Features
Photos can carry where they were taken, the phone, its serial number, the names of the people in them and how they looked before cropping. Scrubio shows all this in plain words; choose a preset and "Clean and save". Clean copies are saved separately and the original files are not changed.
Key features
- What is hidden
- Finds location, device and lens, serial numbers, software and editing history (XMP), people and face regions, captions and keywords, IPTC, author and copyright, date, the embedded thumbnail, colour profile, orientation and maker notes. A short explanation for each finding, a "What does this photo reveal?" summary and a list of all fields.
- Pixels untouched
- In JPEG, PNG and WebP files only the metadata sections are rewritten; the pixel data stays identical byte for byte, with no loss of quality. HEIC and AVIF are cleaned in place; when that is not possible, they are saved as high-quality JPEG and this is stated clearly.
- Presets
- "For sharing" removes what identifies you and your location; date, colour profile and orientation stay. "Everything" removes all but what the photo needs to look right, and "Location only" removes just the location. Each category can also be switched on or off.
- Embedded thumbnail
- Some photos carry a small copy of how they looked before cropping. Scrubio shows this copy; cleaning removes it.
- Same place
- Locations less than 150 metres apart are grouped, so you can see which photos give away the same place. The "All" view gathers what was found in every photo into one summary.
- Batch cleaning
- Add photos by choosing them, from a folder (including subfolders), by drag and drop or by pasting. Clean copies are saved with a suffix ("-clean") to a chosen folder or into a single ZIP file; no file with the same name is overwritten.
- Clean and share
- Clean copies go straight to the device's share feature; the original photo is never shared.
- Author and copyright
- An optional author name and copyright notice are written into every clean copy.
- Removal report
- For each photo, what was removed and what was kept, with the number of fields before and after; saved and shared as text (TXT) or a table (CSV). The result screen shows a before / after comparison.
- Samples
- On first launch there are JPEG, PNG and WebP samples with an invented device, invented people's names and the locations of well-known places; "Add samples again" brings them back.
- Files and backup
- The list (with its photos) or just the cleaning settings are saved and opened as a .scrubio file. "Back up…" puts all Scrubio data and settings into a single file, and "Restore from backup…" brings them back on the same or another device.
- Works offline
- Inspection and cleaning happen entirely on the device, without an internet connection; no account is needed.
Devices and browsers
- On a desktop, the photo list is on the left, inspection in the middle and the cleaning settings on the right. On a phone and a tablet in portrait, the bottom bar holds Inspect, Photos, Cleaning and More.
- Saving to a folder is available in browsers with a folder picker (Chrome, Edge); elsewhere and on phones, clean copies are downloaded or shared. Adding photos from a folder is available in desktop browsers.
- Previewing HEIC and saving HEIC as JPEG depend on the browser being able to open the format (for example Safari); in other browsers the metadata is still read.
Keyboard shortcuts
⌘ and ⌥ are used on macOS; Ctrl and Alt on Windows and Linux.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/⌘ O | Add photos |
| Ctrl/⌘ ⇧ O | Add photos from a folder |
| Ctrl/⌘ S | Clean and save |
| Ctrl/⌘ V | Paste a photo |
| ↑ · ↓ | Previous · next photo |
| A | This photo · all |
| Del | Remove from list |
| 1 · 2 | Photos panel · Cleaning panel |
| Esc | Back to the list |
On a touchscreen, switches and buttons are sized for fingers; a photo's actions open from its button in the list, and menus and dialogs open from the bottom.
Get Scrubio
Try it in the browser without installation; for continued use, purchase the version for macOS, Windows or Linux.