How to check an image's metadata

Open it in something that reads EXIF. The quickest way is the metadata detector: drop in a JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, WebP or PDF and it lists every field the file carries — camera and lens, editing software, timestamps, GPS coordinates, authorship, and any embedded content credentials. It parses the file in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.

Using what is already on your machine

• Windows — right-click the file, choose Properties, then the Details tab. You get a tidy subset: dimensions, date taken, camera make and model, exposure settings, sometimes GPS.
• macOS — open the file in Preview and choose Tools, then Show Inspector. An EXIF tab appears only if the file has EXIF in it, which is a quick test in itself. Tools, then Show Location Info drops a pin on a map when there are coordinates.
• Phones — the built-in gallery app shows a trimmed version, usually the date, the camera and a map.
• All of it — exiftool photo.jpg in a terminal. ExifTool is free, reads formats the others refuse, and prints tags that Explorer and Preview hide.

Reading what comes back

Camera, lens, exposure and date taken are written at capture. Software fields and the XMP edit history name the tools that touched the file afterwards. GPS coordinates are there only if location was switched on when the shutter fired.

None of it proves anything on its own. Every field is editable text, and anyone can write a camera model into a file with the same tool they would use to read one.

An empty result is normal

Most platforms re-encode images on upload, and the metadata goes with the pixels, so a file that came off a social feed or through a chat app often has nothing left to read. Which services keep what is measured in which platforms strip content credentials. Missing metadata says the file has been somewhere, not that someone scrubbed it.