Keeping medical and ID documents private on your iPhone

Most of us have done it: photographed a passport at the airport desk, snapped an insurance card for a form, or taken a picture of a rash to show a doctor. It’s practical. But those photos then live in the camera roll, next to holiday pictures and memes, for years.

Why the camera roll is the wrong place for documents

The Photos app is designed to surface your pictures, which is the opposite of what you want for sensitive documents.

• Search reads text. Photos recognises text in images, so names, ID numbers and words like “prescription” become searchable.
• Sync spreads it. With iCloud Photos on, every document photo appears on your iPad, Mac and any device signed in to your Apple Account.
• Memories and widgets. iOS sometimes features photos automatically. A medical photo in a slideshow is not a nice surprise.
• Swiping. Show someone a photo and they can swipe to your passport scan next to it.
• App access. Apps with full photo library access can read every photo. Check which apps can see your photos.
• Metadata. Photos can carry location and time. For medical photos that’s often more revealing than you’d think; see removing photo metadata.

The Hidden album helps keep documents out of the main grid, and on iOS 16 and later it’s locked with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. But it still syncs, and anyone with your passcode can open it.

Practical steps

1. Collect what you have. Search Photos for “passport”, “card”, “receipt” or names to find old document photos.
2. Decide what you really need. Expired IDs, old prescriptions and one-off forms can often be deleted outright.
3. Use a document scanner rather than the camera. The Notes app and Files app can scan documents into PDFs that never enter your photo library. Our guide on scanning documents privately walks through the options.
4. Keep official copies where they belong. Health apps, your insurer’s app or Apple Wallet may already hold what you need. Use them when that’s the official route.
5. Store the rest in a protected place. Somewhere encrypted, not synced to every device and not searchable.
6. Delete originals properly. After moving documents, delete them from Photos and empty Recently Deleted, or they stay there for about 30 days.

How Velcrypt helps

Velcrypt is an iPhone vault for photos, videos and private documents. You can import PDFs and other files from the Files app and photos from your library, then organise them in albums — for example “ID”, “Insurance” and “Health”.

Each vault is protected with AES-256-GCM encryption, with keys derived from a pattern you draw on a 5×5 grid. Nothing is uploaded: no account, no server, no analytics on vault content. Documents in a vault don’t appear in Photos search, Memories, widgets or other apps’ photo pickers.

When you need to send a document — to a doctor or a visa office — you can use secure export to share just that file, then delete the exported copy afterwards.

Honest limits

• No backup in the first version. Vault data is excluded from iCloud and computer backups. If your phone is lost or you forget your pattern, the documents can’t be recovered. For vital documents, keep the originals or a second copy you control. An encrypted backup option is planned.
• Copies elsewhere aren’t protected. Emails, chat attachments and iCloud copies stay where they are until you remove them. See deleting originals after import.
• Anything you export leaves the vault and is only as private as wherever it goes.
• Someone watching you draw your pattern, or a phone handed over with the vault open, defeats the lock.

Your passport and health records are some of the most sensitive things you carry. A minute of tidying now means they’re not one search away from anyone who borrows your phone.