Check a file is clean before you send it.

Most cleaners, FileSanity included, write a new file and leave the original alone. exiftool keeps the original next to the new one. The photo in your library may still carry everything after you shared a clean copy. So open the exact file you will attach, from where you will attach it.

Mac: open the photo in Preview and choose Tools > Show Inspector (or the Info button in newer versions). Apple's Preview guide says the More Info pane shows information about the image, including where a photo was taken. In the Photos app, select the photo and click the Info button to review its location, per Apple's guide.

Windows: right-click the file, choose Properties, then the Details tab, which lists the properties stored in the file, as described in this Florida Bar tech tip.

Open the file and choose File > Info. The right side shows the properties, including who last edited it and the total editing time, per Microsoft; Show All Properties adds Company and Manager. On Windows you can also run Check for Issues > Inspect Document and read the results without choosing Remove: it reports comments, revisions and hidden text the properties do not show. See removing the author from Office files.

In Acrobat or Reader, press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on Mac) for document properties and read the Description tab and Additional Metadata, per Adobe. Empty fields there do not prove that older values are gone from the file; see and remove PDF metadata explains why, and how to rewrite the file.

exiftool reads photos, Office files and PDFs. This lists every field with the block it came from, duplicates included:

exiftool -a -G1 -s file.jpg

-a shows duplicate fields, -G1 names the group (such as GPS, IFD0, XMP-photoshop or IPTC), and -s prints the short field names used in what a photo carries. A clean photo should show no GPS group, no Artist, no By-line and no City.

Email, chat and upload services can each change a file, or leave it exactly as it was. The surest check of what the recipient will get is to send the file to yourself the same way, download what arrives, and read that copy with the tools above. It also catches the wrong attachment before anyone else sees it.

• Place: GPS fields, City, State, Country, Sub-location.
• People: Author, Last modified by, Artist, By-line, Creator, Manager, and the names on comments and tracked changes.
• Organisation: Company, custom properties such as client or matter numbers, template paths.
• Time: created, modified and taken dates, total editing time, time zone offset.
• Device: camera make, model and serial number, software versions.
• The file name. No tool cleans it. "draft for client X" travels with the file.

Drop the cleaned copy into FileSanity's cleaner and read the list. For a file it cleaned, it should find nothing left to remove. For a PDF it could not fully reach, it says so. Either way the file stays in your browser; the security page shows three ways to check that for yourself.

Clean a file

Menu paths checked on 9 October 2026 against the pages linked above. Menus move between versions; when yours differs, the vendor's page is the authority. Found a mistake? Tell us.

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