MetaForce

A GUI metadata editor powered by ExifTool. Read, edit, delete, and write metadata for 400+ file formats including images, video, audio, documents, and executables.

Features

• Read ALL metadata — every tag ExifTool can extract, not just a handful
• Edit any tag — nothing is read-only; change group, tag name, and value freely
• Delete tags — remove individual metadata entries
• Add custom tags — inject new metadata fields
• Save As — export to a new file with modified metadata
• Save In-Place — overwrite the original file
• Anonymize File — one-click privacy: deletes GPS, serial numbers, camera info, maker notes; replaces author/copyright/timestamps with random data; safe for all formats
• Strip All — remove every trace of metadata (creates .bak backup)
• Search & Filter — live text search and group-based filtering
• Dark UI — modern sidebar layout with keyboard shortcuts
• Context menu — right-click to copy tag name, value, or both

Supported Formats

ExifTool supports 400+ file formats. Common ones include:

Category	Formats
Images	JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, HEIC, RAW (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG, RAF...)
Video	MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, FLV, WebM, 3GP
Audio	MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, AAC, WAV, WMA, Opus
Documents	PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB
Executables	EXE, DLL, SYS (PE version info, timestamps)
Archives	ZIP, 7Z, RAR, GZIP
Other	Torrent, Font files, DICOM, FITS, and many more

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+ (with tkinter — included by default on Windows)
• ExifTool (see below)

Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/EynaExp/MetaForce.git
   cd MetaForce

2. Download ExifTool for Windows

   • Get the 64-bit version from: https://exiftool.sourceforge.net/
   • Direct link: exiftool-13.59_64.zip
   • Extract the zip
   • Rename exiftool(-k).exe to exiftool.exe
   • Place exiftool.exe AND the exiftool_files/ folder into bin/:

   MetaForce/
   ├── metaforce.py
   └── bin/
       ├── exiftool.exe
       └── exiftool_files/
           └── ...  (ExifTool's Perl libraries)
   

3. Run

   python metaforce.py

   Or double-click MetaForce.bat

Note: No Python packages to install. MetaForce uses only the standard library (tkinter, subprocess, json).

Usage

1. Open a file — click "Open File" or use the sidebar button
2. Browse metadata — all tags appear in the table, searchable and filterable
3. Edit a tag — select it, modify the value in the bottom panel, click "Apply"
4. Add a tag — fill in Group/Tag/Value fields, click "+ Add New"
5. Delete a tag — select it, press Delete or right-click → "Delete Tag"
6. Save — "Save In-Place" overwrites the original, "Save As" exports to a new file
7. Strip all — removes all metadata, creates a .bak backup first
8. Anonymize — one-click privacy cleanup; deletes GPS, serial numbers, maker notes, ICC profiles; replaces required fields (author, timestamps) with random values to avoid breaking the file

Project Structure

MetaForce/
├── metaforce.py        # Main application
├── MetaForce.bat       # Windows launcher
├── requirements.txt    # Dependencies (none — stdlib only)
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

How It Works

MetaForce is a Python GUI wrapper around Phil Harvey's ExifTool, the gold-standard command-line metadata tool. It:

1. Calls exiftool -json -G -n <file> to read all metadata as structured JSON
2. Displays entries in a searchable, editable table
3. On save, writes modified tags back using exiftool -<tag>=<value> <file>

This gives access to every tag ExifTool supports — tens of thousands across hundreds of formats — with full read/write capability.

Credits

• ExifTool by Phil Harvey — the metadata engine behind MetaForce
• tkinter — Python's standard GUI toolkit

License

MIT License — see LICENSE

Disclaimer

MetaForce modifies file metadata in place. Always keep backups of important files. The "Strip All" feature automatically creates a .bak copy, but manual saves do not.