LockMyPix review: is LockMyPix safe, and is it worth paying for?

At a glance

What is LockMyPix?

LockMyPix is a photo vault from LockMyPix Inc. It arrived on the App Store in April 2020, and on Google Play it lists more than 10 million installs. You import photos, videos, documents and notes. The app keeps them encrypted behind its own PIN or password, apart from your Photos library. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, with folders, subfolders, a private browser and secure notes.

The model is freemium. Free Basic Protection shows ads and limits how many files and folders you keep. Premium removes the ads, lifts the limits and adds the cloud backup, the Fake Vault, intruder selfies, Flip Lock and hiding the app.

How LockMyPix protects your photos

LockMyPix is one of the few vault apps that names its cipher. Its help center says “every single photo, video or document” is encrypted with AES CTR 256. Our read of the app package also found an encrypted database (SQLCipher). That is real encryption, not just a hidden folder.

The open question is the password. LockMyPix says it “does not know your password”. Its email recovery then sends a code and shows your password on screen: “Your password will be displayed which you can use for the login.” So the app keeps your password in a form it can show back. The help center says the recovery “is isolated from your Vault”, but it does not explain how.

After too many wrong tries, the app blocks access for a while. A shuffled keypad and AutoLock are part of the app.

Lock, forgotten PIN and decoy

You pick a PIN of 4, 6 or 8 digits, a longer numeric code, or a password with letters. Face ID, Touch ID or a fingerprint can open the vault on top of that.

If you forget the code, LockMyPix offers two ways back: a recovery email or an alternative password. You must set one up first. Without either, “There’s no backdoor.” That protects you from anyone with your email, as long as you never turn the email on.

The Fake Vault opens a second vault with its own password. It is a Premium feature. Our read of the app package shows what happens when Premium ends. The app asks you to reactivate Premium “to open your FakeVault again”. If someone makes you open the decoy at that moment, the message tells them a second vault exists. We found no erase code.

Disguise Mode, also Premium, swaps the icon. All 30 alternate icons in the package carry the LockMyPix lock. The store listing says the app “will look like another app i.e. a Calculator”. The help center says the disguised login page is Android only.

Backup and moving to a new phone

LockMyPix’s cloud backup goes to your own iCloud on iPhone, or your own Google Drive on Android, encrypted with its own AES. It is a Premium feature. To move phones, open LockMyPix on the new phone with the same password and the same Apple Account or Google account. Then turn the cloud on.

Without Premium, the fallback is a backup file. You make it in settings, send it to yourself and import it on the new phone. The file works between iPhone and Android, which few vault apps offer. Our read of the package found a paywall on large restores: “Wow, your backup is really large”.

The risk sits on iPhone. The help center says an app’s files “are deleted by default when uninstalling.” And “Files in your Trash are not considered in Cloud backups or backup files.”

Price and plans

Prices on the US App Store, checked October 8, 2026. The listing does not name the period of each purchase:

• LockMyPix Premium: $7.99, $9.99, $11.99, $14.99, $23.99 and $29.99
• Prioritize your privacy: $3.99
• Premium protection, 6 months: $20.49
• LockMyPix Premium 1 year: $29.99
• LockMyPix Premium Lifetime: $189.99

The app package holds 38 plan badges, such as “Today Only”, “Last Chance” and “Black Friday Sale”. Its countdown offers give discounts from 25 to 92 percent. With this many prices for one plan, it is hard to know the real one.

Privacy label and ads

Free Basic Protection shows ads, and the help center says they are “required to guarantee the continous development.” The App Store privacy label lists Identifiers under “Data Used to Track You”. The package holds AppLovin MAX with ad networks from Google, Meta, Unity and Pangle. It also holds the Facebook and TikTok SDKs for ad measurement.

None of this says that LockMyPix looks at your photos. Its listing says “Your private data stays on your device”. It does say the free app runs an ad business, which is fair to weigh when you choose a privacy app.

What users report

We read 52 LockMyPix App Store reviews from Canada, the UK and Australia, from August 2020 to June 2026. The sample is small. 35 give 5 stars and most of those are short. Only 32 carry a clear theme, and the 11 one-star reviews hold most of the detail.

• Praise for privacy: 8 reviews. “Really happy with the app’s privacy” (5★, October 2021).
• Praise for ease of use: 7 reviews.
• Lost photos: 3 reviews. “Until I opened it one day and found ALL my photos gone.” (1★, June 2026).
• Locked out: 3 reviews. One wrote: “the app shows me the correct password but when I enter it its wrong.” (1★, October 2022).
• Support did not answer: 3 reviews.
• Ads: 2 reviews. “Now it is advert riddled trash.” (1★, December 2025).
• Slow folders: 1 review timed a move in nested folders at “up to 30 seconds” (1★, November 2025).
• Live Photos: 1 review in June 2026 said the app “Imports and exports Live Photos as videos”. Version 4.1.1 fixed this in September 2026.

What LockMyPix does well

LockMyPix gets several hard things right. It names its cipher and encrypts backups the same way. Its backup file moves between iPhone and Android. It has folders, subfolders, search, sorting and “Share with password” for encrypted packages. Its help center is detailed and specific. Since version 4.1.1 it keeps Live Photos and shows HDR photos at full brightness. One reviewer wrote: “I have tried different apps but this one is the only one that hasn’t lost my pics” (5★, August 2021).

York Vault as an alternative

York Vault is our own app, so read this part with that in mind. It needs no account. Each item is encrypted on your phone with its own key (AES-256-GCM), and we cannot open your files. A 12-word recovery key replaces the email reset, and York Vault never stores your code in a form it can show. Backup of every item to your own iCloud, or Google Drive on Android, is free. So are the cover code, the erase code and wrong-code photos, and no decoy ever shows a billing message. Viewing, export and Trash recovery stay free on every plan. See York Vault vs LockMyPix for the full table, and the LockMyPix alternative page for how to export everything first.

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 LockMyPix: which photo vault should you use?