Does HEIC to JPG Keep EXIF and GPS?

Short answer: the JPG that comes out of this converter carries no EXIF data at all — no camera make, no timestamp, no GPS coordinates, no orientation flag. The only metadata I found in it is a small ICC colour profile (472 bytes) that describes the colour space.

How I know: I took a HEIC file that does contain an Exif item, converted it at three quality settings, pulled each output file back out of the browser, and walked its JPEG segments marker by marker. Not a claim — a read of the actual bytes.

What was in the source file

The test file is a 41,465-byte HEIC. Reading its box structure, it contains an item whose type is Exif, plus an auxl (auxiliary image) item and a cds item referenced through the iref box. So this is not a bare image — it is a container with a metadata item attached.

What came out

Quality setting	Output size	Dimensions	EXIF	GPS	ICC profile
High — 95%	57,617 bytes	700 × 476	none	none	yes (472 B)
Good — 85%	38,078 bytes	700 × 476	none	none	yes (472 B)
Smaller — 75%	30,231 bytes	700 × 476	none	none	yes (472 B)

Each of the three files starts with a JFIF APP0 segment, then an APP2 segment holding ICC_PROFILE, then the usual quantisation tables, frame header, Huffman tables and scan data. There is no APP1 segment, which is where EXIF lives in a JPEG. Each conversion finished in roughly one to three seconds.

What I did not test: I do not have a HEIC that is stored sideways with a rotation flag, so I cannot tell you from measurement how rotation is handled. I only verified that no orientation tag survives into the output.

Why this cuts both ways

The upside. If you are posting a photo somewhere public, the JPG cannot leak where it was taken or which camera took it, because that data is not in the file. You do not have to remember to strip it.
The downside. The date, the camera model and the location are gone from the converted copy. If you ever need them, keep the original HEIC — the conversion does not touch it.
What survives. The pixels, the dimensions, and a colour profile so the colours are interpreted the same way on another screen.

How to check this on any converter

Convert a photo you know has location data (most phone photos do).
Save the JPG and open it in any EXIF viewer, or drag it into a hex editor and search for the string Exif.
If nothing turns up, the metadata is gone. If you see camera make, date or coordinates, it travelled through.

Doing this yourself takes about a minute and settles the question, whatever a site's privacy page says.

Questions

Does converting HEIC to JPG remove GPS location?

In my test, yes. The source HEIC contained an Exif item; the JPG that came out had no EXIF and no GPS IFD at all. There was no location data left in the file to remove.

Does the converted JPG keep the date the photo was taken?

No. The timestamp lives in EXIF, and the output carries no EXIF. The file's own creation date will be the moment you converted it.

Can I get the EXIF back after converting?

Not from the JPG — the data is not there. You would have to copy it from the original HEIC with a dedicated metadata tool. Keep the originals if the metadata matters to you.

Why does my photo look sideways after converting?

I have not been able to test a rotated HEIC, so I will not guess at it. What I can say from measurement is that the files I converted came out at 700 × 476 with no orientation flag in them.

Is the colour profile a privacy problem?

No. An ICC profile describes how colours should be mapped to a screen. It contains no location, no device serial and no personal data.

Try it yourself: convert a HEIC, then open the downloaded JPG in an EXIF viewer and look for anything at all.

First published: 22 September 2026