What is a good alternative to SPV Secret Photo Vault?

SPV - Secret Photo Vault and York Vault side by side

Why do people look for an SPV alternative?

SPV, from Maple Labs, has 69,813 US ratings at 4.6. Its feature list is long: albums, a fake passcode, a break-in photo, Facedown Lock, a private browser, notes, passwords and contacts. We read 69 reviews from the US and Australian App Stores, from March 2019 to August 2026. Only 3 are from 2025 or later, so these themes describe older versions more than version 7.6.1.

Theme in 69 reviews	Reviews
Viewer and organization problems	16
Crashes after an update	12
Photos lost	10
Name or icon gives the vault away	9
Support did not help	7
Real photos flash on screen at launch or decoy exit	4

No backup, by design

SPV’s App Store page is direct: “Photo Vault does not keep your photos or data on any kind of server. It uses the internal storage of your device only. If you delete the app, your photos & data saved in the app will also be deleted.” A 2020 crash after an update wiped photos for several reviewers. One wrote that her daughter’s art and a late friend’s photos were gone (1★, April 2020).

Export limits that block the exit

This is the reason people get stuck. SPV’s paywall sells “Unlimited export for your medias”, so free export has a cap. A user who tried to switch apps wrote: “I was going to export all of the videos/pictures I had in there so I can use a different app but I can’t take back all of them, only about five.” (1★, December 2023). An earlier review says export stopped at “ten pictures without paying” (1★, May 2019).

No encryption claim

SPV’s listing speaks of “PIN protection” and names no encryption. Its privacy label lists identifiers, usage data and diagnostics as Data Used to Track You.

A decoy that can flash the real photos

4 reviews say real content showed on screen for a moment. “Every single album pops up for a split second without any passcode required.” (3★, June 2020). Another wrote: “When exiting from the ‘decoy’ account the ‘real’ account front screen flashes up briefly….” (3★, March 2023). A decoy only works if nothing from the real vault ever appears while someone else watches.

A name that tells

The home screen name is “SPV”. One reviewer wrote: “On the Home Screen the name is “SPV” and not “calculator” or something that’d make it believable” (1★, December 2023).

Small daily problems

The two most recent reviews mention the viewer jumping “back to the top of the album” (5★, August 2026) and videos with no sound (3★, July 2025).

What to look for in a replacement

1. A backup that is on by default and does not depend on a plan. See encrypted backup.
2. Free export of everything, so you can always leave.
3. A named cipher, with encryption on the iPhone.
4. A decoy that opens a real second library, and never flashes your real photos.
5. A fast exit such as face down, which SPV users like. See quick exit.
6. Updates that never wipe the vault. Ask how the app protects your files during a data migration.

How to export your photos from SPV

SPV publishes no help center and no export guide. Its App Store page says: “make sure to export your photos, videos from the app to your device’s photos gallery if you need to delete the app for any reason!” A developer reply on the listing says export keeps “the same quality as before you import.” We could not confirm the button names, a select-all option or the exact free limit.

A plan that works around the limit:

1. Count your items in each album first.
2. Check your plan. The free plan limits export. If you have many items, start the free trial or one month of Premium for the move. Set a reminder to cancel it in your App Store subscriptions.
3. Export album by album to the photo gallery.
4. Recover Trash first if you need anything in it. Maple Labs says deleted photos can be restored “after upgrading to the Premium subscription.”
5. Check the count in Photos, add the items to your new app, then delete them from Photos and Recently Deleted.

Do not delete SPV until the counts match, because the app keeps no copy anywhere else. Our Recently Deleted guide shows how to empty that collection.

What SPV does well

SPV packs a lot into one app, and its fans say so:

• Escape features. Facedown Lock jumps to Mail, Messages, Music or Safari when you turn the phone over. 7 reviews praise SPV’s fast-exit features.
• A fake passcode that 5 reviews praise.
• A break-in photo with a report list.
• Remove after import, which deletes the originals from Photos after they are in the app.
• Wi-Fi transfer from a computer, a photo editor, notes, a password list, contacts and a private browser in the same app.
• Nothing on a server. For people who do not want any cloud copy, a vault that keeps data only on the phone is a feature.

What York Vault does differently

York Vault is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play for Android. Plus adds the Mac app, and Pro adds the web app. Here is what it does differently:

• A free encrypted backup of every item to your own iCloud, or Google Drive on Android. It restores on a new phone.
• Export with no count limit, free on every plan, also after a plan ends.
• Encryption on the iPhone, with a separate key for each item.
• A cover code that opens a full separate library, tested so that no frame of the main library shows on screen.
• A face-down exit, neutral icons and a working calculator front, free.
• Notes, a photo editor and Wi-Fi transfer with a computer, free, plus a private browser in Plus and Pro.
• No ads on any plan. York Vault measures its own ads with an attribution tool, and its privacy label says so.

See plans for Free, Plus, Pro and Family, or download York Vault on the App Store or Google Play.

Other alternatives worth checking

• Privault has a secondary passcode and an erase-all code.
• Calculator Lock has a working calculator front.
• Private Photo Vault has a paid encrypted Cloud Vault.
• Our best photo vault apps for iPhone guide compares more options.