How to Hide Photos on iPhone in 2026

"Hide" covers two quite different jobs, and picking the wrong one is why people end up disappointed. One job is keeping a photo from appearing while someone scrolls through your phone. The other is keeping the file unreadable by a person who has the phone and the passcode. The built-in features are good at the first and were not designed for the second. That is why the four methods below are ordered by what they protect against. Everything about iOS here comes from Apple's documentation, linked at the end, and was checked against iOS 26.

1. Which method fits your situation

If your honest answer to "who am I hiding this from" is "nobody in particular, I just do not want it popping up in the widget", method 1 is the right answer and the rest of this page is unnecessary.

On iOS 18 and later there is also a fifth option: locking the whole Photos app behind Face ID. It is covered in how to lock the Photos app. It has the same limit as the Hidden album: the lock opens with your phone passcode.

2. Method 1: the Hidden album

1. Open Photos and select the photos or videos you want to hide.
2. Tap the More button, the three dots.
3. Tap Hide, then confirm.

They move to the Hidden album, in the Utilities section at the bottom of the Albums tab. Apple describes the effect: "When you hide photos and videos, they move to the Hidden album, so they don't appear anywhere else in Photos, like the Library, other albums, or even the Photos widget."

Since iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1 and macOS Ventura, Apple states the Hidden album "is locked by default and requires authentication to unlock". The lock opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your phone passcode.

What you get: the photo stops appearing in the library, in other albums, in the widget, in Memories and in Featured Photos. That is a real result and it solves the common case well.

What you do not get: a separate key. The lock opens with the same passcode that unlocks the phone.

3. Method 2: hide the album itself

A step further, and much less well known. You can stop the Hidden album from appearing at all.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps, then tap Photos.
3. Scroll down and turn off Show Hidden Album.

The photos stay exactly where they are. The album stops appearing in Utilities, so someone poking around the Photos app has nothing obvious to open. Turn the setting back on when you need it.

4. Method 3: a locked note

Notes can lock a single note, and a note can hold an image. This is the only built-in option that lets you use a password separate from your phone passcode. That is why it is worth knowing about.

To set the password, once:

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Notes.
2. Tap Password, and choose an account if you have more than one.
3. Either set a Notes password, or tap Use Device Passcode.

Then, for each note: open the note, tap the More button, and tap Lock.

The video limit matters if that is what you are trying to protect. Hiding videos has its own guide for that reason. Everything iOS offers by way of a password on photos, including this one, is collected in how to password-protect photos and folders. A practical warning: this is a notes app being used as storage. Moving images in and out is manual, there is no album view, and it does not work well past a handful of items.

5. Method 4: an encrypted vault app

This kind of app exists because of the gap the first three methods leave: every one of them opens with a password the phone already holds. A vault app can encrypt the file itself with a password you choose. Then the stored data cannot be read without that password, even by someone holding the phone unlocked.

That is the theory. In practice the word "vault" is used for two very different things, and the difference is the whole point:

• Apps that encrypt the file. The stored data is scrambled. Without the key made from your password there is nothing useful to read.
• Apps that only lock the screen. The files sit in ordinary app storage and a PIN screen sits in front of the app. The lock is part of the app's screen, not of the data.

Both look the same from the outside: an app, a PIN, a grid of photos. Section 7 is how to tell them apart.

We make one of these, so treat this section as coming from an interested party. What we can say without asking you to trust us is that the question has an answer, and any app making the stronger claim should be able to show you that answer in writing.

6. The step almost everyone forgets

To clear it on purpose: open Photos, go to Recently Deleted in Utilities, unlock it, tap Select, then Delete All.

Do this only after you have checked that the copy you kept actually opens. The thirty day window is a safety net. It has rescued a huge number of photos deleted by mistake, and emptying it early gives that up. It is a trade, not a free improvement.

The same goes for iCloud. If iCloud Photos is on, a photo you imported and then deleted was uploaded before you deleted it. Our guide to the Hidden album and everywhere else a photo lives maps every place a single image ends up.

7. How to judge a vault app

Four questions. None of them require you to take anyone's word, including ours, and all four can be answered before you install anything. We also keep a ranked comparison of what six vault apps publish about themselves, built on these questions plus the privacy label.

Does it say what it encrypts, and how?

A specific answer names an encryption method, for example AES-256-GCM, and says what is covered: the photos, the videos, the thumbnails, the database of file names and albums. Vague phrases like "bank level" or "military grade" name nothing, and could be true of an app that encrypts only its settings file. Our guide on what those terms actually mean covers how to read the claim.

Can the developer get your data back if you forget the password?

This is the most useful single question, because the two possible answers cannot both be true. If an app can email you a reset link and give you your photos back, then it holds something that can unlock them without your password. That may be a perfectly reasonable trade for convenience. But it is a different kind of security, and it should be a choice you make knowingly.

Does it need an account, the internet, or both?

An app that works with no account and no connection cannot be uploading your library. You can check that: turn on Airplane Mode and see whether the app still works.

Does it say what it cannot do?

The strongest sign there is. Any real design has limits, and a developer who has thought it through can state them. A page that claims only strengths has either not looked, or is not telling you.

8. Common questions

How do you hide photos on an iPhone?

Open Photos, select the photos, tap the More button (the three dots), then tap Hide and confirm. They move to the Hidden album in the Utilities section of the Albums tab. Since iOS 16 it is locked with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode by default.

How do you hide photos on iPhone without an app?

Use the Hidden album, then turn off Show Hidden Album in Settings so the album is not visible. For a password separate from your passcode, put the image in a note and lock the note. Notes cannot lock videos or some other kinds of file.

Does hiding a photo delete it from iCloud?

No. Apple states that photos hidden on one device are hidden on your other devices too. That means the photo and its hidden setting are both syncing.

Can someone with my passcode see hidden photos?

Yes. The lock on the Hidden album opens with your phone passcode. Every built-in method works this way, because they are all part of a library the passcode already unlocks.

What is the most private way to hide photos on iPhone?

Encrypting the file with a password that is not your phone passcode. That means an app that encrypts the data rather than just locking the screen. It also means accepting that a forgotten password is usually gone for good. Those two things are the same fact seen from two sides.

Do hidden photos show in search or the widget?

Apple states that hidden photos do not appear anywhere else in Photos. It names the Library, other albums and the Photos widget specifically.