The inefficacy to lock individual apps on iPhone means that if your device is unlocked, anyone can gain access to your personal photos, videos, and other data by simply opening the Photos app. When you take a photo on your iPhone, it automatically gets saved in your photo library. Often it happens that there are photos or videos that you don’t want others to look at and wish you had a vault to hide them from others.
The only way to protect your private photos and videos from inquisitive people is by hiding them. When you hide photos and videos on iPhone, they move to the ‘Hidden Album’, instead of appearing in your library, other albums, or in the Photos widget on your home screen.
Ways to Hide Photos and Videos on iPhone
In this post, we will discuss three methods on how to hide private photos and videos on the iPhone.
1. Using Photos
‘Photos’ is an inbuilt featured gallery of all the iOS operating phones. Using it is a simple way to hide photos and videos on the iPhone.
There is a feature of ‘hidden album’ in Photos app in iPhones which can hide private photos and videos. You can use the ‘Hide’ option in the iOS Photos to prevent photos and videos from appearing in your normal library. The hidden photos and videos won’t show up while you browse your library, and you won’t even receive ‘For You’ recommendations based on it.
- All you need to do is go to your Photos, select the photos and videos you want to hide.
- Swipe up for options and click on the ‘Share’ option.
- An option of ‘Hide’ will appear on your screen. When you select the ‘Hide’ option, you will be taken to a folder named ‘Hidden Album’ on your iPhone. This ‘Hidden Album’ is just like any other folder in your Photos app. You can add as many photos and videos as you want, to hide.
Accessing the hidden photos and videos
If you have hidden your pictures and videos, you may need to access them at times.
For this,
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone. A list of certain folders will be displayed on your screen. You will have to scroll and look for a ‘Hidden Album’ folder.
- When you open the hidden album folder, all the hidden photos and videos will be displayed on your screen.
Unhiding the hidden photos and videos
In case you want to unhide the hidden photos or videos on the Photos app:
- First, you will have to open the Photos app.
- Scroll to the bottom and you will find the Hidden album among other albums. Tap on it to view all your hidden photos and videos
- Choose the photos and videos you want to unhide, then click on the ‘Unhide’ option. This will unhide the selected hidden photos and videos.
- Next, they will be displayed in your library, normally, like every other photo or video saved there.
Note: While you will be able to hide photos and videos using the ‘Hidden Album’ option in your iOS operating phone, they won’t be password protected. Only iOS 14, gives you access to turn off the ‘Hidden album’ option which means that the photos and videos are completely hidden. You can unhide photos and videos easily to turn the hidden album back on whenever you want.
Dear readers, wasn’t that easy? Hide your private photos and videos, you don’t want to show and easily avoid others from prying.
Now, this was one way to avoid others looking at your private photos and videos. Since this isn’t a completely reliable method, as the hidden album will not be password protected, we will discuss another method of hiding photos and videos through an in-built feature of the iPhone.
You can also check iCloud Photos.
2. Using Notes
All iPhones have a Notes app, and one of its valuable features is the ability to lock individual notes which means you can add photos and videos to a note, then add a password to lock it. You can even use your Face or Touch ID to unlock password-protected notes.
Note: After you lock a photo or video in a note, you will have to delete it from the main photo library.
To hide and lock your photos and videos in the Notes app, follow the given steps:
- Open the Photos app and find the photos or videos you want to hide in the Notes app.
- Select the required photos and videos and after selecting, tap on the ‘Share’ option that is present in the bottom-left corner.
- Certain options will be displayed on your screen. Scroll through the given list of apps and tap on the ‘Notes’ option.
- If you don’t see the Notes option, tap on the ‘More’ option, and then select ‘Notes’ from the list of options that appears further.
- You will be directed to the Notes app from there and a new note will open.
- Tap on the ‘Save’ option to export your media to the Notes app.
Now, you will have to lock the note in which you saved your photos and videos. Follow the steps given below to lock the note and hide your private photos and videos.
- Start the Notes app and open the note where you just hid your photos and videos (you will find it at the very beginning itself).
- Next, you will have to swipe left on the title of the note to enable the padlock icon.
- Tap the padlock icon to lock the note containing your private photos and videos.
- You will be asked to create a password and enable Face or Touch ID. This is the password you will have to use for locking notes further, so make sure it’s something you can remember or else you can store it in a password manager.
This method offers more security as compared to the ‘Hidden’ album feature.
Note: If you use this method, don’t forget to delete the photos and videos (you have just hidden and locked in the Notes app) from your photo library because they will still be present there until you delete them.
Now, at last, we will briefly talk about the last method, i.e., using third-party applications to hide photos and videos on the iPhone.
3. Using Third-party Applications
The third-party applications are designed specifically with keeping the importance of user privacy in mind. If you want to make sure that your private photos and videos are safe from prying eyes, using such applications is a nice option. They come with a simple and accessible passcode or password lock system. Folder Lock, Private Photo Vault, Keepsafe, and Secret Apps Photo Lock are just a few of the many photos and videos hiding apps available in the App Store.
Note: If you use this method to hide photos and videos on your iPhone, the hidden photos and videos will still be visible in your photo library’s hidden album. So after hiding your photos and videos in any third-party applications, make sure that you delete them from the main Photos app.
We hope this was helpful to you.
You can also check: Forgot Your Apple Id Password? 3 DIY Fixes are Available
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