metadata-cleaner 3.18.6

A CLI tool to remove, edit, or selectively filter metadata from images, documents, audio, and video files.

Metadata Cleaner

Metadata Cleaner is a privacy-focused CLI for viewing and removing metadata from local files. It writes cleaned copies by default and avoids modifying originals in-place.

Supported Files

• Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WEBP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF
• Documents: PDF, DOCX, EPUB, ODT, TXT
• Audio: MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AAC, M4A, WMA
• Video: MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, WEBM, FLV

Video support requires ffmpeg and ffprobe. AVIF and broader metadata coverage benefit from exiftool.

Installation

Requires Python 3.11 or newer.

pip install metadata-cleaner
metadata-cleaner --help

For development:

git clone https://github.com/sandy-sp/metadata-cleaner.git
cd metadata-cleaner
poetry install --with dev
poetry run metadata-cleaner --help

CLI Usage

View metadata:

metadata-cleaner view sample.jpg

Print metadata for automation:

metadata-cleaner view sample.jpg --json

Write metadata JSON to a file:

metadata-cleaner view sample.jpg --json-output reports/metadata.json

Remove metadata from one file:

metadata-cleaner delete sample.jpg

Write to a specific file:

metadata-cleaner delete sample.jpg --output cleaned/sample.jpg

Process a folder recursively:

metadata-cleaner delete ./photos --output ./cleaned-photos

Preview a run without writing files:

metadata-cleaner delete ./photos --dry-run

Write a JSON summary report:

metadata-cleaner delete ./photos --summary-file reports/summary.json

The shared --json-output reports/summary.json option writes the same delete summary payload.

Summary reports include per-file status and output paths for audit trails. Add --checksums to include input/output hashes. SHA-256 is the default; use --checksum-algorithm sha512 or --checksum-algorithm blake2b for stronger hash reports. Add --preserve-timestamps when cleaned files should keep source file times. Use --report-detail compact or --report-detail summary for smaller reports. Use --report-filter failed to list only failed per-file entries. Formats that copy, rewrite, re-save, use ExifTool, delete audio tags, or remux video include precise per-file processing notes in JSON summary reports.

Edit metadata where supported:

metadata-cleaner edit song.mp3 --changes '{"artist": "Unknown"}'

Start the local Web UI:

metadata-cleaner web

The Web UI runs on 127.0.0.1 by default and shows original metadata next to cleaned-copy metadata so you can verify what changed before using the cleaned file. Use the Files button to view or delete uploaded originals and cleaned copies saved in the current local session.

Development Checks

python3 manage.py test
python3 manage.py lint
python3 manage.py check

CI runs tests, lint, and pip-audit on pull requests and pushes to main.

Docker

docker build -t metadata-cleaner .
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)/photos:/data" metadata-cleaner delete /data

Published release images are available from GitHub Container Registry:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)/photos:/data" ghcr.io/sandy-sp/metadata-cleaner:latest delete /data

Logging

By default, logs go to stderr only. To write a log file, opt in explicitly:

METADATA_CLEANER_LOG_FILE=./metadata-cleaner.log metadata-cleaner delete sample.jpg

Use debug logging when needed:

METADATA_CLEANER_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG metadata-cleaner view sample.jpg

Resources

• API Reference
• Usage Guide
• Architecture
• Repository Health Review