iPhone photo privacy guides
Hide and lock photos
Step-by-step help with the options built into iOS, and where they stop.
Hide photos on iPhone
Use the Photos app’s Hide feature, lock and conceal the Hidden album, and understand what hiding does not protect.
Read →Lock photos on iPhone
Four ways to lock photos on iPhone, from the Hidden album to app locking and locked notes, compared side by side.
Read →Hide videos on iPhone
Hide videos on iPhone, keep chat apps from saving clips to your camera roll, and manage the storage that large private videos take up.
Read →Password protect photos
Why iOS has no per-photo password, and three practical ways to put a real lock on specific photos instead.
Read →Secret photo album on iPhone
Create a genuinely secret photo album on iPhone, and avoid the common tricks that only look secret.
Read →Password protect a folder
What the Files app can and cannot lock, and the practical ways to protect a folder of documents on iPhone.
Read →Hidden photos in Search & Memories
Where hidden photos stay hidden on iPhone, where they can still leak, and the settings that close the gaps.
Read →Show one photo without swiping
Use Guided Access to lock your iPhone to a single photo before handing it over, or share just that photo instead.
Read →iCloud and Apple’s built-in options
What Apple’s Hidden album, iCloud and photo permissions actually do with your pictures.
Is the Hidden album private?
What the Hidden album really protects, who can still open it, and how iCloud sync and Advanced Data Protection change the picture.
Read →Hidden photos and iCloud
Hidden photos sync through iCloud Photos and can land in iCloud Backup. Here is how encryption works in each case and how to keep a photo off iCloud.
Read →Advanced Data Protection explained
What Advanced Data Protection encrypts, what stays standard, the recovery requirements, trade-offs and how to switch it on.
Read →Which apps can see your photos
How to see which apps can read your photo library, what Full, Limited and Add-only access mean, and how to tighten them in a few minutes.
Read →Choosing a vault app
How to judge a photo vault app before you trust it with anything.
Best photo vault apps for iPhone
Seven criteria for choosing a photo vault and an honest look at Apple’s tools, Keepsafe, Private Photo Vault, calculator vaults and Velcrypt.
Read →Are photo vault apps safe?
A practical checklist for judging any photo vault: encryption, privacy label, account, cloud, ads, uninstall behaviour and recovery.
Read →Calculator vault apps explained
How calculator-disguised vaults work, why a disguise isn’t the same as encryption, and when the trick still has a place.
Read →Photo vault without an account
What you gain by choosing a photo vault with no account or cloud, what you lose, and simple tests to check an app really stays offline.
Read →Security explained
Encryption, patterns and plausible deniability, explained without jargon.
Pattern vs PIN vs Face ID
Search-space math, shoulder surfing, smudges and compelled biometrics: an honest comparison of the four common ways to lock private data.
Read →What is a decoy vault?
What a decoy vault is, how to build one that looks lived-in with a second Velcrypt pattern, and the limits you should know.
Read →Plausible deniability explained
The concept behind hidden volumes and decoy vaults, how Velcrypt’s unknown-pattern design uses it, and what it honestly can’t do.
Read →AES-256 encryption explained
AES, key sizes, GCM authenticated encryption, why PBKDF2 matters more than the cipher, and the quantum question, in plain English.
Read →Forgot your vault pattern
What to try first, why Velcrypt can’t reset a forgotten pattern, how other apps handle recovery, and habits that prevent lockouts.
Read →Practical privacy
Clean-up, metadata, travel and other real-world privacy tasks.
Delete originals after import
Copy vs move, deleting originals from Photos, emptying Recently Deleted, and the iCloud and chat copies that remain.
Read →Remove photo metadata on iPhone
What EXIF reveals, four ways to remove location and other metadata from iPhone photos, and a free in-browser metadata remover.
Read →Store intimate photos safely
A respectful, step-by-step safety plan for intimate photos on iPhone, plus what to do if someone threatens to share your images.
Read →Phone privacy at the border
A general overview of border device searches, an iPhone preparation checklist, where a decoy vault fits, and the ethical lines not to cross.
Read →Scan documents privately
Scan IDs, contracts and medical papers without filling Photos or iCloud, then lock them away and remove leftover copies.
Read →Well Encrypted. Truly Private.
Draw a pattern, open a private vault. Your photos, videos and documents stay encrypted on your iPhone, with no account and no cloud.
Launching soon for iPhone (iOS 17 or later). Free version, optional Premium.