Vault9 does not remove location from photos. Apple’s settings do: stop the Camera from saving location, and send photos without it. Do that before the photos reach Vault9, and follow your newsroom’s or client’s rules first. This article covers phone settings only, not legal or source-protection advice.
Turn off location in the Camera
Your iPhone saves location in a photo only if the Camera app can use Location Services.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security, then Location Services.
- Tap Camera, then tap Never.
This covers new photos only. Photos you already took keep their location.
Send a photo without its location
- In Photos, select the photo.
- Tap the share button, then tap Options.
- Turn off Location. The label “Location Not Included” appears above the Options button.
- Send the photo.
To remove location from a photo that is already in your library, open it from Albums and tap the More button. Then tap Adjust Info, Adjust Location, and No Location. Do this before you import the photo. A file that you import keeps its metadata, and an export gives the same file back.
Location is not the only thing in a picture. Faces, signs and places show too, so look at the photo before you send it.
Take the originals out of the main library
With iCloud Photos on, a photo in your library also appears on your other devices. A delete on one device deletes it on the others. That is the reason to keep source material out of that library.
- Import the photos from Photos into Vault9. Albums help: one for each story.
- Open each item and check it.
- Delete the originals in Photos yourself.
- Open Recently Deleted in Photos and delete the items there too. Photos keeps deleted items for 30 days.
A camera that writes no location
A photo or video from the Vault9 camera holds no location. It goes only into the vault and is not written to Photos, so there is nothing to clean up later. See the Vault9 camera.
Backups and the kit
The iCloud backup holds the encrypted vault in your own iCloud storage, and never the Secret Key. It is the only copy of the vault outside the phone. Your iPhone backup does not hold the vault. If the vault is not in the iCloud backup, a lost phone means your files are gone.
Your Emergency Kit holds the Secret Key. Keep it away from your phone: on paper in a very safe place, or on another device that uses a different iCloud account. A kit with your pattern written on it opens the vault for anyone who also has a copy of your files.
Limits
Vault9 does not protect against someone who has your unlocked phone, or against malware on the phone. It has no decoy vault, duress mode or hidden vault, so a person who makes you unlock it can open the vault.
An export is decrypted and goes to the iOS share sheet, so check the file before you send it on. And Vault9 is storage. It does not replace secure messaging, consent rules or your newsroom’s policy.
Sources
- Apple Platform Security: Manage location metadata in Photos (checked 2026-11-06)
- Apple Support: Delete photos on your iPhone or iPad (checked 2026-11-06)
