JPEG is the format your phone and camera save photos in, and it is the richest metadata carrier of any common image type. A single .jpg can pin the exact spot it was taken, name the individual camera body by its serial number, and hold a second full image the viewer never shows. That is why a JPEG is worth checking before you send it.
Scan a JPEG fileLocation is the headline. A JPEG's EXIF GPS block is more than latitude and longitude: File X-Ray reads the whole suite a phone writes, including altitude (which floor of a building you were on), the compass bearing the camera was pointing, the speed and direction of travel, the UTC time straight off the GPS receiver, and even a GPS destination pair that some navigation and travel apps add for where you were headed.
Camera identity goes deeper than make and model. The JPEG maker note carries fingerprints that tie every photo to one physical device: the camera body serial number, the shutter actuation count (which ages and orders a body), and the owner name registered in the camera menu, with the lens model riding along too. The serial, the shutter count and the owner have no plain-EXIF equivalent, and no photo viewer displays any of them.
Some JPEGs hold more than one picture. Portrait, HDR and Live Photo modes pack several full images into a single file using Multi-Picture Format, and the hidden frame can be the uncropped or pre-edit original, complete with its own EXIF. A Motion Photo tucks a short video with sound after the still. Data appended past the JPEG's end marker (the classic way to smuggle a second file) and free-text JPEG COM comments both survive ordinary EXIF stripping, and the scan flags each one.
Provenance and edits round it out. XMP DocumentID and InstanceID link every copy back to the original and form a version chain across saves, while an XMP edit history logs each piece of software that touched the file. IPTC adds creator, city, state and country. If the image came from or through an AI tool, an embedded C2PA manifest surfaces the claim generator - ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly, a Leica camera - and its certificate issuer.
This is a selection. The full field manual documents the fields read from each format.
EXIF (camera make and model, exposure, timestamps), a full GPS block (coordinates, altitude, bearing, speed, UTC time), the maker note (body serial, shutter count, owner name, lens model), IPTC (creator, city, country, caption), XMP (document and instance IDs, edit history), an ICC colour profile, an embedded thumbnail, and sometimes a hidden second image or a C2PA provenance manifest.
If GPS was on when you took it and the file was not stripped, yes. The EXIF holds precise coordinates, often with altitude and the compass bearing the camera faced. Many social platforms strip this on upload, but files sent by email, message or cloud share usually keep it. Scan the file here to see exactly what is in it before you send it.
Not always. Standard EXIF stripping targets the APP1 segment and frequently leaves JPEG COM comments, a Motion Photo video, a Multi-Picture hidden image, and any data appended after the end marker in place. The clean copy this page produces goes further: it drops the comments, the appended video and any trailing payload, and strips the metadata out of every hidden Multi-Picture frame as well.
It is a number unique to one physical camera body, stored in the maker note. Because it is identical in every photo that camera takes, it can link images you posted anonymously to ones posted under your name, or tie a whole set of photos to a single device.
Drop the .jpg onto File X-Ray. Everything is parsed in your browser with JavaScript, the bytes never leave your device, and there is no account or upload. If the photo carries GPS, the coordinates are sent to draw its map and resolve the address.
File X-Ray reads JPEG files entirely in your browser - the file never leaves your device. For this format you can also download a clean copy with the metadata removed. Scan a file now.