Your iPhone has a powerful feature that can keep your secrets hidden from other people. With it, you will never have to worry about sharing or showing someone something embarrassing or incriminating again.
No matter who you are, you probably use your iPhone’s Photos app a lot since anything you take a photo or video with using the stock camera app — and many other camera apps — stays there. And chances are you have a photo or video you don’t want anyone to see.
It can be evidence of cheating or lying, defecate photos to show your doctor, random or sexual selfies, screenshots of login credentials or tax documents, spy photos, saved nude messages, or anything else you’d like to keep private.
Since it’s easy to accidentally insert one of your photos or videos when sharing an album with your iCloud friends, sending messages through a group of photos, AirPlaying a slideshow, viewing your Photos widget on the Home Screen or Lock Screen, or just scrolling through your photos in the eyes of others, Apple has included a tool to help you protect yourself from what happens: the Hidden Album. It has been around since iOS 10, it got an amazing upgrade with iOS 14, and it got even more secure with iOS 16. Apple’s 18 update doesn’t add anything new to the feature, but we don’t need it because it works well.
Although the photo application has many useful features, such as photobomber removal, face blur, cropping tool, batch photo editing, Live Text on videos, Visual Lookup, and geotag editing, the Hidden Album remains one of the most important because it maintains the privacy and security of your private moments. Heck, you can even hide everything in the Pictures content if you want.
Note: This guide assumes you’re running iOS 18 or later on your iPhone, and includes iPadOS 18 or later for iPad.
Hides photos and videos on your iPhone or iPad
To hide any photo or video in the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad, open it, press the More (•••) button, choose “Hide” from the menu, and then choose “Hide Photo” or “Hide Video” from the pop-up notification.
Alternatively, you can touch and hold (long press) an image or video in the grid view to reveal the “Hide” option.
You can also hide multiple photos and videos at once. From the viewing grid to Library, Albums, Recents, People & Pets, Memories, Travel, Featured Images, Media Types. Resources, Collections, or Search, select the “Select” button, select all the content you want to hide, tap the More button (•••), select “Hide,” then select “Hide [#] Photos,” “Hide [#] Videos,” or “Hide [#] Objects” from the command prompt.
Finding a Hidden Album on your iPhone or iPad
On your iPhone, when photos and videos are hidden, you can find your Hidden album in the resource group. On the iPad, it will be in the Utilities group in the sidebar. By default, you can see the album, which will tell you how many photos and/or videos are in the folder.
To lock a Hidden Album on your iPhone or iPad
Since anyone using your iPhone or iPad can find and browse your Hidden album, Apple includes (from iOS 16 and iPadOS 16) a way to lock the folder after biometric authentication. If enabled, no one can access your Hidden Album unless they can crack your passcode.
To enable biometric authentication protection, go to Settings » Apps » Photos, and toggle the “Use Face ID” or “Use Touch ID” button. This switch also locks all your recently deleted photos and videos behind biometrics. The switch can’t be turned off without biometrics or a passcode, so someone borrowing your iPhone or iPad can’t quickly turn it off to peek at your protected media.
Find your Hidden Album in the resources group on your iPhone or in the sidebar on your iPad to try it out. If it is locked, it will no longer show how many photos and/or videos you have in the album. Tap it, tap “View album,” then use your face or fingerprint to bypass the lock and view your private content.
If biometrics don’t work for you at the time, or if someone else has your iPhone or iPad and tries to access your private media, Face ID or Touch ID will fail. Tapping “Try Face ID Again” or “Try Touch ID Again” gives another shot, but it will default to “Enter Passcode.”
If you use a four-digit or six-digit passcode, it’s impossible to crack it and log in. So, if someone managed to unlock your iPhone or iPad with a cracked passcode, they will also be able to unlock your hidden photos and videos. Consider using a long or alphanumeric passcode to increase security.
To hide the Hidden album on your iPhone or iPad
If you want to go the extra mile to keep your private photos and videos invisible, you can hide your Hidden Album. This option has been available since iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. Go to Settings » Apps » Photos, and turn off the “Show Hidden Album” switch. This will not remove any of your hidden content; it will only hide the folder from view. Whenever you want to view your private media again, return to this menu and turn on the switch first.
Unfortunately, anyone with access to your unlocked iPhone or iPad can find and enable the Show Hidden Album button, so it’s important to use the biometrics-enabled switch. That way, hiding an album won’t help much unless someone is you.
Viewing your Hidden Album on other devices
It’s important to note that anything you hide in your Hidden Album will also be hidden on all your other Apple devices, as long as iCloud Photos is enabled. However, there are a few things you should know:
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With iCloud for Windows, hidden photos and videos can still appear alongside your iCloud Photos library.
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The Hidden Album is not accessible on Apple TV, even if iCloud Photos is turned on.
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If you hide a photo that is part of your iCloud Shared Photo Library, all participants can view it from the Hidden Album, and they can also hide it.
To turn on iCloud Photos in:
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iPhone: In the Settings app, go to Apple Account » iCloud » Photos or iCloud » Photos, then turn on “Sync this iPhone.” Alternatively, go to Apps » Photos, and switch to “iCloud Photos.”
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iPad: In the Settings app, go to Apple Account » iCloud » Photos or iCloud » Photos, and turn on “Sync this iPad.” Alternatively, go to Apps » Photos, and switch to “iCloud Photos.”
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Mac: From the menu (the Apple logo in the menu bar), go to System Settings » Apple Account » iCloud » Photos or System Settings » iCloud » Photos, and toggle “Sync this Mac.” Alternatively, from within Photos, go to Photos » Settings in the menu bar (or use the Command-, keyboard shortcut), select the “iCloud” tab, and check the “iCloud Photos” box.
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Apple Vision Pro: Go to Settings » Apple Account » iCloud » Photos, and toggle “Enable this Apple Vision Pro.”
To view your Hidden Album:
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iPhone: Follow the instructions in this article.
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iPad: Follow the instructions in this article.
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Mac: For photos, click on the Hidden album in the sidebar under resources or go to View » Collections » Hidden in the menu bar. If you don’t see the album, go to View » Show Hidden Photo Album in the menu bar to unhide it.
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iCloud.com: Sign in to icloud.com, open Photos, select the Hidden album in the sidebar under Collections, and tap “Show Hidden Photos.” You won’t need to authenticate again since you’re already signed in to iCloud.
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Vision Pro: In Photos, tap the Collections tab, then open the Hidden album under Utilities. If you don’t see the album, go to Settings » Apps, and toggle “Show Hidden Album.”
The biometric authentication switch doesn’t sync with your other iCloud devices, so you have to enable protection for each device. On a Mac, go to Photos » Settings in the menu bar, make sure you’re on the General tab, and check the “Use an ID or password” or “Use a password” box.
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Cover photo and screenshots by Haki Wegajeti.