Why the metadata remover keeps orientation and the color profile
Two entries stay in the clean copy on purpose. Here is what happens when they go.
Measured on 24 October 2026 · Last updated: October 2026
The question
A remover that says it deletes everything and then keeps two things deserves a test. I wanted to know what the two kept things do, whether they carry anything personal, and what a blunt "delete all" does to the picture.
How I tested
The same generated test photo as on the other test pages: 4,032 by 3,024 pixels stored, with an orientation flag of 6 (rotate so it stands upright) and a color profile. I made three versions: the original, the copy from the live metadata remover, and a blunt copy where I deleted every tag with a separate tool and kept nothing. Then I asked a viewer library to show each one the way a phone would, obeying the orientation flag, and compared a fingerprint of each color profile. Date: 24 October 2026.
The result
| Version | Orientation flag | Shown as | Color profile | Personal tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 6 | 3024 x 4032 (upright) | present | 30 |
| Metadata remover | 6 | 3024 x 4032 (upright) | identical to the original | 0 |
| Blunt delete-all | none | 4032 x 3024 (on its side) | gone | 0 |
The blunt copy is the cautionary one. It holds no personal data, and it is a picture that opens sideways with no color tag. The remover's copy holds no personal data either, and it looks like the original. The difference in file size between the two is 706 bytes, the weight of the color profile and the small orientation entry.
Are the two kept tags private?
I do not count them as personal data, and that is a judgement, not a measurement. The orientation flag says only how the camera was held: one number from 1 to 8. The color profile describes how to read the colors. In my test file it came through byte for byte. What I did not measure is how much the colors shift on a wide-gamut photo when the profile is missing; I only had a standard test profile, so I will not quote a number.
It also worked for all three formats: the flag read 6 in the clean JPG, PNG and WebP, and the decoded pixels matched the original each time.
What to do with this
- If you strip data by hand, check the picture afterwards. Open it on a phone, not only on a computer.
- If you have a photo with a location, remove that first: remove GPS from a photo.
- If you want the full list of what a file holds, the checker shows it before you change anything.
The other tests in this series: the remover on three formats, nine operations and what a file carries.