Metadata Removal Tools Compared: ExifTool, Metadata2Go, Adobe Acrobat Pro and Orilami

Metadata is the information a file carries about itself: the GPS position and camera in a photo, the author and edit history in a Word document, the software and dates in a PDF. Removing it before you share a file is good practice, and plenty of tools can do it. They differ in three ways that matter: where your file is processed, which formats they cover, and whether the old metadata is really gone or only hidden.

This page compares ExifTool (free command-line program), Metadata2Go (online service), Adobe Acrobat Pro (desktop PDF software) and Orilami's Metadata Remover (runs in your browser). Facts about the other tools come from their own pages, listed at the end, checked on 9 November 2026.

The short version

The PDF catch: removed or only hidden?

A PDF can be edited by appending changes to the end of the file instead of rewriting it. Old values stay in the file, unreferenced, and anyone who reads the raw bytes can find them. ExifTool is open about this: its own documentation says that changes to PDF files are reversible because the original metadata is never actually deleted. That is a deliberate design choice, not a bug, but it means exiftool -all= file.pdf is not the right tool when the goal is to make old metadata unrecoverable.

Acrobat Pro handles this with Remove Hidden Information and Sanitize Document, which rewrite the file. Orilami's Metadata Remover re-saves the PDF as a single revision and then drops every object nothing points to any more, so removed values are not left behind as orphaned data. Whatever tool you use on a sensitive PDF, check the result: open the cleaned file in a text editor and search for the old author name.

ExifTool

ExifTool, by Phil Harvey, is the reference tool for reading and writing metadata. It is free, open source, runs on Windows, macOS and Unix, and supports a huge range of formats, from camera RAW files to Office documents. One command, exiftool -all= photo.jpg, deletes all metadata from a file, and it scripts well for thousands of files.

The trade-offs: it is a command-line program, which many people are not comfortable with, it needs installing (often impossible on a locked-down work computer), and for PDFs its edits are reversible, as above. It also removes metadata only, not hidden document content such as tracked changes or comments.

Choose it if you are comfortable on the command line, process photos in bulk, or need to read metadata in rare formats.

Metadata2Go

Metadata2Go is a website: drop a file, remove its metadata, download the result. It accepts any file type, needs no sign-up, and is free up to 75 MB per file, with paid plans for larger files. Files are processed on its servers in Europe, and without an account your work is deleted after about an hour, according to its security page.

The trade-off is the upload. The file, including the metadata you wanted to remove, is sent to a third-party server before it is cleaned. For a holiday photo that may not matter. For a contract draft whose tracked changes name the other side's negotiator, or a photo whose GPS tag shows where a source lives, it may be exactly what you were trying to avoid.

Choose it if the file is not sensitive and you want the quickest possible clean of a single file.

Adobe Acrobat Pro

For PDFs, Acrobat Pro's Remove Hidden Information lets you choose what to strip (metadata, comments, attachments, hidden layers and more), and Sanitize Document removes it all in one pass. It runs on your computer, so nothing is uploaded, and it is thorough. It is PDF-only and needs the paid Pro subscription.

Choose it if you work mostly in PDF and already pay for Acrobat Pro.

Orilami Metadata Remover

The Metadata Remover runs in your browser: the page loads the cleaning engine and your files are read from your disk, cleaned in memory and saved back to your device, never uploaded. It covers photos (including HEIC and AVIF), PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, MP4 and MKV video, MP3, WAV and FLAC audio, SVG and EPS, and it takes a whole folder or a ZIP at once and gives the folder structure back.

Each file comes with a before-and-after report of what was removed. Deep Clean goes further than metadata: tracked changes, comments, speaker notes, hidden sheets, PDF attachments and scripts. For PDFs, the file is re-saved as one revision with unreferenced objects dropped, as described above.

Honest limits: it removes metadata and hidden content, not what is visible. A face, a street sign or a name printed on the page stays. For visible text, use the Sensitive Info Remover. PDF form answers are kept on purpose, because clearing them would erase filled-in work.

Choose it if the file should not be uploaded, you clean mixed formats, you cannot install software, or you want a report of what was removed. Preview is free; downloading costs 20 tokens per file.

How to check any metadata remover

• Photos: open the cleaned file's properties (Windows: Properties, Details; macOS: Preview, Inspector) and look for GPS, camera and date fields.
• Office files: check File, Info for the author, and look for tracked changes and comments.
• PDFs: open the cleaned file in a plain text editor and search for the old author or software name.

If you want to know what a photo reveals before you share it, read what EXIF data is and why you should remove it. And if a photo might have been edited, the Fake & AI Image Checker looks for the traces editing leaves.

Sources

Checked on 9 November 2026:

• ExifTool: exiftool.org
• Metadata2Go: Metadata Remover and Security
• Adobe: Redact sensitive content in Acrobat Pro (sanitize and remove hidden information) and How Sanitize Document differs from Remove Hidden Information

Product names are trademarks of their owners. Orilami is not affiliated with ExifTool, Metadata2Go or Adobe.