How to Hide Photos on iPhone (and Keep Them Hidden)

Short answer: To hide photos on iPhone, open Photos, touch and hold a photo or video, tap Hide and confirm. It moves to the Hidden album, which is locked with Face ID or Touch ID. To hide the album itself, turn off Settings > Apps > Photos > Show Hidden Album. Your iPhone passcode still opens it, so for a separate code, use a locked note.

This guide is for anyone who wants some photos out of their main library, whether that’s to stop them showing up when you hand your phone to someone or to keep them behind a code. It covers four ways, from the quickest to the most private, and what each one leaves exposed. Steps checked against Apple’s documentation for iOS 26 and later.

1. Hide photos in the Photos app

This is the built-in way, and it’s free.

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, tap each photo, tap the More button, then tap Hide.

Hidden items leave your library and the other albums and move to the Hidden album, under Collections > Utilities. They aren’t deleted. Since iOS 16, that album is locked by default and opens with Face ID or Touch ID. To put a photo back, touch and hold it there and tap Unhide. If you can’t find the album later, read how to find hidden photos on iPhone.

2. Hide the Hidden album too

By default, the Hidden album is listed under Utilities, so anyone looking through Photos can see it exists. You can take it out of view:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps, then Photos.
3. Turn off Show Hidden Album.

Your photos stay hidden, and the album no longer appears in Photos. To see them again, turn the setting back on.

3. Lock the whole Photos app

If you don’t want anyone browsing your photos at all, lock the Photos app with Face ID. This works on iOS 18 and later.

1. Go to the Home Screen and touch and hold the Photos icon.
2. Tap Require Face ID (Require Touch ID on iPhones with Touch ID).
3. Confirm with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.

Now Photos asks for Face ID every time it opens, and content from a locked app doesn’t show in search, notification previews or Siri suggestions. Photos comes with iOS, so you can lock it but you can’t hide it.

Apps you’ve given access to your photos keep that access. To check which ones, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos.

4. Move photos into a locked note

This is the most private built-in option. A locked note can use a separate Notes password instead of your iPhone passcode, and locked notes stored in iCloud are end-to-end encrypted.

Set a Notes password first (optional):

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then Notes.
2. Tap Password and choose to use a separate password. Add a hint.

Move the photo:

1. In Photos, open the photo, tap the Share button, then tap Notes.
2. Save it to a new note in an iCloud or On My iPhone account.
3. Open the note in Notes, tap the More button, then tap Lock.

Remove the original:

1. Delete the photo from Photos.
2. Go to Photos > Collections > Utilities > Recently Deleted, unlock it, and delete the photo there too. Otherwise it stays for 30 days.

Limits: notes containing videos can’t be locked, and neither can shared notes, notes with tags or notes in a Gmail or other IMAP account. If you forget a separate Notes password, Apple can’t recover it. For more, see how to lock notes on iPhone.

Or use a photo vault app

Vault apps keep photos inside the app, usually behind their own code. They make sense when someone close to you knows your iPhone passcode, or when you want videos behind a separate code too. Before you trust one, check whether the free version backs up, whether it shows ads, and what its App Privacy label says. Our guides on photo vault apps for iPhone and whether photo vault apps are safe walk through that.

Cubbylock is in development. It’s designed to keep photos, scans and files encrypted on your iPhone behind a code that isn’t your iPhone passcode.

Clean up the copies

Hiding one copy doesn’t hide the others. After you hide or move a photo, check:

• Messages and chat apps. Photos you sent or received stay in the conversation.
• Shared albums. A photo added to a shared album stays there for everyone in it.
• Recently Deleted. Deleted photos wait there for 30 days.
• Other cloud services. Google Photos, Dropbox and similar apps may have backed up the photo already.

What this doesn’t protect

Each method has limits. Know them before you rely on it.

• Your iPhone passcode opens the Hidden album. Face ID is a shortcut, not a separate code. Anyone who knows your passcode can open Hidden and Recently Deleted.
• Show Hidden Album is just a setting. Anyone with access to Settings can turn it back on.
• iCloud Photos syncs hidden items. Photos you hide on your iPhone are hidden, not removed, on your iPad and Mac. Anyone who can unlock those devices can open the album there.
• Locking Photos doesn’t lock your photos everywhere. Apps with photo access, your other devices and iCloud.com still show them.
• A locked note protects only what’s in it. The original in Photos and the copy in Recently Deleted stay until you delete them.
• None of this helps with copies you’ve shared, or with someone watching you type your code.
• iCloud Photos isn’t end-to-end encrypted by default. It becomes end-to-end encrypted only when you turn on Advanced Data Protection (Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Advanced Data Protection). Shared Albums aren’t end-to-end encrypted even then.

How we checked this

We checked every step against Apple’s own documentation on 30 Oct 2026: the Hidden album article (support.apple.com/104987), the lock or hide an app section of the iPhone User Guide, the Notes lock article (support.apple.com/102537), the recover deleted photos article (support.apple.com/124460) and the Advanced Data Protection article (support.apple.com/108756), for iOS 26 and later. We haven’t tested this guide on a device yet.

Methods compared

Method	Hidden from people using your phone	Locked behind a separate code	Encrypted separately	Works for videos
Hidden album	Yes, out of the library	No, opens with your passcode	No	Yes
Hidden album, turned off	Yes, album not listed	No, opens with your passcode once turned on	No	Yes
Locked Photos app	Partly: app needs Face ID	No, opens with your passcode	No	Yes
Locked note	Yes, once the original is deleted	Yes, with a separate Notes password	Yes, end-to-end in iCloud	No
Cubbylock (in development)	Designed for it	Designed to use its own code	Designed to encrypt on device	Not confirmed

For most people, Hide plus turning off Show Hidden Album is enough to keep photos out of casual view. If someone close to you knows your passcode, move the photos somewhere with its own code and delete the originals. The Hidden album comparison explains the trade-offs.