snippetbashTip

exiftool — Read and write meta information in files. More information: <https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html>

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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commandexiftoolmetaandreadcliinformationwrite

Problem

How to use the exiftool command: Read and write meta information in files. More information: <https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html>.

Solution

exiftool — Read and write meta information in files. More information: <https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html>.

Print the EXIF metadata for a given file:

exiftool {{path/to/file}}

Remove all EXIF metadata from the given files:

exiftool -All= {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Remove GPS EXIF metadata from given image files:

exiftool "-gps*=" {{path/to/image1 path/to/image2 ...}}

Remove all EXIF metadata from the given image files, then re-add metadata for color and orientation:

exiftool -All= -tagsfromfile @ -colorspacetags -orientation {{path/to/image1 path/to/image2 ...}}

Move the date at which all photos in a directory were taken 1 hour forward:

exiftool "-AllDates+=0:0:0 1:0:0" {{path/to/directory}}

Move the date at which all JPEG photos in the current directory were taken 1 day and 2 hours backward:

exiftool "-AllDates-=0:0:1 2:0:0" {{[-ext|-extension]}} jpg

Only change the DateTimeOriginal field subtracting 1.5 hours, without keeping backups:

exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-=1.5 -overwrite_original

Recursively rename all JPEG photos in a directory based on the DateTimeOriginal field:

exiftool '-filename<DateTimeOriginal' {{[-d|-dateFormat]}} %Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S%%lc.%%e {{path/to/directory}} {{[-r|-recurse]}} {{[-ext|-extension]}} jpg

Code Snippets

Print the EXIF metadata for a given file

exiftool {{path/to/file}}

Remove all EXIF metadata from the given files

exiftool -All= {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Remove GPS EXIF metadata from given image files

exiftool "-gps*=" {{path/to/image1 path/to/image2 ...}}

Remove all EXIF metadata from the given image files, then re-add metadata for color and orientation

exiftool -All= -tagsfromfile @ -colorspacetags -orientation {{path/to/image1 path/to/image2 ...}}

Move the date at which all photos in a directory were taken 1 hour forward

exiftool "-AllDates+=0:0:0 1:0:0" {{path/to/directory}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/exiftool

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