How to hide photos on iPhone (and why the Hidden album isn't private)

Your iPhone can already hide photos. It takes a few seconds, it’s free, and for some people it’s enough. This guide shows you how to do it, then explains plainly what the Hidden album protects you from and what it doesn’t, so you can decide whether you need more.

The steps below follow Apple’s own support article and iPhone User Guide.

How to hide a photo on iPhone

1. Open Photos.
2. Touch and hold the photo or video you want to hide.
3. Tap Hide, then confirm.

To hide several at once, tap Select, choose the photos and videos, tap the More button, then tap Hide.

Hidden items move to the Hidden album. They no longer appear in your Library, in other albums or in the Photos widget on your Home Screen.

How to find and unhide them

1. Open Photos and tap Collections.
2. Scroll down to Utilities and tap Hidden.
3. Tap View Album and unlock it.
4. Touch and hold a photo, then tap Unhide.

Make sure the Hidden album is locked

Since iOS 16, the Hidden album is locked by default. To check:

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Photos.
2. Make sure Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID, or Use Passcode) is on.

While you’re there, you can turn off Show Hidden Album. The album then disappears from Photos entirely until you turn it back on.

That’s it. For keeping a few photos out of sight when you hand your phone to a friend, this works well.

What the Hidden album doesn’t protect against

The Hidden album is designed to keep photos out of view. It isn’t designed to keep them away from someone who can get into your phone, and Apple’s documentation is clear about why.

Your passcode opens it

Apple’s iPhone User Guide says the Hidden collection unlocks “using Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode”. So anyone who knows your phone’s passcode can open it. That includes a partner who has seen you type it, a family member, or anyone who looked over your shoulder. The lock is the same lock as your phone.

It isn’t separately encrypted

Hidden photos stay in your normal photo library. They’re protected by your iPhone’s built-in data protection, like everything else on the phone, but Apple doesn’t describe any extra encryption for the Hidden album itself. Hiding changes where a photo shows up, not how it’s stored.

It follows you to your other devices

Apple says that if you use iCloud Photos, “the photos that you hide on one device are hidden on your other devices too”. Hidden is a label, and it syncs. Your hidden photos are on your iPad and Mac as well, behind each device’s own unlock. Turning off the lock or showing the album on one device is a setting you have to check everywhere.

Apple holds the cloud keys by default

With iCloud Photos on Apple’s standard data protection, which is the default, your photos are encrypted in transit and on Apple’s servers, but Apple holds the keys. They’re end-to-end encrypted only if you turn on Advanced Data Protection. Even then, Apple notes that some Photos metadata, including whether an item is hidden, stays under standard protection.

There’s no plan B

There is one Hidden album and no decoy. If someone insists you open it, you open everything in it.

The other built-in options

iPhone has two more tools people use to keep photos private. Both are worth knowing about.

Lock the Photos app

Since iOS 18, you can lock an app: touch and hold its icon, then tap Require Face ID. A locked app needs authentication to open, and Apple says its information won’t appear in places like search, notifications or Siri suggestions.

The limits are similar to the Hidden album. Apple says a locked app “requires Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to open it”, so your passcode still opens it. The lock is only on that iPhone and doesn’t sync, so your other devices aren’t covered. Apple doesn’t describe any extra encryption. Photos can be locked but not hidden, because apps that come with iOS can’t be hidden. Full comparison: Hidewell Vault vs iPhone app lock.

Put photos in a locked note

Apple Notes can lock a note with your phone’s passcode or a separate Notes password. This one is real encryption: Apple’s Platform Security guide says a locked note and its attachments are encrypted with AES-GCM, and locked notes are end-to-end encrypted in iCloud. If you use a separate Notes password, your phone’s passcode won’t open them.

It has its own limits for photos, though. You can’t lock a note that contains video. A locked note’s title stays visible in the notes list. Images live in notes, not in your photo library, so there are no albums. And if you forget the Notes password, Apple can’t help you get those notes back. Full comparison: Hidewell Vault vs Apple Notes locked notes.

When you need an encrypted vault

If the worry is a nosy friend scrolling your camera roll, the Hidden album with its lock turned on is enough.

If the worry is someone who knows your passcode, someone with a copy of your phone’s storage or your cloud account, or someone pressuring you to open your photos, you want photos that are encrypted under a key that only you control and that your phone’s passcode can’t open. That’s what we built Hidewell Vault for:

• Its own key. You open each vault with a pattern that is separate from your phone’s passcode. Every guess has to run through your phone’s own security chip and Argon2id, one at a time, on that phone.
• Real encryption. Files are encrypted with AES-256 on your phone before they’re stored anywhere.
• Videos too. Photos, Live Photos and videos at full quality. Videos play straight from the encrypted vault.
• A plan B. Each pattern opens its own vault, and nothing on screen or on disk shows how many exist. A duress pattern opens a decoy and quietly destroys access to your other vaults on that phone.
• Your cloud, your key. Backups are encrypted on your phone, stored in your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive, and keyed from a 12-word recovery phrase that only you have.
• Nothing to report. No account, no analytics and no connections to our servers. The cryptography core is open source, so anyone can check how your keys are made.

When you move photos into Hidewell, it helps you delete the originals from your library and empty Recently Deleted, so no unencrypted copies are left behind.

The trade-off is the honest one: if you lose both your pattern and your recovery phrase, nobody can recover your files, including us.

See how it stacks up against the Hidden album, or browse all comparisons.