How to Hide Videos on iPhone in 2026

1. The Hidden album, for video

1. Open Photos and select the videos.
2. Tap the More button, the three dots.
3. Tap Hide, then confirm.

Apple's description covers both photos and videos: "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 the album is locked by default with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. You can hide the album itself by turning off Show Hidden Album in Settings, then Apps, then Photos.

The limits are the same as for photos. The lock opens with your phone passcode, and hidden videos keep syncing to iCloud Photos. Everything the album does and does not cover is in the Hidden album guide. Locking the whole Photos app on iOS 18 is covered in how to lock the Photos app.

2. Why locked notes do not work for video

For photos, a locked note is the one built-in option that uses a password separate from your phone passcode. For video it is not available at all. Apple's documentation is specific:

So for a video, the built-in options are the Hidden album and, on iOS 18, locking the Photos app. Both open with your passcode. A separate password over a video means an app. The four methods for photos are in how to hide photos on iPhone. For video, method 3 drops out.

3. Vault apps and video: two things to check

Video is where the gap between a vault that encrypts and one that only locks the screen is widest. Video files are large, and handling them carelessly is easy. Two questions, both answerable from what a developer publishes.

Is the video file itself encrypted?

An app can encrypt photos and thumbnails but store videos as ordinary files. Encrypting a file of several gigabytes takes real engineering that a photo does not. Trust a listing that says "photos and videos are encrypted", or that names exactly what is covered. A listing that says "your photos are encrypted" and nothing about video has not answered the question. That is not the same as a no, but it is worth asking the developer.

Does playback write a readable copy to the phone?

The simplest way to play an encrypted video is to decrypt the whole file to a temporary spot and hand it to the phone's video player. It works. It also leaves a readable video on the phone for as long as playback lasts, and sometimes longer if the app is closed suddenly. An app that has thought about this decrypts in memory instead: the whole file for small videos, or one piece at a time for large ones, so nothing readable is written. Very few developers explain this. The ones that do are telling you they have looked.

What the encryption terms mean covers how to read the claims, and the ranked comparison reports what six named apps publish.

4. How Obscura Photo Vault handles video

Ours, and documented in the security paper, so this is a description rather than something you have to take on trust.

• Videos are encrypted as files, with the same AES-256-GCM as photos. So are their thumbnails and the database entries that name them.
• Large videos are encrypted in pieces. A video from your library is read and encrypted one megabyte at a time, so a long video never has to be held in memory whole. Each piece carries its own check, so a piece that has been altered fails to open.
• Playback decrypts in memory, one piece at a time. The player asks for the part of the video it needs. That piece is decrypted and served from memory. No readable copy of the video is written to the phone during playback.
• The honest limit. When you import a video from the Photos library, iOS hands it over through a temporary file. That file exists briefly while the app encrypts it, and is deleted as soon as encryption finishes. Video recorded inside the app goes through iOS's own camera temporary storage, which iOS manages. Both are the same kind of temporary copy iOS uses for every app, and neither one stays.

5. Recently Deleted applies to video too

Videos are also the thing most likely to have been sent to someone, backed up to a computer, or saved from a message. A vault encrypts its own copy. The other copies are yours to find.

6. Common questions

How do you hide videos on iPhone?

The same way as photos. Open Photos, select the videos, tap the More button, 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 by default. To hide the album itself, turn off Show Hidden Album in Settings, then Apps, then Photos.

Can you lock a video in Notes on iPhone?

No. Apple states that you cannot lock notes that contain video, PDF, audio, Keynote, Pages or Numbers files. The locked-note method works for images only.

Do hidden videos sync to iCloud?

Yes. Apple states that photos and videos hidden on one device are hidden on your other devices too. That means they are syncing. Hiding changes where a video appears, not whether it is uploaded.

Do vault apps encrypt videos or just photos?

It varies. Video files are large, so an app might encrypt photos and thumbnails but treat videos differently. Trust a listing that says exactly what is covered. Look for a statement that videos are encrypted as files. If the developer explains it, also look for playback that decrypts in memory rather than writing a readable copy to the phone.

Does Obscura Photo Vault encrypt videos?

Yes, with the same AES-256-GCM as photos. Large videos from your library are encrypted in one-megabyte pieces as they are read. They play back one piece at a time, so no readable copy of the video is written to the phone during playback. During import a temporary copy briefly exists, and it is deleted as soon as encryption finishes. The security paper documents this.