Can you password protect photos on iPhone?

This is the most asked photo privacy question on iPhone. We found it in Google autocomplete in all 5 English-speaking markets we checked. The short version: Photos has no password, Notes does, and a vault app has its own. 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.

Why the Photos app has no password

Photos protects private items with the lock you already use for your iPhone. The Hidden and Recently Deleted collections open with Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode. In Settings, Apps, Photos, you can turn that lock off, and you can take the Hidden album out of view. You cannot set a second password.

For many people that is enough. It fails in one common case: someone in your home knows your iPhone passcode. Face ID falls back to the passcode, so that person can open the Hidden album. That is why people search for a password.

Password protect photos with a locked note

1. Go to Settings, tap Apps, then tap Notes.
2. Tap Password. If you have more than one account, choose the account you want to use.
3. Tap Use Custom Password and set the password. Turn on Face ID or Touch ID if you want it.
4. Open the Notes app and make a new note in that account.
5. In the note, tap the Attachments button, then choose the photos from your library.
6. Tap the Note Actions button, then tap Lock.

To open the note later, tap it, then tap View Note. Use Face ID, Touch ID or the Notes password. Apple says that opening one locked note opens all locked notes in that account for several minutes. To close them at once, tap Lock Now at the top of the notes list.

If you skip step 3, Notes uses your device passcode instead. That is easier to remember, but it is the same lock as the Hidden album. Pick the custom password if the point is a password your household does not know.

What a locked note protects, and what it does not

A locked note is a real password lock on a few photos. It also has rules that Apple lists.

• No video. Apple does not let you lock a note with a video, audio, PDF or other file attachment. Notes with tags, shared notes and Quick Notes cannot be locked either.
• The title shows. A locked note keeps its title visible in the list. Give it a plain title.
• Attachments stay out of the browser. Apple says the View Attachments screen in Notes does not show attachments in locked notes.
• A lost password is final. If you forget a custom password and Face ID also fails, Apple cannot help. A reset applies only to notes you lock after the reset.
• The originals stay in Photos. Adding a photo to a note makes a copy. The original is still in your library until you delete it. Then it sits in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Our Recently Deleted guide shows how to empty it.

If you take new photos inside Notes, check the Save to Photos switch in Settings, Apps, Notes. Apple says you turn it on to save those photos to Photos. Leave it off to keep them only in the note.

Does the password work on iPad and Mac?

It depends on the lock type you chose in step 3. Apple describes two cases.

• Custom password. You use the same Notes password on every device signed in to the same Apple Account. Older systems need iOS 9.3, iPadOS 13 or OS X 10.11.4 or later to see these notes.
• Device passcode. Each device uses its own passcode, or the login password on a Mac. Devices need iOS 16, iPadOS 16 or macOS 13 or later to open these notes.

A custom password is the only way to get the same password on all your devices. It is also the only lock in Notes that differs from what opens your iPhone.

Check the note before you delete the originals

A note copies the photo. Before you delete anything from Photos, lock the note, close Notes, and open the note again with the password. Look at each photo at full size. Then delete the originals from Photos and empty Recently Deleted. If a photo did not copy, you still have the original.

Can you password protect a photo album?

Not in Photos. Apple describes a lock for two collections only, and you cannot add a lock to an album you create. Here is what each option gives you.

Option	Password that differs from your passcode	Holds video	One lock per group of photos
Hidden album	No	Yes	No, one album only
Locked note	Yes, with a custom password	No	One note per group, one password per account
Photo vault app	Yes	Yes, in most apps	Yes, in apps with album codes

Notes uses one custom password per account. So all your locked notes in iCloud share one password. If you need two groups with two different passwords, Notes cannot do it. Our guide to a secret photo album on iPhone compares the album options in more depth.

A password is only as good as its reset

Before you trust a vault app’s password, find out how it resets one. Some vault apps hold a way around the code, and their own pages say so.

• Calculator Lock - Secure Vault. Its App Store page says to enter “11223344=” to reset your password, then answer a security question. That code is the same for every user. We read it on the US listing on 2026-10-02.
• Private Photo Vault. The app’s text resources include the line “Would you like to e-mail yourself a backup of your PIN?” An email inbox then holds the code.
• Keepsafe. The app’s text resources describe a PIN reset by email. Keepsafe sends an access code to your email address after a delay of 15 minutes.

None of these is hidden. Each one trades safety for an easy way back in. A person who knows your email password or the reset code can get past the lock. We read 836 App Store reviews of vault apps. 3 reviews named email reset as a back door. 26 named the opposite problem, a lockout with no way back. Are photo vault apps safe explains what a good recovery path looks like.

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, which you set when you first open it. 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, with a check that you wrote it down. See recovery key.
• Keeps no copy of your code or key. There is no email reset and no master code.
• Stores photos, Live Photos, videos and files behind the same code.

Keeping no copy has a cost. If you lose both your code and your recovery key, we cannot open your library. 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.