Can you put a lock on your hidden photos

Guides

Using iOS 16, you can lock away your most sensitive photos with the help of Face ID, Touch ID, or your chosen passcode.

Oliver Haslam / Input

It’s taken a lot longer than it should have, but Apple finally lets you safely lock away the most private photos on your iPhone, ensuring they won’t be seen without Face ID/Touch ID or passcode authentication first.

Previously, putting a photo into the hidden album in the Photos app only meant that it couldn’t be seen in main photo library. Anyone who tapped on the hidden album, however, could still easily access all the images. Thanks to an update in iOS 16, common sense has prevailed, and now you can easily make sure nobody goes snooping without your permission.

How to lock your hidden photos album

This setting will put a lock on the hidden and recently deleted albums on your iPhone so that you have to use Face ID/Touch ID to unlock them. Don’t worry, you can also enter your iPhone’s passcode if you need to.

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone running iOS 16.
• Tap “Photos.”
• Make sure the “Show Hidden Album” switch is toggled “On” to enable it.
• Toggle the “Use Face ID/Touch ID” switch to the “On” position.

You’ll need to authenticate using Face ID/Touch ID the next time you tap the hidden or recently deleted albums, found in the Utilities section in the Photos app, and a prompt to enter your passcode appears if biometric authentication fails. You can quickly check that the lock is enabled by looking for the padlock icon beside each album. With this feature enabled, someone who has access to your unlocked iPhone won’t be able to see all of your photos anymore, as long as you put them into that hidden album, of course.

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Question

Is there a way to lock my photos on iPhone? I have some photos that don't want someone get access to them. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

As the question above, many users have some private pictures which are too sensitive to be found out. But for some reason, they prefer to seek a way to keep these photos unseen instead of deleting them. Normally, there are two ways to keep your pictures unseen. One way is to hide your picture to the hidden album without password protection. Another way is to use an App to lock them with the password requirements. In this article, both of these methods will be introduced with detailed steps. Lastly, we list some questions people also asked as well as the answers to them. If you want to know more about how to hide pictures on iPhone, some 3rd-party Apps are also introduced here.

Part 1. How to Hide Pictures on iPhone by Using Photos App?

There is a built-in function that allows iOS users to hide their photos on iPhone. To be clear that, the hidden photos simply move to the hidden album, and they are not removed or deleted from your iPhone.

If you are aware of that, but still want to know how to hide some photos on iPhone, you can follow these instructions:

1. Open Photos App on your iPhone and find the photo that you wish to hide and open it.
2. Use the Share button and then find and choose the Hide option.

3. Tap the Hide option to confirm your action. The photo will be placed in the album named "Hidden".

   

If you want to check these photos from time to time, then how can you find the hidden pictures on iPhone?

Well, you can easily find them by the below steps:

1. Tap Albums in the Photos.
2. Scroll to the bottom under Other Albums and tap Hidden.

3. If you want to unhide a photo, select it, tap the Sharing button, and pick Unhide.

   

Part 2. How to Lock Photos on iPhone by Using Notes App?

Can you put a password on hidden photos? The coming method will allow you to know how to lock pictures truly. There is an App called "Note" on your iPhone, and one of its standout features is the ability to lock individual notes. You can require password-protection or us Face/Touch ID to unlock the notes. Similarly, you can use this feature to lock your pictures in a note.

Firstly, you need to transfer the photos to the Note App, then set the lock settings. Specific steps are as followed:

1. Launch Photos App, select images you want to lock with Notes (You can select multiple files), then tap the Share icon in the bottom-left corner.
2. Tap Notes through the list of Apps. You can tap More if you don't see it and then select Notes from the list of Apps that appears.
3. By default, this will be a New Note. Name it by typing a text description in the field below.

4. Tap Save to export your media to Notes. Then you can open Notes App and swipe left on the note you just create, and tap the Lock icon.

   

5. If you haven't locked a note before, you'll be asked to create a password to enable Face or Touch ID. You'll use this password for all the locked notes, so make sure it's something you'll remember. Now you have truly locked the photos on iPhone!

   

Tips

Even this is an amazing method, but it still exits limitations. When you have locked a note, you can't share extra photos to this existing note. This makes it difficult to use a single note to manage all the hidden content.

Part 3. Using 3rd-Party Apps to Lock Pictures on iPhone

Before introducing the Apps, we list some related questions that users ask frequently. If you have the same doubts, you can get the answers here.

1. Can I Put a Password on the Hidden Photos?

No, you can't. iPhone did offer users the option to hide their pictures, but it doesn't provide the password protection feature. You can use the Notes App to password-protect your pictures as the method introduced above.

2. Can I Lock a Photo Album on iPhone?

No, you can't. But you can choose multiples pictures at once then share them to the Notes App, and repeat the above steps to lock your photos.

Generally speaking, using the Notes App is the only built-in option to password-secure your photos. Of course, you can use some 3rd-party Apps to manage your pictures.

Keepsafe

Keepsafe is one of the most popular apps available for iOS devices that allows you to lock photos on iPhone and keep them in a secure vault.

• You can use PIN code to access your locked content.
• Backup your photos as well as create custom albums.
• Keepsafe also has an integrated camera that allows you to capture photos directly from the app.

• You can share your locked photos from Keepsafe for a limited time via Safe Send feature.

  

Lock Photos Photo Secret Vault

Lock Photos Photo Secret Vault is another app that allows you to lock and manage your private photos, videos, documents, notes, voice recordings, text messages, and other files conveniently.

• Lock/hide a wide variety of media files including photos, videos, notes, voice recordings, etc.
• Create folders and subfolders in the app and manage them according to your needs.
• Manage your locked files via a number of options including search, rename, delete, copy, cut, etc.
• Sort your locked files by name, date, type, size, etc.

• You can handle multiple locked files at the same time.

  

Pic Safe

Pic Safe is one of the best vault apps available for iOS devices. It allows you to lock photos on iPhone using pattern or password. You can create multiple albums in the app as well as manage and share your locked photos and videos via email and message.

• Import/export your private photos and videos conveniently from the Photo App of your iPhone.
• Create albums within the app to keep your locked photos organized.
• Manage your locked files via a number of options including search, rename, delete, copy, cut, etc.
• Share your locked photos via email and text message.

• Play locked videos directly from the app.

  

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Conclusion

Many people will have the need to keep their pictures privately. You can choose to hide your photos as the method provided above, but this is not the most secure way to prevent others from seeing them. Using the Notes App to lock the photos is a better alternative, in which you can protect these images with passwords or Face ID Verification.

If the above methods can't satisfy your needs, then you can consider trying some 3rd-party Apps which we recommend on part 3. But no matter which way you choose to hide your photos, remember to delete the backup after you have finished, and keep them carefully.