Social Media Upload Prep: The Metadata Checklist for 2026
The five-minute pre-flight
- Gather originals locally. Cloud placeholders (tiny iCloud files) break parsers. Download full-size first.
- Check one file per source. The checker tells you which pipeline (phone, editor, AI tool) is leaking markers.
- Clean in batches. Up to 30 files per run; watch for the Verified-clean badges.
- Handle specials: covers extracted from video, AVIF exports (become PNG), files over 15MB (compress first).
- Post, and note outcomes. If a label appears anyway, you’ve narrowed the cause to pixels, not files.
Platform quick reference
- Meta (IG/FB/Threads): C2PA + XMP → “AI Info”.
- TikTok: stills and covers; MP4 needs re-encode if marked.
- Pinterest: C2PA plus classifiers; restricted reach when flagged.
- Etsy/marketplaces: fewer auto-labels, more manual review risk.
- Discord/Bluesky/Reddit: no labels, but metadata persists publicly — clean for privacy regardless.
Make it boring
The goal is a ritual, not an investigation: same folders, same batch size, same verification step. Teams should document the pipeline so every contributor ships identical, clean files.
Put it into practice
Run your files through the free metadata remover — browser-only, batch-ready, verified clean.