, combine with Group Policy or an enterprise CI pipeline (see section 8).

4. ExifTool: core & custom properties

ExifTool reads/writes OOXML properties inside DOCX. Use as a second pass after Document Inspector.

# Clear common properties
exiftool -Title= -Subject= -Author= -Creator= -Company= -Manager= \
  -Keywords= -Comments= -Category= -LastModifiedBy= \
  -overwrite_original "doc.docx"

# Clear custom + XMP properties
exiftool -XMP:All= -overwrite_original "doc.docx"

# Recursive folder cleanup
exiftool -Title= -Subject= -Author= -Creator= -Company= -Manager= \
  -Keywords= -Comments= -Category= -LastModifiedBy= \
  -overwrite_original -r "./docs"

⚠️

Note — ExifTool won't accept/resolve tracked changes or delete comments. Handle those inside Word (GUI or COM) first.

5. Tracked changes & comments

Accept all changes

Finalize content, remove revision history

Review → Accept ▼ → Accept All Changes. Keeps the final text, removes all revision marks.

Delete comments

Remove all reviewer annotations

Review → Delete ▼ → Delete All Comments in Document. Or use the PowerShell COM snippet above.

Cleaning embedded image metadata too?

MetaRemover.com strips EXIF/GPS from photos in your browser — nothing uploaded to a server.

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6. Embedded images (EXIF/GPS)

Photos inside a DOCX can retain GPS coordinates and camera details. Clean images before embedding, or extract and replace them in the final document.

# Clean image before inserting into Word
exiftool -all= -tagsFromFile @ -icc_profile -overwrite_original "photo.jpg"

✅

For drag-and-drop EXIF/GPS removal, MetaRemover.com processes images entirely in your browser — nothing leaves your device.

7. Verify cleanup

Always confirm the fields are actually gone before distributing.

# Inside Word: File → Info — verify Properties fields are blank

# CLI cross-check with ExifTool:
exiftool -G -a -s "clean.docx" | \
  grep -Ei "Title|Author|Company|Manager|Keywords|Subject|LastModifiedBy|XMP" \
  || echo "Common fields clear ✓"

# Unpack and inspect XML directly
unzip -p "clean.docx" docProps/core.xml   | xmllint --format -
unzip -p "clean.docx" docProps/custom.xml | xmllint --format -

8. CI / batch workflows

Automatically scrub every DOCX that lands in docs/ on push using GitHub Actions.

name: scrub-docx
on:
  push:
    paths: ["docs/**/*.docx"]
jobs:
  clean:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install exiftool
        run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y exiftool

      - name: Clear properties
        run: |
          exiftool \
            -Title= -Subject= -Author= -Creator= -Company= \
            -Manager= -Keywords= -Comments= -Category= -LastModifiedBy= \
            -overwrite_original -r docs/

      - name: Audit
        run: |
          for f in $(git ls-files "docs/**/*.docx"); do
            exiftool -G -a -s "$f" | \
              grep -Ei "Title|Author|Company|Manager|Keywords|Subject|LastModifiedBy|XMP" \
              || echo "Clean: $f"
          done

ℹ️

To accept revisions and delete comments at scale, add a Windows runner with the PowerShell COM script from section 3.

9. FAQ

Privacy-first · browser-only

Publish clean files. Protect your team.

Run Document Inspector for DOCX properties. Use MetaRemover.com to strip EXIF/GPS from any embedded image before it ships.

✓ JPEG · PNG · TIFF · HEIC✓ PDF · Office · Audio✓ C2PA detection✓ Nothing uploaded

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Remove Metadata from Word (DOCX) — 2026 Guide