EXIF data: how to read an image's metadata
Every photo stores information about its own creation inside the file: camera, time, settings and often position. How to view it yourself, and how it is used when an image's authenticity is assessed.
Updated 2026-09-11 · Veriflied
What EXIF is
EXIF is the metadata standard for photo files. When a phone or camera takes a picture, it writes make and model, date and time, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, often GPS position, an embedded thumbnail of the image — and manufacturer-specific fields (MakerNotes) that are hard to imitate. The information is invisible in the picture but readable by software.
How to view it yourself
iPhone
Open the picture in Photos and swipe up or tap the info icon: camera, date and a map appear directly.
Android
Open in Google Photos and tap the three dots or swipe up.
Windows
Right-click the file, Properties, Details tab.
Mac
Open in Preview, Tools, Show Inspector, EXIF tab.
Professionally
The free ExifTool shows EVERYTHING, including fields the built-in viewers hide. It is the industry standard.
How it is read forensically
One field rarely proves anything — it is the consistency between layers that carries: does the capture time match the GPS module's own time (which sits separately in the file and does not follow when someone corrects the date)? Does the embedded thumbnail show the same as the image — or a version from before the edit? Are MakerNotes present the way a real phone writes them? Do compression and resolution match the claimed source?
Missing EXIF is not suspicious in itself — sharing through messaging apps and social media strips most of it. But the pattern matters: platforms remove EVERYTHING; when camera identity is intact and precisely the date or the position is missing, a person removed it. And an image claimed to be photographed that has no camera chain at all has explaining to do.
The limits
EXIF can be edited with free tools, so a single field can never stand alone. But a convincing forgery requires ALL layers to agree — camera fields, GPS module time, thumbnail, MakerNotes, compression profile — and most manipulators do not know half of them. Inconsistencies between layers are therefore the finding itself. And when metadata is gone, the analysis moves to what cannot be removed: the pixels themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Do AI images have EXIF data?
Typically not — or only basic technical fields without camera identity. Some tools even write their own name into the file. Absence of a camera chain on an image claimed to be photographed is a trace in itself.
Does social media remove EXIF?
Yes, nearly everything, for privacy reasons. Missing metadata on a shared image is therefore normal — what counts is the pattern of what is missing and what remains.
Can GPS position be trusted?
Often, but it can be switched off or faked. A forensic analysis checks whether the GPS module's own fields (accuracy, satellite data, module time) look like a real fix or typed-in numbers.
Try it on your own document
Create an account and analyse your first 10 images or documents for free. You get a report with the concrete findings, not just a score. All processing in the EU.