Three separate things people mix up
The thumbnail file is an image. This tool can remove C2PA, XMP, EXIF, GPS, IPTC, and PNG text from it, and it will not recompress a JPEG. That stops a platform from reading those records off the thumbnail you upload.
The video is not an image. A C2PA box inside an MP4, a CapCut project, or a Premiere export is untouched. Do not export a frame, clean the frame, and expect the video’s metadata to change.
YouTube’s disclosure control for altered or synthetic content is a statement you make in the upload flow. Removing metadata does not check that box and does not uncheck it. If a law or YouTube’s rules require the disclosure, the disclaimer is the short version of “you still have to do that.”
Clean a custom thumbnail
- 1
- 2
Read the credential
The checker shows whether this JPEG still has C2PA or XMP. A template that never used a generative tool may only have ordinary export metadata.
- 3
Strip the JPEG
Use the tool above. The image data stays. GPS and EXIF go if a photo in the design still had them.
- 4
Upload it in the thumbnail slot
The video upload is unchanged. Set any disclosure YouTube asks for separately.
Auto-generated thumbnails
If you let YouTube pick frames from the video, there is no local JPEG for this page to clean. Those frames come from the video file you uploaded.
Questions
Can this remove metadata from the video?
No. Only the still thumbnail you give it. MP4 files are out of scope.
Does a clean thumbnail satisfy YouTube’s AI disclosure?
No. That control is separate. Cleaning a file is not a legal step. See the disclaimer.
Why does a thumbnail from a camera photo still have GPS?
The export kept the photo’s EXIF. This tool removes it. Keep a master if you need the location.
Will the thumbnail get blurrier?
A JPEG cleaned here is not recompressed. Softness from an earlier export is already in the pixels and stays.