How to Remove Location Data from Android Photos

Smartphones have revolutionized the way we take and share photos. While this is undoubtedly a fun and convenient tool to have at our disposal, the increasing use of mobile devices has left many a user (understandably) paranoid and skeptical of releasing more data than they absolutely have to. One of these data points is Location. Most of the time we don’t even realize it’s on and working, whether through GPS or Wifi, and only later when we see that it’s been recorded do we get weirded out. Here are some ways to remove location data from the photos you take.

Disable Location Settings Universally

The easiest thing you could do to ensure your photos won’t have your site stamp is to simply turn off location tracking on your Android. If you’re the type of person who prefers privacy and doesn’t want to be bothered on any app or in any scenario, doesn’t use maps, and so on, then skip the hassle and just go this route.

• Click the settings icon from the “all apps” section
• Scroll down to “Personal,” then select “Location”
• Toggle the On button to Off

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Disable the Camera’s Location Settings

Turning off location settings overall is not a viable option for users who frequent apps like “maps” to get around or service apps that use your location to find restaurants or places of interest in your immediate vicinity. If you want to turn off locations for photo-taking only but spare the other applications, then make the following adjustments directly in your camera app.

• Select the Camera app from the “all apps” section
• Tap left menu on the display
• Click “Settings,” then toggle “Save location” to off

Removing Location Data from Photos You Share

Location data on photos can be fun or useful — when posting to Facebook or reminiscing on times past. If you don’t want to remove location data on all photos entirely, you can make modifications to individual photos and albums you want to share via a link.

• Launch Google Photos
• Click on the left menu to find Settings
• Under Location you’ll see the option to remove Geolocation: toggle to “on”

Also, as an added bonus, Google offers a feature called “estimated location.” If you upload or save a photo taken from another device, such as a camera, Google will estimate the location at which it was taken. To disable that data, select the photo from your photo library and click the “info” icon, which will let you “remove location” from the right menu beside the estimated location.