How to remove ALL metadata using ffmpeg?

When you want to use ffmpeg to delete all metadata from a media file, you can use the -map_metadata option. Appending -1 to this option tells ffmpeg to remove all metadata. Here is a specific command example:

bash
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -codec copy output.mp4

Let me explain each part of this command:

• -i input.mp4: This is the input file you want to process.
• -map_metadata -1: This option instructs ffmpeg to remove all metadata.
• -codec copy: This specifies copying the video and audio streams without re-encoding, enabling quick processing without quality loss.
• output.mp4: This is the output file after processing.

This command generates a new video file output.mp4 that contains no metadata from the original video input.mp4. The process does not alter the video or audio streams themselves; it simply removes the metadata.