Practical guide · files stay on your device

Inspect and clean iPhone photos without guessing the format.

Keep your original photo and let any iCloud download finish. Choose it from Photos or Files, then inspect the format your browser actually supplies. An eligible JPEG may use Preserve; HEIC needs a supported, explicitly accepted SDR conversion that does not preserve HDR. Save a separate result and reopen it yourself. Codec details and test evidence are below, not prerequisites for choosing a photo.

Publisher and editorial responsibility: Project Hubbs · Updated 31 October 2026

Inspect your files for free

No account required. Prepare resources explicitly before local processing. Inspection is free; cleaning and cleaned downloads require a license.

Can PixelRinse clean my file?

Look up a format or extension. No file selection, upload or engine download.

Real eligibility requires local inspection of the file and selected operation.

Key takeaways

Inspect first for free. File format and structure—not the extension alone—determine eligible cleaning.
Supported embedded metadata confirmed by the actual output report.
100 selected references / 1 GiB per tab; one active group of 20 files / 200 MiB. Later groups remain unread until you save/discard and explicitly release the current group. Selected files and outputs are not persisted.

Example

Measured desktop-browser camera example, not a physical-iPhone test: a licensed public iPhone 15 Pro JPEG had raw dimensions 5712×4284, orientation 6 and an AMPF multi-picture marker. Preserve was refused. After an explicit compatibility check and consent, primary-only PNG conversion saved and independently reopened at 4284×5712. Inspected EXIF Model, Orientation and descriptive/GPS fields were absent; unchanged HDR and complete anonymity were not established.

How to do it safely

Keep the original in Photos or Files. If it lives in iCloud, let it finish downloading first.
Optional: run the local readiness check on the Help page. It does not download engines and never needs you to clear your license or site data.
Choose the photo, then explicitly Prepare and inspect if resources are not ready. Review the actual detected format and the current operation’s eligibility. Inspection is free.
Keep Preserve when it is eligible. If the file needs conversion, choose Check conversion; not checked does not mean unsupported. HEIC / HEIF and some multi-picture JPEGs require explicitly consented primary-only SDR conversion. Accept only the operation and file you intend to convert.
With a license, clean and review What changed and the output name/type. Only the exact built-in fictional demo can be cleaned free. Technical details separate metadata removal, encoded preservation and decoded comparisons.
Choose Save, or Share if available, then Save to Files or another offered iOS destination. Reopen the saved copy yourself: starting a download or opening the share sheet does not confirm saving.

Codec behavior, test evidence and diagnostics

Photos and Files can hand Safari a different representation of the same photo. Comparing the two only tells you what your browser supplies; it is not a way to recover unsupported content.
The readiness check probes synthetic PNG/JPEG and a tiny worker. Preparing application/codec resources is a separate explicit action while connected.
JPEG Preserve removes supported metadata without re-encoding verified entropy scans. Minimal orientation EXIF and coherent ICC color bytes (including descriptions that can identify a source) may remain. Known arithmetic, progressive and predictive-lossless cases have Preserve fixtures; Fresh decoding can still depend on the browser.
HEIC / HEIF Fresh Export converts to 8-bit SDR PNG/JPEG and discards depth, gain-map and thumbnail auxiliaries. Validated local ICC/P3/BT.2020 mappings and bounded grids can work without native HEIC. HDR brightness, gamut and precision are not preserved. Alpha, sequences, nested grids, conflicting color and unknown dependencies refuse safely.
Lossy JPEG output can change pixels. A successful output is not proof of unchanged HDR or anonymity.
Opening or completing the iOS share sheet does not prove the file was saved to Photos; available destinations are controlled by iOS.
If a file is refused, the item’s Local diagnostic lets you copy only its fixed reason code, stage, build and requested operation. Do not send the original photo, filenames, metadata values, coordinates, license or order details.

What this workflow removes

Supported embedded metadata confirmed by the actual output report.
HEIC secondary depth/gain-map/thumbnail content only in explicitly consented primary-only conversions.

What it does not promise

100 selected references / 1 GiB per tab; one active group of 20 files / 200 MiB. Later groups remain unread until you save/discard and explicitly release the current group. Selected files and outputs are not persisted.
25 MiB per file. JPEG Preserve validates encoded structure without requiring pixel decode. JPEG/PNG Fresh and HEIC primary photos are bounded to 50,331,648 pixels (50.3 MP), 8192 pixels per side. HEIC separately allows 64M primary coded-tile pixels and 20M discarded auxiliary coded pixels, at most 256 items, and a conservative 1536 MiB allocation guard. AVIF/TIFF retain their 40 MP subsets. These are refusal bounds, not a guarantee of browser memory safety. Full 48 MP exports have generated-fixture desktop evidence only, with substantial memory use even after cancellation/retry improvements. Physical iPhone memory, Photos/Files delivery and saving remain unverified.
HEIC export is SDR only and primary-only. Physical iPhone 17 Pro Max import and Safari display fidelity are not verified in this release.

Retained

Visible faces, signs, addresses and other identifying image content.
Minimal JPEG orientation and coherent ICC rendering information where reported; ICC descriptions can identify a source.
Your original file and copies in Photos, Files or cloud libraries are unchanged.

Not checked

Physical iPhone 17 Pro Max import, actual Photos/Files picker behavior and Safari display fidelity have not been verified in this release.
A successful synthetic readiness probe is not an all-format, all-camera or all-browser compatibility test.

Understand the evidence

Executed evidence includes genuine JPEG coding fixtures, generated HEIC grids/transforms/color mappings, and a public licensed iPhone 13 Pro ICC-grid/gain-map fixture compared locally with independent native HEIF + LittleCMS rendering. This is fixture evidence, not a physical iPhone 17 Pro Max or Safari test, HDR-preservation proof, or universal support.

Processing, comparisons and verification receipts stay local. PixelRinse sends no product-usage events. Payment and legacy license upgrades are separate online actions that never include selected file contents, names, hashes or metadata.

Check exact format support Understand verification Privacy and limits Photo GPS removal and visible clues

Common questions

Why does an iPhone photo arrive as JPEG instead of HEIC?: The picker/browser may provide a converted representation. PixelRinse checks actual bytes, not just the extension. Photos and Files can differ; changing Camera settings is not required to diagnose or repair the existing file.
Can PixelRinse save straight to Photos?: No automatic destination is promised. On capable browsers, explicitly share the cleaned file and choose an offered iOS destination, or use Download and Save to Files. Verify the saved copy yourself.

Free inspection. One-time cleaning unlock.

Individual Pro is EUR 99 total, one-time, including applicable tax. No product tax is added on top. Lifetime (perpetual) use of the version you buy, plus 12 months of updates; update expiry does not revoke that access.

Merchant processing fees are covered. External network or issuer fees outside PixelRinse may be additional. Load purchase options on the pricing page to see currently configured methods.

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