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Removing metadata from many Office files at once: how to run a batch and check it

Last updated: 19 October 2026

This page is about running many files through one pass. What each kind of hidden data is, and where it lives, is in hidden data types in Word, Excel and PowerPoint; the checks for a single file before it goes out are in the pre-send checklist.

Before you start

1. Copy the folder. Run the batch on the copy. Microsoft's page on inspecting documents warns that "it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes", and a batch removes it from many files at once.
2. Group the files by the choices they need. Tracked changes are the main reason: accepting them keeps the proposed text, rejecting them keeps the original (see accept or reject tracked changes). If one contract needs its changes rejected and the rest accepted, it goes in a batch of its own. The same applies to hidden sheets or slides that some files need to keep.
3. Take out the files that will not go through. ScrubDrop cleans .docx, .xlsx or .pptx files. It refuses macro-enabled files (.docm, .xlsm, .pptm), the older binary formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt) and digitally signed files, because any change would break the signature. Files saved in the Strict Open XML format are refused too, even with a .docx, .xlsx or .pptx name; save them again in the ordinary format first. Excel binary workbooks (.xlsb) are not supported either. Deal with those separately.

Three ways to run a batch

Document Inspector, one file after another

Document Inspector is opened from the document itself: File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document, as the Microsoft page above describes. For a handful of files, opening each one in turn is the plain route. It is also the slowest, and the easiest to get wrong on file twelve of forty.

A macro that calls RemoveDocumentInformation

Word, Excel and PowerPoint each have a method a macro can call on one file after another:

• Word's Document.RemoveDocumentInformation "removes sensitive information, properties, comments, and other metadata from a document". What to remove is one of the WdRemoveDocInfoType values, such as comments, revisions, document properties and personal information.
• Excel's Workbook.RemoveDocumentInformation "removes all information of the specified type from the workbook"; the types are the XlRemoveDocInfoType values, which include printer paths, inactive data connections and the Data Model.
• PowerPoint's Presentation.RemoveDocumentInformation "removes document information, such as personal information, comments, and document properties".

Two things to know before you rely on it. First, the lists are the whole of what each method can be asked to remove. Excel's list, for example, has no value of its own for hidden sheets, hidden rows or links to other workbooks. Do not assume the method removes them; check them separately. Second, the reference describes Word's revisions value only as "removes revision marks"; it does not say whether the changes are accepted or rejected. Try it on a copy of one file and compare the text before you run it on a folder.

A tool that takes several files at once

ScrubDrop Pro takes several .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files in one go, in your browser; the files are not uploaded. The free version takes one file at a time. In a batch:

• Each file is read first, and the list shows how many items were found in it, or why it was refused.
• The categories you tick, and the choice to accept or reject tracked changes, apply to every file in the batch.
• Each file is cleaned and then re-checked on its own, with separate parsers. A file that fails its re-check is not written; the others still are.
• If at least one file is written, the result is one ZIP with the written files and a JSON audit report. Each file keeps its name with "-scrubbed" added, and a number is added where two would have the same name. The report records, for each file, a SHA-256 hash of the original and what was found; for a written file, the hash of the file written, what was removed and what the re-check looked at; for a file that was refused or not written, the reason. If no file passes, no ZIP is offered.

The summary after the run says how many files were re-checked, how many were written and how many were not. Removing the structural categories (hidden content, links to other files, embedded objects and the rest) is part of Pro; the free version removes properties, comments and tracked changes.

Checking the batch

1. Count. The number of files that came back should match the number you put in, less the ones listed as refused or not written. A missing file is easy to overlook in a ZIP of forty.
2. Read the reasons. A refused file is still in its original state. Either fix what the reason names and run it again, or clean it by hand.
3. Search the parts for a word you know. Pick a name that should be gone, such as an author or a client. Make a copy of a cleaned file, rename it to .zip, unzip it and search every file inside for that word. A search of the document in Word does not look in the parts that Word does not show.
4. Match the files to the report. Before sending, compare the hash of each file you attach with the one the report gives for the file written. A file that was edited after cleaning will not match.
5. Open each file. The re-check confirms that the chosen categories are gone and that the text you can read matches the original, after the tracked changes are accepted or rejected as you chose. It cannot judge whether the visible content is fit to send.

What a batch leaves in every file

• What is on the page. Names in headers, a client's logo, figures in cells: these are content, and no batch decides whether they should go.
• White or tiny text, and cells outside the print area. ScrubDrop lists them but does not remove them, in either version; only a person can tell whether they matter.
• The file names. "Offer — first draft for J.xlsx" says what it says. Rename the files before you send them.
• The insides of pictures and media it does not clean. Pictures in formats ScrubDrop does not clean keep their metadata, and embedded video and audio files are kept as they are (see the limits).
• Copies already sent. A batch changes the copies in front of you, not those already in someone's inbox or a shared folder.

Questions

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 19 October 2026.