A complete reference for every main Metadata Cleaner workflow — from adding files through privacy inspection, cleaning, verification and locating the cleaned copy.
The shortest safe workflow from opening the tool to completing the job.
Choose the PDFs or supported images you want to inspect.
Check detected metadata and privacy-relevant categories.
Use the removal detail view to understand what the clean operation targets.
Run Recommended Privacy Clean when privacy-relevant fields are present.
Review Verification Results, then use Show in Finder.
Controls used before any cleaning takes place.
Adds files to the current inspection session.
Choose one or more supported PDFs or images. Premium can be used for batch inspection rather than working with only one file at a time.
Starts file selection from the empty-state screen.
Use this when no files are loaded yet. It performs the same file-selection role as Add Files and begins local metadata inspection.
Shows metadata fields classified as privacy-relevant.
Review the detected fields for each file before cleaning. A file may contain ordinary technical metadata as well as fields that are more relevant to privacy.
Groups important metadata into understandable privacy categories.
Location covers GPS and location fields. Device covers camera, phone, lens and device information. Identity includes author, artist, copyright and creator information. Dates include capture, creation and modification timestamps.
Understand exactly what happens before and during privacy cleaning.
Opens the detailed removal view before cleaning.
Use this when you want to inspect the privacy-relevant fields that the recommended cleaning operation is designed to remove for that file format.
Creates a separate privacy-cleaned copy when cleanup is recommended.
Run this after reviewing the findings. FilesStayLocal targets supported privacy-related metadata while preserving the visible file content where supported.
Indicates that the supported inspection rules did not find privacy-relevant metadata requiring the recommended clean operation.
Review the findings and limitations before sharing if the file is especially sensitive.
Removes the currently loaded inspection results from the app session.
Use this after you finish reviewing the current files and want a clean workspace for another set.
What happens after a cleaned copy is created.
Shows the post-clean rescan of the newly created copy.
FilesStayLocal rescans the cleaned copy and reports the before and after privacy-field counts. Review this result before sharing the output.
Locates the cleaned output file in macOS Finder.
Use it after verification when you are ready to inspect or share the new copy.
Prevents FilesStayLocal from overwriting an existing cleaned copy.
If the intended cleaned filename already exists, FilesStayLocal creates a numbered filename automatically.
Explains what the current cleaner can inspect and clean.
The current workflow supports PDFs and common image formats including JPEG / JPG, PNG, HEIC / HEIF and TIFF / TIF. Image cleaning uses Apple's ImageIO metadata support. PDF cleaning targets document-level metadata and does not rasterize pages.
Important behaviour to understand before sharing, cleaning or exporting files.
Metadata Cleaner writes separate outputs and does not overwrite the source file.
Always review the cleaned copy and Verification Results when privacy is important.
Metadata cleaning does not remove sensitive information visibly written inside a document or image.
Inspection and cleaning are designed to occur locally on the Mac.
The guide remains available whenever you need to look up a button or setting again.