Do videos and screen recordings have metadata?
Yes — video files carry a metadata block, the same way photos do. A phone video or a screen recording isn't just the picture and sound; it's wrapped in a container format (MP4, MOV, WebM) that has room for extra fields describing the file, and cameras and recording apps fill a lot of that in without asking.
What actually rides along in a video
- Device info — the phone model or software that recorded it, sometimes down to the OS version.
- Timestamps — creation and modification dates, often more precise than what you'd guess from the filename.
- GPS location — many phones tag video with the exact coordinates of where recording started, just like they do with photos.
- Editing history — software used to trim, export, or compress the file leaves its name and version behind.
- Screen recordings specifically — a screen capture app can leave its own name, and the recording still shows every open tab, notification, or file name that happened to flash across your screen while it ran. That's not metadata, but it's the more common way a screen recording leaks something private.
Why it matters
The same reasons that make photo metadata a privacy risk apply to video, and the file sizes make it worse — a 30-second clip you post publicly can carry the same GPS tag as a photo taken from your living room. If you're recording a bug report, a product demo, or a walkthrough for support, the video's metadata isn't something a viewer needs, and it can say more than the footage does.
What scrub covers today
To be direct about it: scrub does not currently scan or clean video files. Today it works on images (PNG, JPEG), text and code, and reads (scan-only, no cleaning yet) PDFs and Word/Office documents. Video support isn't built yet, so if you need to strip metadata from an MP4 or MOV right now, scrub isn't the tool for that job — we'd rather tell you plainly than let you assume it's covered.
What you can do in the meantime: most video editing software has an "export without metadata" or "strip location" option in its export settings — check there before sharing. And if the video is a companion to a screenshot or document, run those through scrub to catch what it does cover.
The short version
Videos and screen recordings carry device, timestamp, and sometimes GPS metadata, just like photos — plus whatever happens to be visible on screen during a recording. scrub handles images and text today; video isn't supported yet, and we're saying so rather than guessing. For what it does cover, get scrub free.