XMP.
The second place your coordinates live, in a completely different format, under the same marker code as the first.
XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) is Adobe's XML-based metadata format. In a JPEG it is carried in an APP1 segment whose payload begins with the identifier http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/. Large packets spill into extended XMP segments identified by http://ns.adobe.com/xmp/extension/.
What it is
Where EXIF is a compact binary table written by the camera, XMP is human-readable XML written mostly by editing software. It records the editing history, the creator, ratings, keywords, copyright statements, the software that produced the file — and, very often, the GPS coordinates all over again, copied from EXIF by whatever tool touched the image last.
Why it matters
XMP is the reason "I removed the EXIF" is not the same sentence as "I removed the location". A tool that handles EXIF and leaves XMP has left the coordinates in the file in plain text.
It is also the clearest illustration of why the marker code cannot decide. APP1 is EXIF or XMP. Both are dropped here, but a tool that assumed APP1 meant EXIF and handled only the first one it found would leave the second untouched.
editing history, creator, sometimes GPS again. A dry run over a file carrying both EXIF and XMP shows two APP1 lines with different labels and the same verdict.
Related terms
Common questions.
Is XMP useful for anything?
Very. It is how professional workflows carry captions, credits, licensing and edit history between applications. It is useful and it is identifying, which is exactly the tension a scrubber resolves in one direction.
What is extended XMP?
A JPEG segment cannot exceed roughly 64 KB, so a large XMP packet is split across additional segments with their own identifier. ScrubPony recognises and drops those too.
Will dropping XMP break my photo?
No. It carries no display information — no colour, no orientation, no structure. Nothing in a viewer needs it.
Get ScrubPony
Strips identifying metadata out of JPEGs without touching a pixel. C99, no dependencies beyond libc, macOS and Linux, MIT-licensed.