Remove Metadata from Excel Online

Choose an Excel file to inspect or drop it here · xlsx, xlsm · it stays on your device

No file at hand? (a budget full of hidden data).

How to remove metadata from an Excel file

Open your workbook. Drop an .xlsx or .xlsm file. It is read inside your browser; nothing is uploaded.
See what it reveals. Every finding is shown with its real value: the author’s name, the company, the folder on the author’s computer, the people behind comments, the printer, the GPS position in a photo.
Choose what to clean. Clear a property or replace it with another name, delete or anonymise comments, unhide sheets, drop printer settings, strip photo EXIF.
Download the clean copy and the report. The tool re-inspects the result and lists anything that is still there, so you can check before you share.

Private by design: no upload

A metadata cleaner that uploads your file defeats its own purpose. This page unzips the workbook with JavaScript on your device, edits only the XML parts you ask it to change and zips it again. You can check the Network tab of your browser’s developer tools: the file never leaves the page.

Unchanged parts of the workbook are copied exactly as they were, so formulas, formatting, charts, tables and macros are not rewritten.

What an Excel file can reveal about you

Author and last editorYour full name, or the name of the colleague who edited the file before you, in the document properties.
Company, manager and templateTaken from your Office installation or the template the workbook came from.
Your local folderRecent versions of Excel save the folder of the last save (x15ac:absPath), often including your Windows user name.
Comment authors and emailsNotes keep the author’s name; threaded comments keep a list of people with their email address or account ID.
Hidden and very hidden sheetsVery hidden sheets do not appear in Excel’s Unhide list at all. They can hold old data or lookup tables you forgot about.
Printer and network namesPrinter settings parts store the printer’s name, which can include a server or office name.
Photo EXIF and GPSPictures pasted into a sheet can keep the camera model, the date and the exact place where they were taken.
Links and connectionsPaths to other workbooks, SharePoint addresses, database servers and user names used by queries.

Why Excel’s Document Inspector is not always enough

Excel has a built-in Document Inspector (File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document). It is useful, but it removes whole categories without showing you the values first, so you can’t tell what was actually inside. It also leaves the metadata of embedded pictures untouched, and it is not available in Excel for the web or on a phone.

This tool works the other way around: it shows every value first, lets you keep what you need (for example a neutral author such as “Finance team”) and gives you a written report of what changed.

How to remove personal information in Excel without a tool

In Excel for Windows, go to File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document, tick all the boxes and click Inspect, then Remove All next to “Document Properties and Personal Information”.
Under File › Info › Properties, check the Author, Company and Manager fields and delete what you don’t want to share.
Right-click a sheet tab and choose Unhide to see hidden sheets. Very hidden sheets only appear in the VBA editor (Alt+F11), where you change their Visible property.
Pictures must be cleaned before you insert them: Excel has no option to remove EXIF data from images already in the workbook.

Limitations

Formats. .xlsx, .xlsm, .xltx and .xltm. Old .xls and binary .xlsb files must be converted to .xlsx first.
Encrypted files. A workbook with a password to open can’t be read without that password. Remove the password you know first.
Cell contents are not scanned. Names, emails or IDs typed into cells, headers and footers are your data, not metadata; use Anonymize Excel data for that.
Not removed automatically. External links (use Break links), data connections, macro code and embedded OLE files are listed but left as they are. Names written inside threaded comment text, such as @mentions, are not changed.
Memory. There is no file size limit, but very large workbooks need enough free memory on your device.

Frequently asked questions

Is this Excel metadata remover really free?

Yes. It is 100% free, with no usage limits, no account and no sign-up. There is no paid plan and no feature is locked.

Are my files uploaded?

No. The workbook is opened and cleaned inside your browser. The page only downloads its own code and libraries from this site. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics receives anonymous usage data such as page views, never the contents or names of your files.

What metadata does an Excel file contain?

Document properties (author, last modified by, company, manager, title, subject, keywords, template, created, modified and printed dates), custom properties, comment and note authors, the people list of threaded comments, hidden and very hidden sheets, hidden rows, columns and names, external links, data connections, the folder where the file was last saved, revision IDs, printer settings, custom XML parts, a thumbnail of the first sheet and EXIF data inside pictures.

Can I change the author instead of deleting it?

Yes. Every property is an editable field: type a new value, such as a team name, or leave it empty to remove it. One button puts the same name in Author and Last modified by.

Does it remove the metadata of pictures inside the workbook?

Yes. It shows the EXIF, GPS, XMP and PNG text data of embedded JPEG and PNG images and removes it without recompressing the picture, so image quality does not change.

Will cleaning break my formulas or formatting?

No. Only the XML parts you ask to change are rewritten; everything else is copied byte for byte. Formulas, formatting, charts, tables and macros are kept.

Can I clean .xls files?

Not directly. Old .xls files use a binary format. Convert them to .xlsx with the XLS to XLSX tool first, then clean the new file.

Does it remove personal data inside cells?

No. Names or emails typed into cells are part of your data, not metadata. Use the Anonymize Excel data tool to mask or replace them.

Analytics: only if you accept cookies, the page loads Google Analytics (through Google Tag Manager) to count visits and see which tools are used. It never receives the contents or names of your files. You can change your choice at any time with “Cookie settings” at the bottom of the page.

Remove metadata from an Excel file