ExifTool for Video: Reading and Editing Video Metadata

ExifTool is best known for photos, but it is equally useful for video files. Phones, action cameras and drones record dates, device details and sometimes GPS tracks inside their videos. ExifTool can reveal this information and, for common formats, correct it without re-encoding the video itself.

Which video formats are supported

ExifTool reads metadata from a long list of video containers, including MP4, MOV and other QuickTime-based formats, AVI, MKV, WebM, M2TS and more. Writing is supported for QuickTime-based files such as MP4 and MOV, which covers most phone and camera footage. Many other containers are read-only, so check the supported file types table on the official website for a specific format.

Reading video metadata

Run ExifTool on a clip exactly as you would on a photo:

$ exiftool clip.mp4

To focus on the most useful details, request specific tags:

$ exiftool -Duration -ImageSize -VideoFrameRate -CompressorID -CreateDate clip.mp4

Adding -G1 shows which QuickTime atom each tag comes from, for example [Track1] or [Keys], which helps when the same field appears in several places.

Fixing video dates

QuickTime dates are normally stored in UTC, while many tools display local time. If your video shows the wrong date in a media library, update the main date tags:

$ exiftool -QuickTime:CreateDate="2026:06:15 14:30:00" -QuickTime:ModifyDate="2026:06:15 14:30:00" clip.mp4

The -api QuickTimeUTC option tells ExifTool to treat the date values you supply as local time and convert them to UTC correctly:

$ exiftool -api QuickTimeUTC "-QuickTime:CreateDate=2026:06:15 14:30:00" clip.mov

To shift every date by a fixed amount, for example when a camera clock was an hour behind, use the same syntax as for photos:

$ exiftool "-QuickTime:CreateDate+=1:00" "-QuickTime:ModifyDate+=1:00" clip.mp4

Extracting embedded GPS and timed data

Some cameras store GPS coordinates and sensor data as a timed stream inside the video. By default ExifTool reports only the first sample. Use -ee to extract all embedded samples:

$ exiftool -ee -G3 -gps:all clip.mp4

You can even export a GPS track using one of the print format files distributed with ExifTool, such as the GPX format file found in the fmt_files folder of the source distribution:

$ exiftool -p fmt_files/gpx.fmt -ee clip.mp4 > track.gpx

Batch processing video folders

To list the duration and creation date of every MP4 and MOV in a folder tree:

$ exiftool -r -ext mp4 -ext mov -csv -Duration -CreateDate ./videos > videos.csv

And to rename clips by their recording date:

$ exiftool -r -ext mp4 "-FileName<CreateDate" -d "%Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e" ./videos

Limitations to keep in mind

• Metadata writing is limited to supported containers. Read-only formats can be inspected but not edited.
• Removing GPS from videos depends on where it is stored. Location kept inside timed streams may not be removable with simple tag deletion, so verify with -ee afterwards.
• Large videos take longer to rewrite because ExifTool must copy the file when it writes metadata.

For photo privacy, see our guide on removing GPS metadata, and get the latest ExifTool from the download section.