How to Lock Photos on iPhone With Face ID or a Password

To lock photos on iPhone, move them into the Hidden album, which opens only with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. You can also put photos in a locked note, or lock the Photos app itself with Face ID on iOS 18 and later. iOS has no password you can attach to a single photo or an ordinary album you made yourself, so each option has limits.

Below are the three built-in ways with the exact steps, what each one protects, and where a vault app fits. Every iOS detail is linked to the Apple Support page it comes from.

1. Lock photos in the Hidden album

Since iOS 16, Apple locks the Hidden album by default, so it needs authentication to open. Hidden photos also disappear from the Library, other albums and the Photos widget on your Home Screen.

To hide photos

1. Open Photos.
2. Touch and hold the photo or video, then tap Hide and confirm.

To hide several at once, tap Select, tap the photos, tap the more (…) button, then tap Hide, as Apple’s iPhone guide describes.

To open them again

1. In Photos, tap Collections.
2. Scroll down and tap Hidden under Utilities.
3. Tap View Album and unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.

To check the lock is on

Go to Settings > Apps > Photos. According to Apple, the Recently Deleted and Hidden collections are locked by default, and turning off Use Face ID, Use Touch ID or Use Passcode makes them unlocked. Leave it on.

If you want the album gone from view too, turn off Show Hidden Album in the same place. The step-by-step guide to a private photo album on iPhone covers this in full.

The limits. This is a lock on viewing, and it uses your device passcode as the fallback. Anyone who knows your passcode can open it. If you use iCloud Photos, Apple says photos you hide on one device are hidden on your other devices too. What the Hidden album does and does not protect has the detail.

2. Put photos in a locked note

Notes can lock individual notes with a password, Face ID or Touch ID. This is the closest iOS gets to a password you choose yourself.

To set it up

1. Go to Settings > Apps > Notes > Password.
2. Choose Use Device Passcode or create a custom password. Apple’s Notes guide lists both. If you use a custom password, set a hint.
3. Optionally turn on Face ID or Touch ID.

To lock a note

1. Open the note, tap the more button, then tap Lock.

What to know before you rely on it

• A locked note’s title stays visible in the notes list, so do not put anything sensitive in the title.
• Apple says you can’t lock notes that contain video, audio or PDF attachments, notes shared in iCloud, or Quick Notes. A video you want to protect cannot go in a locked note.
• If you forget a custom notes password, Apple cannot help you. Resetting it does not open notes you locked earlier.
• The photo you paste into a note is a copy. The original stays in your library until you delete it.

Notes suits a handful of photos, such as an ID card or a screenshot of a document. It is awkward for a few hundred.

3. Lock the Photos app with Face ID (iOS 18 and later)

In iOS 18 and later you can require Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode to open an app. Apple’s instructions:

1. Touch and hold the app on the Home Screen until the Quick Actions menu opens.
2. Tap Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode), then tap it again to confirm.

Apple says information inside a locked app does not appear in places like notification previews, search or Siri suggestions. Opening a locked app does not unlock it for good, since it locks again after you quit.

Apple’s list of apps that cannot be locked includes Calculator, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Find My, Maps, Shortcuts and Settings. We could not confirm from Apple’s pages whether Photos is on your iPhone’s list, so check. If your Photos icon does not show Require Face ID in its menu, your iOS version or setup does not allow it, and you should rely on the Hidden album instead.

The limits. The lock applies to the whole app, not one album. Anyone who gets through it can see your whole library. You can also hide an app, but hidden apps remain visible in a few places, for example Settings > Screen Time and App Store purchase history, per Apple’s safety guide.

Which one should you use?

You want	Use
A few photos out of the main library, quickly	Hidden album
A password you choose, for a few photos or documents	Locked note
To stop someone browsing the Photos app on your unlocked phone	Lock the Photos app
Many photos and videos, separate from your library, with your own lock	A vault app

When a vault app makes sense

All three options live inside your Apple apps and lean on your device passcode. A vault app keeps files in its own storage behind its own lock, so a photo in the vault is not in your Photos library at all. The cost is that you manage that lock yourself. If you forget it, your options depend on the app, which the photo vault recovery guide explains.

Forevault is our app for this. It encrypts files on the device with AES-256-GCM and opens with a pattern on a 5×5 grid or a passcode or password, with Face ID as an option. You can keep separate vaults for different patterns, and the lock screen does not list them. You get a 12-word recovery phrase, an encrypted backup to your own iCloud, and free export to Photos or Files at any time. There is no account and no data collected. The free tier holds 100 photos, 10 videos and 3 vaults. It protects against someone holding your phone, not forensic analysis. Questions go to the support page. Download Forevault on the App Store.

Frequently asked questions

Can you put a password on a single photo on iPhone?

Not with a photo-specific password. The built-in choices are the Hidden album (Face ID, Touch ID or passcode), a locked note (passcode or custom password) and locking the app.

Does the Hidden album use my passcode?

It uses Face ID or Touch ID, and falls back to your passcode. Apple’s documentation says the Hidden and Recently Deleted collections can be unlocked with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.

Are locked photos still in my iCloud?

If iCloud Photos is on, hidden photos sync like other photos and stay hidden on your other devices. Notes you lock in iCloud are end-to-end encrypted, according to Apple.