Yes, screenshots have metadata, but not the original photo's. A screenshot is a new image of your screen, so it doesn't carry the GPS location, camera model or date of the photo it shows. It does get its own details: when you took it, its size, and on some phones the device, software or app you were in. Screenshots don't record GPS, but anything visible on screen, like a street sign, still gives places away.
Do screenshots have metadata?
Yes. Every screenshot is a saved image file, and image files carry some details about themselves. It just isn't the metadata of whatever was on your screen.
When you screenshot a photo, your phone doesn't copy that photo's file. It draws a fresh picture of the screen and saves it as a new image. So the original photo's EXIF data (Exchangeable Image File Format, the details a camera saves inside each photo) stays behind: the GPS location, the camera model, the lens and the date it was taken. If you want a refresher on what a normal photo carries, see what hidden data is in a file.
What metadata does a screenshot have?
A screenshot carries a short list of details about the screenshot itself. It varies by phone and software version, but this is typical:
| Device | What the screenshot usually stores |
|---|---|
| iPhone | Date and time, image size, and a "Screenshot" label in the Photos details |
| Android | Date and time, image size; some phones, including Samsung, also store the software build and an image ID |
| Mac | Date and time in the file name ("Screenshot [date] at [time]"), image size, color profile |
| Windows | Creation date and image size; Print Screen alone copies to the clipboard and saves no file |
None of these devices write GPS coordinates into a screenshot. So to check where a photo was taken you need the original file, as our guide on how to find out where a photo was taken explains.
Samsung Galaxy phones have added the name of the app you were in to the screenshot's file name since 2017, so a file can be named something like Screenshot_[date]_Instagram. Users on Samsung and some other Android phones have also reported screenshots that carry a unique image ID, the phone's software version and the time zone, even with location turned off.
Does a screenshot remove metadata from the original photo?
No. Taking a screenshot doesn't touch the original photo at all. The original keeps every detail it had, and if you send it later, those details go with it.
You just end up with a second, separate file without the original's metadata. That's why people use it as a shortcut, and for GPS it works. The trade-offs are in quality and in what the picture itself shows.
Can a screenshot still give away your location?
Yes, through what's in the picture rather than in the file. Metadata is only one way a location leaks. Look at the screenshot before you share it:
- Street signs, shop names, house numbers and landmarks in the image can pin down a place, and a reverse image search can find where a scene was photographed.
- The status bar shows the time, your carrier, battery level and sometimes a location arrow.
- A weather widget names your town, and a delivery or calendar notification may show an address.
- A cropped map, or a chat that mentions where you are, says more than any GPS tag.
Cropping out the status bar and anything personal fixes most of this.
Why is a screenshot a poor way to clean a photo?
Because you lose more than the metadata. A screenshot is only as big as your screen, so you get a fraction of the photo's detail. The image is squeezed into your screen's shape and usually needs cropping. It gets compressed again when you share it. And it now carries your own device's details instead.
Screenshots also drop Content Credentials, the label that shows where an image came from and whether AI made it. If you're sharing someone else's image, that context is worth keeping.
A better way is to remove the metadata from the original file:
- Drop the photo into our EXIF viewer to see what it holds. It reads JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC, so it works on screenshots too.
- If it shows a location or camera details you want gone, use the photo metadata remover. It strips EXIF, GPS and text data without re-compressing the image, and nothing is uploaded.
- Share the clean copy at full quality.
On iPhone you can also turn off location in the share sheet before sending. Our guide on how to remove location from iPhone photos shows where. And if you're sending through a chat app, check which apps remove photo metadata, since some already strip it for you.
How to check a screenshot's metadata
Open it in our EXIF viewer. The check runs in your browser and the file isn't uploaded. Expect a short list: a date, the image size, and maybe a software name. If you see GPS coordinates, the file probably isn't a screenshot after all, but a photo saved from somewhere else. On iPhone, you can also swipe up on the screenshot in Photos, as explained in our guide on how to see photo metadata on iPhone.