How to view an image's metadata on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac without uploading it
On iPhone, open the photo in Photos and swipe up. On a Mac, open it in Preview and click the Inspector button. On Windows, use the Details tab in the file's Properties. On Android, use the info panel in Google Photos. Each shows details about the file. We did not test what these apps send over the network.
What is image metadata?
Metadata is information stored inside an image file next to the pixels. A phone camera writes some of it, such as the time and the device. Other tools can add more, such as a creator name or a caption.
It is kept in a few formats. The open-source library ExifReader says it runs in a browser or in Node and reads Exif, IPTC, XMP and PNG text tags, in formats such as JPEG, PNG, HEIC, AVIF and WebP. Its support table marks Exif, IPTC and XMP as not applicable for GIF. The IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide says IPTC fields can be stored in IIM, XMP or both, and that in a JPEG file those two live in separate headers.
Which fields matter when you are checking an AI claim?
Most of what the panels below show is camera and file detail. Three kinds of field bear on a question about how an image was made.
| Field | What it says | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Source Type (IPTC) | The IPTC User Guide says it indicates "the media source from which the digital image was created". The IPTC's value list includes digitalCapture, trainedAlgorithmicMedia and screenCapture. | A label someone wrote. Google's help page says IPTC metadata can be modified. |
| Creator, credit and copyright (IPTC) | The IPTC lists Creator, Credit Line, Copyright Notice and Source among its fields for who made, owns or supplied an image. | A name typed into a field is not a signed identity. |
| Software or tool name | Some files name the program that wrote them. Our checker reads such a name as the hint "Tool name found in metadata". | A tool name is a hint about handling, not a statement about the picture. |
The IPTC's Digital Source Type vocabulary defines trainedAlgorithmicMedia as digital media created algorithmically using an AI model trained on captured content. A file that carries that value declares it; nothing in the file proves it.
How do I view an image's metadata on an iPhone?
Apple's iPhone User Guide gives the steps: open the Photos app, tap the photo, then swipe up or tap the info button. Depending on the photo, Apple says the panel shows the device that captured it, the date and time, camera metadata such as lens, shutter speed and file size, and where it was taken. It also shows a caption field.
Apple's page also says you can change the date, time and location of a photo, so what you see may not be what the camera first wrote. Its list has no field for how the image was made.
How do I view an image's metadata on Android?
This depends on your gallery app. Google's help pages describe Google Photos. On Android, Google's troubleshooting page says to open the photo and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to find the Details section, where the file name appears.
Google also has a page on information stored on your photos. For AI information, it says to select the photo, tap More, then About, and scroll to "How this was made". The page says this information can be based on IPTC standards, that not every image has an AI info section, and that IPTC metadata can be modified. It also says that digital watermarks such as SynthID, embedded in images edited with generative AI, can surface in tools like Google Search or Lens.
We did not read the help pages of other gallery apps, so we name none.
How do I view an image's metadata on Windows?
Microsoft's October 15, 2026 post on the new Photos app says the information button shows the file name, date, camera details, a location map when location data is available, a color histogram and visual search. Your version of the app may differ.
For any file, a community answer on Microsoft's Q&A site describes File Explorer. It says the General tab in Properties shows the created, modified and accessed dates kept by the file system, and the Details tab shows metadata stored in the file, such as Date taken. That answer, from May 2024, said the Details tab worked for JPG files but not PNG files. Windows may have changed since, so treat it as a lead.
How do I view an image's metadata on a Mac?
Apple's Preview User Guide says to open the file in Preview and click the Inspector button in the toolbar. The Inspector has a General info tool and a More info tool. Apple describes More info as showing information about an image in different formats, and about where a photo was taken.
Does viewing metadata this way upload the image?
We did not test the network behavior of Photos, Preview, File Explorer or Google Photos, and we make no claim about it.
We can say what our own checker does. On October 30, 2026 we ran it in headless Chrome on 53 files: 32 real files and 21 we made. The page started 0 requests to any other site, and 0 console errors occurred. Reading a file that carried a Content Credentials record took a median of 26 milliseconds (the slowest took 187). Reading a file without one took a median of 1 millisecond. A privacy test in our repository fails if a request from the page or its background workers goes to another site, has a body or carries a file name in its address. Our Privacy and method page describes the method, and our accuracy page covers the real-file results.
What this means when you check an image
Open the checker and choose the file. Our Privacy and method page says it lists what the file declares in IPTC, XMP, Exif, PNG text and embedded Content Credentials claims. It does not show every field the way the panels above do, and it does not validate unsigned metadata.
If the file carries metadata but nothing that says how the image was made, you will see the headline "Metadata found; source not established". The line under it says: "The file carries metadata, but none of it says how the image was made." It does not say the image is real, edited or made by a person. It says the fields we read name no source.
The checker's limits line always applies: "These checks cannot determine whether an image is AI-generated." Metadata can be edited, and a copy of a file may carry less than the original.
Guides on this topic
- How to tell if an image is AI is the main page on this topic.
- Content Credentials vs EXIF, IPTC and XMP explains how signed and unsigned records differ.
- Where AI declarations live in an image file shows which fields to look at.
- Can EXIF data be faked? covers unsigned metadata.
- Does sharing an image remove its metadata? covers why a copy may show less.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does my image show no metadata?
- The file may never have had any, or a copy may have lost it. Each panel shows only what the file holds. Finding nothing does not mean the image is real or human-made.
- Can I trust the date and location in the panel?
- Not by itself. Apple's page says the date, time and location of a photo can be changed in Photos, and Google's page says IPTC metadata can be modified.
- Does your checker show every metadata field?
- No. It reads Exif, IPTC, XMP, PNG text and embedded Content Credentials claims for signs of a source, and shows a headline and findings.