How to lock photos on iPhone

iPhone has two locks for photos, and both come with iOS. One locks a group of photos you pick. The other locks the whole Photos app. This guide covers both, then shows where they stop. We checked each step against Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 on 2026-10-02. The steps are the same in iOS 18 and later.

Which lock do you need?

Lock	What it protects	What opens it	Own password
Hidden album	The photos and videos you hide	Face ID, Touch ID or iPhone passcode	No
Require Face ID on Photos	The whole Photos app	Face ID, Touch ID or iPhone passcode	No
Locked note	Photos you put in one note	iPhone passcode or a custom Notes password	Yes, if you pick a custom password
Photo vault app	Everything you add to the app	The app’s own code	Yes

Most readers want the first row. It keeps a few photos out of the camera roll and behind Face ID. The second row is for people who hand their phone to others and want the whole library closed.

Lock certain photos with the Hidden album

1. Open the Photos app, tap Select, then tap the photos and videos you want to lock.
2. Tap the More button, then tap Hide. The items move to the Hidden collection.
3. Go to Settings, tap Apps, then tap Photos. Make sure Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID or Use Passcode) is on.

The Hidden collection sits below Utilities in Collections. To open it, tap Hidden, tap View Album, and authenticate. Apple locks the album by default. Step 3 only confirms that nobody turned the lock off.

The same switch also locks Recently Deleted. If you turn it off, both collections open without Face ID. To also take the album out of view, turn off Show Hidden Album on the same screen. Our guide to hiding photos covers that step.

Lock the whole Photos app

1. Go to the Home Screen and find the Photos app.
2. Touch and hold the Photos app icon until the Quick Actions menu opens.
3. Tap Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode).
4. Tap Photos, then use Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. The app locks again after you quit it.

Apple’s iOS 26 guide lists the built-in apps that cannot be locked: Calculator, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Find My, Maps, Shortcuts and Settings. Photos is not on that list. Apple also says that information inside a locked app does not appear in other places. Its examples are notification previews, search, Siri suggestions, CarPlay and call history.

To remove the lock, touch and hold the icon again. Tap Don’t Require Face ID, then authenticate.

Family Sharing changes this for younger users. Apple says children under 13 in a Family Sharing group cannot lock or hide apps. People aged 13 to 17 can, but a parent in the group can still see the app and how long it is used in Screen Time. The ages vary by country or region.

You cannot hide Photos. Apple allows the hide option only for apps you download from the App Store. The Photos icon stays on the Home Screen with a lock on it. Our guide to hiding apps covers the hide option for other apps.

Is there a way to lock photos on iPhone with a password?

Only one built-in tool takes a password that differs from your iPhone passcode: a locked note. Add the photos to a note in the Notes app. Then tap the Note Actions button and tap Lock. You choose the password type in Settings, Apps, Notes, Password.

A locked note has rules. Apple does not let you lock a note with a video, audio, PDF or other file attachment. The note title stays visible in the list. Apple cannot help if you forget a custom password. Our guide to password protecting photos on iPhone has every step.

How to lock photos on iPhone 13, iPhone 16 and other models

The steps do not change by model. They change by iOS version.

iOS version	What it added
iOS 14	A switch to take the Hidden album out of view
iOS 16	Hidden and Recently Deleted locked by default
iOS 18	Hide and Require Face ID for apps
iOS 27	The current version, with the same steps

iOS 27 runs on iPhone 11 and later, and on iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later. So an iPhone 13, iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 uses the same steps as an iPhone 17 or iPhone 18 Pro.

Check that the lock works

A lock you never test is a guess. Run these checks after you set it up.

• Open Photos, tap Collections, then tap Hidden below Utilities. Photos asks for Face ID before it shows anything.
• Open Recently Deleted the same way. It asks too, because one switch locks both collections.
• Quit Photos and open it again from the Home Screen. If you set Require Face ID, Photos asks before it opens.
• Look at the Photos widget and at search. Apple says hidden items do not show in the widget, and a locked app’s content does not show in search.

If a check fails, go back to Settings, Apps, Photos and look at the Use Face ID switch first.

What these locks do not do

Both built-in locks protect against a person who picks up your unlocked phone and does not know the passcode. They do less in four other cases.

• A person who knows your passcode. Face ID falls back to the passcode. A partner or parent who knows the code can open the Hidden album and a locked Photos app.
• A person whose face or fingerprint is on your iPhone. Face ID and Touch ID open the lock for every face or finger you set up.
• Other devices. With iCloud Photos on, hidden photos are hidden on every device on your Apple Account. A lock on the Photos app does not sync. Set it on each device.
• Copies outside Photos. A photo in Messages, Files or a chat app has its own copy. Neither lock touches it.

When a vault app’s lock is different

A photo vault app keeps photos in its own storage, behind a code that is not your iPhone passcode. Some apps add more. They can put a code on one album, open a decoy with a second code, or log wrong codes.

The risk moves to the app. We read 836 App Store reviews of 7 vault apps. In 26 of them, users could not get back into their vault. 3 other reviews said an email reset let anyone with the email address open the vault. So ask two questions before you trust an app’s lock. What happens if I forget the code? Who else can reset it? Are photo vault apps safe shows how to check this for any app.

What York Vault does

York Vault is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play for Android. Plus adds a Mac app, and Pro adds a web app. It:

• Opens with a PIN, a passcode with letters, or a pattern. You pick one at setup and Face ID is optional. See lock options.
• Puts a separate code on any album. The main code alone does not open it. See album codes.
• Gives you a 12-word recovery key at setup. It opens your library if you forget your code. We do not keep a copy. See recovery key.
• Records each wrong code, with a photo if you turn that on. See wrong-code photos.

We cannot reset your code for you. If you lose both the code and the recovery key, nobody can open the library, including us. The one way back is the optional Apple Account recovery, if you turned it on before. It lets you set a new code after a 72-hour wait, and the right code cancels it on any of your devices.