iPhone photos are HEIC unless you switched to Most Compatible. HEIC holds the same bag as a JPEG: GPS, time, device, a thumbnail. The gallery map is a view. The file is the record.
Three traps
Photos app location off ≠ file GPS gone. You can hide a place in the album. Export, Mail, or AirDrop of the original can still carry the coordinates the camera wrote.
AirDrop sends the original. That is the point of AirDrop. The person at the other Mac or iPhone gets the HEIC, tags included, unless you used a share option that strips location.
Google Photos is a database plus a file. Turning location off in the app edits the album. “Download original” or a partner sharing the camera file often still has the shutter GPS. Check the download, not the map in the app.
iCloud “Most Compatible” gives you JPEGs. Those JPEGs can still have GPS. Changing the container is not a wash.
How to see it on this phone
You do not need to upload the photo to a random EXIF site.
- Get the actual file — AirDrop to yourself, Files, or download original.
- Open Photo Location on iPhone Safari or Chrome.
- Drop the HEIC or JPEG. If the browser cannot paint HEIC, the tool can still read GPS and may show the JPEG thumbnail already in the file.
- No pin? That copy is clean of GPS. A pin? Remove Photo Metadata and share the new file.
Android is the same idea with JPEG/HEIC from a Pixel or Samsung. The brand of the trap is Apple. The mechanism is EXIF.
Sharing without the pin
iOS share sheets sometimes offer “Location: Off.” Use it, then still check a copy if the recipient can download a file. Email and “save to Files” are the paths that lie.
Need the HEIC to open as a boring JPEG — Windows, email, a JPG-only form — without sending the original anywhere? Convert HEIC to JPG in this tab. That re-save also drops GPS.
The full tag list is what data is stored in a photo you send. Apps that wash vs apps that do not: does Instagram or WhatsApp strip location.