Is the iPhone Hidden album safe? A review of Apple's built-in option

At a glance

What is the Hidden album?

The Hidden album is a collection inside Apple’s Photos app. When you hide a photo or video, it moves to Hidden and leaves the Library, other albums and the Photos widget. It costs nothing and needs no new app. Since iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1 and macOS Ventura, it is locked by default.

In iOS 26 and later, open Photos, tap Collections, then tap Hidden below Utilities. Our Hidden album guide has every step, also for iOS 18.

How the Hidden album protects your photos

Apple’s iPhone User Guide says hidden photos are saved in the Hidden collection, “which you unlock using Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.” That is the same lock as the iPhone. There is no second password, and the passcode always works as the fallback.

In iCloud, Apple’s data security overview lists Photos under standard data protection as encrypted “In transit & on server”, with the key held by Apple. Photos become end-to-end encrypted only when you turn on Advanced Data Protection. Even then, Apple keeps a key to “Whether an item has been marked as a favorite, hidden, or marked as deleted.” In the UK, Apple no longer offers Advanced Data Protection to new users.

Stolen Device Protection adds a Face ID check away from familiar places for some actions, including “Open a locked app”. Its list does not include the Hidden album.

Lock, forgotten passcode and decoy

The lock is your iPhone lock. You can turn it off: in Settings > Apps > Photos, turn off Use Face ID, Use Touch ID or Use Passcode. You can also take the album out of view with Show Hidden Album.

If you forget the iPhone passcode, Apple’s support page says you must reset the iPhone, and “This process erases the data currently on your iPhone.”

Apple’s Photos pages describe no decoy code, no erase code and no photo on a wrong attempt. Apple’s only built-in item with its own password is Locked Notes. Apple says “You can’t lock notes with video, audio, PDF, or file attachments”, so it is not a place for photo libraries.

Backup and moving to a new phone

With iCloud Photos on, Apple says “the photos that you hide on one device are hidden on your other devices too.” A new iPhone signed in to the same Apple Account gets the album back with the rest of the library. Every Mac, iPad and iCloud.com session on the account can reach it too. In an iCloud Shared Photo Library, a hidden photo “moves to the Hidden album for all participants.”

One catch when you copy to an external drive: “Photos and videos in the Hidden album won’t be transferred if the album is locked.” Apple’s fix is to turn off the Face ID lock for the transfer.

Price and plans

The Hidden album is free. It uses your iCloud storage like the rest of Photos. iCloud includes 5 GB. In the US, iCloud+ costs $0.99 a month for 50 GB, $2.99 for 200 GB and $9.99 for 2 TB (checked October 8, 2026).

Privacy and ads

Photos shows no ads. The album never leaves Apple, which already holds your photo library, so you add no new company to trust. Apple’s privacy label for Photos lists Contacts, User Content and Identifiers as Data Linked to You.

What users report

The Hidden album has no App Store listing, so it has no ratings or reviews of its own. What people search for shows the main worry. “hidden album iphone different password” appears in Google autocomplete in all 5 English markets we checked (US, UK, Canada, Australia and India).

In our read of 836 App Store reviews of photo vault apps, at least 15 reviewers compare paid vaults with free tools such as the Hidden album. The comparison cuts both ways. A Private Photo Vault user who lost a library wrote: “Just use Apple’s Hidden Photos album (requires Face ID).” Another wrote that the app was “Way better than using the hidden folder.”

What the Hidden album does well

It is already on your iPhone. It locks by default, and it keeps Live Photos, edits and full-quality originals as they are, because the items never leave Photos. iCloud Photos brings the album back on a new phone. With Advanced Data Protection on, it is end-to-end encrypted in iCloud. If the only person you want to keep out does not know your passcode, the Hidden album may be the right tool.

York Vault as an alternative

York Vault is our own app, so read this part with that in mind. It has its own code, never the iPhone passcode. Each item is encrypted on your phone with its own key (AES-256-GCM) before backup, so it does not depend on an iCloud setting. A cover code, an erase code and wrong-code photos are free. Backup of every item to your own iCloud is free and uses your own iCloud space. York Vault adds one more app to trust, and it cannot hide its own name in Settings. See York Vault vs the Hidden album for the full table, and the Hidden album alternative page for how to move your photos.

Download York Vault on the App Store or Google Play.

Who it fits

Side by side with York Vault, row by row: York Vault vs the iPhone Hidden album: which keeps photos more private?