Editing & Debugging EXIF Data¶

Last Updated: April 21, 2026

This page collects ExifTool and exif-read-tool recipes useful when debugging or preparing test fixtures for PhotoPrism's EXIF pipeline. For an overview of how PhotoPrism reads EXIF, see EXIF.

Installing the Tools¶

ExifTool — install via your package manager (apt install exiftool, brew install exiftool) or from the official site.
exif-read-tool — the reference CLI shipped with the v3 branch of dsoprea/go-exif, the same library PhotoPrism uses for its native Stage 1 parser.

Inspecting EXIF Data¶

Dump Every Tag via ExifTool¶

exiftool -n photo.jpg            # raw values, human-readable output
exiftool -n -j photo.jpg         # raw values as JSON (same flags PhotoPrism uses)
exiftool -n -g -j photo.jpg      # group tags by source (EXIF / XMP / IPTC / MakerNotes)

The -g grouping is especially useful for disambiguating tag aliases — for example, telling whether a Description came from EXIF:ImageDescription, XMP-dc:description, or IPTC:Caption-Abstract.

Dump Native-Parser Output¶

exif-read-tool -f photo.jpg

This matches what PhotoPrism's native parser sees before Stage 2 runs.

Filter to a Single Tag¶

exiftool -n photo.jpg | grep -i orientation

Editing EXIF Data for Testing¶

Set a Capture Date¶

exiftool -CreateDate="1919:05:04 05:59:26+02:00" photo.jpg

Remove All GPS Tags¶

exiftool -GPS:all= photo.jpg

Remove All EXIF Data¶

exiftool -all= photo.jpg

ExifTool creates a photo.jpg_original backup by default. Use -overwrite_original to skip the backup, or delete the _original file afterward.

Writing from a Linux Container¶

When your host does not have ExifTool installed, the quickest sandbox is a Debian container mounting the current directory:

docker run --rm -v ${PWD}:/test -w /test -ti debian:bookworm bash
apt update && apt install -y exiftool libheif-examples

libheif-examples is handy alongside ExifTool for converting HEIF/HEIC to JPEG while testing (heif-convert input.heic output.jpg).