How to Reliably Remove XMP Data from Files


Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is a type of metadata that can be embedded is various types of image, video, audio, and document files. XMP data can contain a large number of various metadata elements, such as title, description, creator, keywords, and date. As it name implies, it can be extended to include any number arbitrary metadata elements.

While this metadata is useful for finding files and learning about them, it poses a serious privacy and confidentiality risks when the files are shared. It's possible to avoid these risks by removing XMP data from files before sharing them. This can be achieved with an appropriate software. Examples of such software are the free BatchPurifier LITE™ for JPEG, and the full BatchPurifier™ for JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG, WebP, PDF, AVI, WAV MP3, MP4, F4V, and SVG.


Contents



Reliably removing XMP data from multiple files in batch on Windows

Since different file formats are built internally in a different manner, a software must be designed specifically for removing XMP data from particular file types.

BatchPurifier LITE™, for example, is a free application for completely removing all XMP data from multiple JPEG photo files in batch. It can also selectively remove all other JPEG hidden data & metadata, such as Exif data and C2PA metadata.

The full edition of this application - BatchPurifier™ - can completely remove XMP data from PNG, WebP, JPEG 2000, PDF, AVI, WAV MP3, MP4, F4V, and SVG, in addition to JPEG. It also supports the selective removal of more than 60 types of hidden data & metadata from various types of image, video, audio, and document files.

Both are offline privacy-oriented desktop applications for Windows®, that have a graphical user interface. (GUI) They remove XMP data and other hidden data & metadata from files as a quality lossless operation, while keeping other data intact and without degrading their quality.

The "Remove Properties and Personal Information" feature is not suitable

Windows® 11 has a very limited built-in metadata remover - "Remove Properties and Personal Information" feature. This feature is completely unsuitable for removing XMP data from files. It can only remove five XMP properties from JPEG and TIFF photos: Title, Rating, Tags, (Keywords) Authors, and Copyright. The same information in the supported metadata elements, or related information, could also be stored in other XMP metadata elements.

Using BatchPurifier LITE™ and BatchPurifier™ to remove XMP data

The following two screenshots show how XMP data can be removed. The first screenshot shows how the free BatchPurifier LITE™ is used to remove XMP data from JPEG photo files. The second screenshot shows how the full BatchPurifier™ is used to remove XMP data from PNG, PDF, and MP4 files.

Using BatchPurifier LITE to remove XMP data from multiple JPEG files

Using BatchPurifier to remove XMP data from multiple files

Related White Papers