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Hide Photos Using the Built-In Hidden Album
iOS has a native feature that moves photos out of your main library into a separate Hidden album. Starting with iOS 16, the Hidden album is locked behind Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode – so hidden photos are actually private, not just tucked away.
- Open the Photos app.
- Find the photo (or photos) you want to hide.
- Tap “Select” in the top right to select multiple photos, or open a single photo.
- Tap the three-dot menu (or the Share button) and choose “Hide.”
- Confirm by tapping “Hide Photo” (or “Hide X Photos” for multiple).
The photos vanish from your main library, the “Recents” album, and all other albums including Memories and Featured Photos. They’re not deleted – they’re moved to the Hidden album under Utilities at the bottom of the Albums tab.
Find and View Hidden Photos
- Open Photos and tap “Albums” at the bottom.
- Scroll down to the “Utilities” section.
- Tap “Hidden.”
- Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
- Your hidden photos appear here.
To unhide a photo, open it in the Hidden album, tap the three-dot menu, and select “Unhide.” The photo returns to your main library in its original chronological position.
Hide the Hidden Album Itself
Even the presence of a “Hidden” album can raise questions. You can make the Hidden album completely invisible from the Albums tab.
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Photos.
- Toggle off “Show Hidden Album.”
With this toggle off, the Hidden album doesn’t appear anywhere in the Photos app. Your hidden photos still exist and sync with iCloud, but there’s no visible way to access them through the Photos app. To see them again, go back to Settings and toggle “Show Hidden Album” back on.
Someone who knows about this setting could toggle it back on. But they’d need your device passcode to view the album contents (because of the Face ID / Touch ID lock), so it’s still secure. The setting just adds another layer of obscurity.
Lock Down Hidden Album With Face ID
On iOS 16 and later, the Hidden album is locked by default. You need Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to open it. If this isn’t working for you, check the setting.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Photos.
- Make sure “Use Face ID” (or “Use Touch ID”) is toggled on.
When this is enabled, tapping the Hidden album shows a blank screen until you authenticate. Without authentication, nobody can see the thumbnails or contents. This was a major improvement over iOS 15 and earlier, where the Hidden album had no lock at all.
If you use iCloud Shared Photo Library (the feature that lets a family or group share a single photo library), hiding a photo in your personal library doesn’t hide it from the shared library. Photos added to the shared library are visible to everyone in the group.
To prevent a photo from being shared, move it from the Shared Library back to your Personal Library before hiding it. Tap the photo, tap the three-dot menu, and select “Move to Personal Library.” Then hide it using the normal method. Photos in your Personal Library are yours alone – hiding them keeps them private.
Third-Party Photo Vault Apps
If you want stronger protection than the built-in Hidden album, photo vault apps offer additional security features.
| App | Extra Security Features | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Private Photo Vault | Decoy password, break-in alerts with photo of intruder, custom albums | Free (Pro: $4/month) |
| Secret Photo Vault | Fake calculator icon, multiple vaults with separate passwords | Free (Premium: $5/month) |
| Keepsafe | PIN lock, cloud backup, fake login PIN that shows empty vault | Free (Premium: $5/month) |
These apps import photos from your camera roll and store them inside the app’s own encrypted container. After importing, delete the originals from Photos (and empty Recently Deleted) so the photos only exist inside the vault app. The vault apps disguise themselves with innocent-looking icons (a calculator, a utility app) so they don’t draw attention.
The downside is that photos inside vault apps don’t back up to iCloud Photos. If you lose your phone and haven’t enabled the app’s own cloud backup, those photos are gone. The built-in Hidden album stays synced with iCloud automatically.
Hide Photos From Search Results
The Photos app uses machine learning to identify faces, objects, and locations. A hidden photo is excluded from search results, Memories, Featured Photos, and the People album. If you’ve hidden a photo of someone, their face in that photo won’t appear in the People album suggestions.
However, if that same person appears in other unhidden photos, they’ll still show up in the People album from those photos. Hiding a photo only removes that specific image from all smart collections – it doesn’t affect other photos of the same person.
Hide Videos Too
The hidden album works for both photos and videos. The process is identical – select the video, tap the three-dot menu, and choose “Hide.” The video moves to the Hidden album and disappears from your library. This includes Live Photos (which are technically a photo + short video clip).
Yes. Anyone who knows your iPhone passcode can open the Hidden album (Face ID falls back to passcode). If someone regularly uses your phone and knows your passcode, the built-in Hidden album isn’t fully private from them. A third-party vault app with a separate password provides better protection in that scenario.
Yes. Hiding a photo doesn’t reduce its file size or change how it’s stored. Hidden photos count toward your iPhone storage and your iCloud storage exactly the same as visible photos. The only way to free up storage is to delete photos, not hide them.
If you take a screenshot while viewing the Hidden album, the screenshot captures whatever is on screen – including hidden photos. That screenshot saves to your main library as a regular, unhidden photo. Be careful when browsing your Hidden album if someone is nearby or if screen recording is active.
See also: Recover Deleted Photos From iPhone, How to Clear Cache on iPhone, How to Screen Record on iPhone
Sources
Apple – Hide Photos on iPhone | Apple – iCloud Shared Photo Library
