How Travel Story Maker processes your photos
Travel Story Maker is privacy-first. This article explains exactly what happens to a photo when you add it to a stop: where it is stored, how it is resized, what metadata is kept and what is stripped.
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Local processing and server copies
When you add a photo, the browser decodes, resizes and stores it in your local draft. Saving the project to your account or confirming a share link uploads a copy that includes the photo. Shared copies are accessible to anyone with the link. The final video is still rendered locally from a canvas.
Automatic resizing
Imports accept images up to 8 MB. The browser normally reduces them to 1280 px on the longest side and re-encodes them to limit project size. Small images may be kept unchanged; if decoding or compression fails, the original may be retained. Your source file is not modified.
EXIF metadata
Re-encoding through a canvas normally removes EXIF from the generated image. This is not a guarantee for every import: small images or compression fallbacks may preserve the original bytes. Remove sensitive metadata yourself before adding a photo you intend to save or share.
Local storage
Photos are embedded in the local project. Use the cross on a thumbnail to remove one from that project, or clear site data to remove the browser’s local copy. This does not delete downloaded backups, account saves or existing shared copies. See media controls.
What appears in the exported video
Video export includes the visible pixels: photos, map, place names and any displayed text. It does not attach the original photo file, but the picture or map can still reveal a location or personal information. Review the finished video before publishing.
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