Remove Metadata from MOV (QuickTime) — Free, No Upload
MOV is Apple's QuickTime container — a superset of MP4 that adds proprietary boxes (keys atom, classic-style title atoms, Live Photo pair UUIDs). Editing-app exports (Final Cut Pro, iMovie, ProRes pipelines) rely on these. Our cleaner removes the entire metadata scaffold and rewrites the file as a portable MP4-compatible container.
Last reviewed 2026-04-28 · Verified against synthetic + real-world MOV (QuickTime) samples
Drop your .mov file
Max file size: ~2 GB (memory permitting)
What leaks in MOV (QuickTime) files
- Apple keys atom: com.apple.quicktime.* (GPS, device, software, creation date, Apple ID hash)
- Final Cut Pro / iMovie editing software fingerprints
- ProRes encoder vendor ID
- Live Photo pair UUID linking the video to a still photo
- Container-level title / artist / copyright (classic Apple metadata atoms)
Confirming it worked
| Confirm it still opens in QuickTime | Only metadata atoms are removed, so playback is unaffected. If a player refuses the cleaned file, the container was unusual rather than the cleaning wrong. |
|---|---|
| Check the Live Photo pair is gone | A Live Photo MOV links to its companion HEIC through a UUID atom. Re-muxing drops it, which also means the pairing will not work again. |
| Editing fingerprints | Final Cut and iMovie write their own identifiers. Those are container metadata and go, but a project-specific export preset visible in the picture does not. |
| What it does not remove | Faces, locations visible on screen, or anything burned into the frame. Blur those before stripping metadata, not after. |
Frequently asked questions
How do I strip metadata from a .mov file?
Same flow as MP4 — drop the file in. MOV outputs go through the same post-process to ensure no Apple-specific scaffolding survives.
Will the cleaned file still play in QuickTime?
Yes. We only remove metadata atoms, not codec data. The output plays in QuickTime, VLC, ffplay, browsers, mobile players — anything that opens the codecs inside.
Does it remove Live Photo pair info?
Yes. Live Photo videos carry a UUID atom linking the .mov to its companion .heic still. Re-muxing with `-c copy` drops unknown UUID atoms, including this pair link.