How to Lock Photos on iPhone (and Why Your Passcode Opens Them)

To lock photos on iPhone, hide them: select the photos, tap the More button (three dots), then Hide. They move to the Hidden album, which only opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. You can also lock the whole Photos app with Face ID. Both locks accept your iPhone passcode, though, so if someone else knows it, you’ll want a lock of your own. Here’s how each one works.

The three ways to lock photos

Lock	What it protects	Opens with your iPhone passcode?
Hidden album	The photos you hide, plus Recently Deleted	Yes
Locked Photos app	Your whole photo library	Yes
Locked note or vault app	Only what you put in it	No, if you set a separate password

Lock 1: Hide photos in the locked Hidden album

This is the quickest way to lock individual photos.

1. Open Photos and tap Select, then pick the photos you want to lock.
2. Tap the More button (the circle with three dots).
3. Tap Hide, then confirm.

The photos leave your library and your other albums, and the Photos widget on your Home Screen. To see them again, scroll down to Utilities and tap Hidden, then unlock it. If you can’t find it, here’s where the Hidden album is.

Make sure the lock is on. The Hidden album has been locked by default since iOS 16, but it’s worth a check:

1. Open Settings, then Apps, then Photos.
2. Turn on Use Face ID (on older models, Use Touch ID or Use Passcode).

The same switch also locks Recently Deleted. That matters: photos you delete stay there for 30 days, so without the lock, anyone could scroll through them.

While you’re in that screen, you can turn off Show Hidden Album too. The album then disappears from Photos until you switch it back on.

Lock 2: Lock the whole Photos app

Since iOS 18, you can put Face ID in front of the Photos app itself.

1. On your Home Screen, touch and hold the Photos icon.
2. Tap Require Face ID (or Require Touch ID or Require Passcode).
3. Tap Require Face ID again to confirm.

Now Photos won’t open for anyone but you. This is useful if you often hand your phone over to show a map, a game or a video, since a curious thumb can’t wander into your camera roll. To undo it, touch and hold the icon again and tap Don’t Require Face ID.

You can’t hide the Photos app, because Apple only lets you hide apps you downloaded yourself. Our guide on how to lock apps on iPhone covers app locks in more detail.

Why your iPhone passcode opens both

Face ID is a shortcut, not a separate key. When it fails or someone taps past it, both the Hidden album and a locked Photos app ask for your iPhone passcode instead. So these locks keep out strangers and casual snoopers, but not anyone who knows your passcode: a partner, a child, a roommate, or a friend who watched you type it.

A couple of things help:

• Change your passcode if you think someone has seen it. Go to Settings, then Face ID & Passcode, then Change Passcode.
• Lock both. Hiding photos and locking the Photos app together means two prompts instead of one, which is enough to stop most quick peeks.

Also keep in mind that locks don’t stop apps you’ve given full access to your photo library. Review those in Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Photos.

Lock 3: A separate password your passcode can’t open

When the photos need to stay locked even from people who know your passcode, move them somewhere with its own lock.

A locked note works for a handful of photos. Add them to a note, tap More, then Lock, and choose a separate Notes password rather than your iPhone passcode. Notes with videos can’t be locked, and Apple can’t recover a forgotten Notes password. Here’s how to lock notes on iPhone.

A photo vault app suits larger collections and videos. A good one encrypts the photos, keeps them out of your library and iCloud Photos, and uses its own passcode. Not every vault does this well, so check what makes a photo vault app safe first.

Either way, the originals are still in Photos. Delete them, then empty Recently Deleted under Utilities. Our guide on how to permanently delete photos on iPhone walks through every copy.

Which lock should you use?

• Nobody else knows your passcode: the Hidden album is enough. Add the Photos app lock if you lend your phone often.
• Someone close knows your passcode, or the photos are intimate, IDs or anything you’d hate to see leaked: use a separate password.

Easy Vault is built for that second case. Photos and videos are encrypted on your iPhone or iPad behind a 5×5 pattern or password that’s separate from your phone passcode, with Face ID as a shortcut if you want it. It can delete the originals from Photos as you import them, and its private camera takes photos that never touch your camera roll. With Easy Vault Plus, a decoy passcode opens a harmless second vault if someone pressures you to unlock it. There’s no account and no ads.

Related guides

• How to hide photos on iPhone
• How to make a private photo album on iPhone
• Hidden album vs locked notes vs photo vault