Metadata Remover
The Metadata Remover is an FFmpeg Builder flow element that removes selected metadata from media files during processing. It allows fine-grained control over which metadata elements to remove, ensuring your output files are clean of unnecessary or undesired information.
This flow element only affects metadata present at the point when this flow element executes. If other flow elements add or modify metadata after this flow element, those changes will remain intact.
Use Cases
- Remove personal or identifying information from media files before sharing.
- Clean up unwanted metadata from downloaded or archived videos.
- Ensure files have minimal metadata for compatibility or compliance purposes.
- Strip language, titles, or custom tags added by software like iTunes or Plex.
Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Video | Remove metadata from video tracks. |
| Audio | Remove metadata from audio tracks. |
| Subtitle | Remove metadata from subtitle tracks. |
| Remove Images | Remove any embedded images, such as thumbnails or cover art, from the video streams. |
| Remove Title | Remove titles set on any selected tracks. |
| Remove Language | Remove language tags from audio and subtitle tracks. |
| Remove Additional Metadata | Remove all non-standard or custom metadata, such as those added by iTunes (-map_metadata -1 in FFmpeg). |
Behavior Details
Video, Audio, Subtitle
When enabled, this flow element will inspect the selected stream types and remove applicable metadata (title, language) if the respective removal options are also selected.
Remove Images
Scans video streams for image streams (such as cover art) and deletes them entirely.
Remove Title / Remove Language
If enabled, will explicitly set the Title or Language of matching streams to "Removed". This ensures no accidental retention of these values.
Remove Additional Metadata
Adds the FFmpeg flag -map_metadata -1, which strips all global and stream metadata, ensuring a clean file. This is especially useful to remove metadata inserted by third-party applications.
Force Re-encode
If any metadata is removed, this flow element will set the file to force re-encode to ensure the changes are applied.
Example Workflow
- Metadata Remover (with Video, Audio, Remove Language, Remove Title, Remove Additional Metadata selected)
- Subsequent flow elmenets add chapters or new metadata (these will remain)
Technical Notes
- Removal is performed per stream, and the flow element ensures no orphan metadata remains in the selected areas.
- Uses FFmpeg arguments and internal stream manipulations to clean metadata.
- Embedded images are explicitly detected by stream type and deleted.