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Let's look at how you can hide a photo or folder on your iPhone so that strangers don't see it. We will use the built-in capabilities of iOS and third-party programs.

This article is suitable for all iPhone 11/Xs(r)/X/8/7/6 and Plus models running iOS 13. Older versions may have different or missing menu items and hardware support listed in the article.

Built-in iPhone Features

iOS 12+ provides an option to hide photos on iPhone in the “Collections”, “Years” and “Moments” albums. Users can now hide photos, videos, and media folders and only view them in their own Hidden album.

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Hide photos on a Mac computer

• Launch the Photo program.
• Select the photo to hide.
• Control-click the photo, then click Hide. You can also hide a photo by selecting the “Image” section in the line, then “Hide Photo”. You can also press the Command - L button to hide the photo.
• We confirm that the photo needs to be hidden.

When working with iCloud Photo Library, photos that you have hidden on one gadget will be hidden on your other devices.

Show hidden photos

If you need to display hidden photos again in the “Collections”, “Years” and “Moments” albums, perform the following steps.

For iPod touch, iPad or iPhone gadgets:

On a Mac computer:

• Open the Photos application, select View from the menu bar, then Show hidden photo album.
• Open the “Albums” view, and then open the “Hidden” album.
• Select the photo that should be displayed.
• Click the photo while holding down the Control key.
• Click “Show photo”.

Third party programs

You can hide photos and photo folders on iOS 11 using third-party programs. Let's look at the most functional and common of them.

Photo&Video Locker

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The utility allows you to hide photos and videos conveniently and securely; you can download it in the App Store. Photos will be locked and you will need to enter a secret PIN to view them.

Application Features:

• Encryption. Hidden folders and photos are not only located on the gadget in a secret place, but are also encrypted using the 128-bit AES encryption system.
• Hidden photos can be rotated on both sides.
• Zoom out and zoom in on hidden photos.
• Blocking entry to the application. If the user forgot to exit the utility, the application will be blocked after the iPhone goes into sleep mode.
• Import pictures from your computer using iTunes import.

Locker: Hide your photos

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The application has functionality for hiding not only photos, but also videos, applications and files that are protected with a fingerprint. Locker can be downloaded from the App Store.

To hide photos, they must be stored not in your own library, but directly in the application. An important point is the Pin code to gain access to photos. If you do not set up TouchID and lose your Pin code, you will not be able to log into Loker.

In Pocket: wallet, documents

Most users have photos and videos stored on their iPhone that may not be intended for prying eyes. The question arises: how can they be hidden? This will be discussed in more detail in the article.

Below we will look at two ways to hide photos and videos on iPhone, one of them is standard, and the second uses a third-party application.

Method 1: Photo

In iOS 8, Apple has implemented a feature to hide photos and videos, but the hidden data will be moved to a special section that is not even password protected. Fortunately, it will be quite difficult to see hidden files without knowing which partition they are located on.

Method 2: Keepsafe

Actually, you can reliably hide images by protecting them with a password only with the help of third-party applications, of which there are a large number in the App Store. We will look at the process of protecting photos using the Keepsafe application as an example.

Any of the proposed methods will hide all the required photos. In the first case, you are limited to the built-in tools of the system, and in the second, you reliably protect the images with a password.

iCloud cloud storage easily stores information (photos, videos, etc.) available on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, but in a limited manner - Apple developers offer only 5 gigabytes of free space for free, but you will have to pay for the remaining megabytes monthly depending on needs.

Therefore, it is pointless to consider iCloud as a way to hide confidential information from prying eyes in photo format - you will have to turn to competitors for help:

Best Secret Folder

A tool for storing photos on iPhone from developers from RV AppStudios, although it does not transfer photos to the cloud, it helps to store important and secret things in those corners of Apple technology that no one can reach. One of the important advantages is the intuitive procedure, designed even for those who have never tried to hide anything in their lives.

The developers suggest organizing inaccessible space in no time, immediately attaching a password (or verification using Face ID or Touch ID), and then uploading images. The preparation will take five minutes and you won’t have to worry about anything else.

One of the shortcomings of Best Secret Folder is its strange approach to translations. Instead of the Russian language, which was promised 2-3 years ago, only English found a place here.

Secret Calculator – Hide Photo

A new product from developers from MOBILAB, capable of saving photos and images directly in the internal memory of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, but in places inaccessible to others. The main idea of ​​the tool is to hide the shortcut to go to content in the standard interface of the calculator built into iOS.

To access personal information, you will have to select a non-standard trigger: from the available options - combinations using arithmetic signs, calling a hidden panel for entering a password with a gesture, or using Touch or Face ID at the first start.

The service has a lot of advantages, but, unfortunately, it is not without its disadvantages. First of all, advertisements that often appear when interacting with photos are annoying, and you also have to pay exactly 149 rubles to use the functions.

Lock Secret Photo Album Vault

An unpretentiously designed local photo storage for iPhone, capable of hiding pictures, documents, and even diary entries and calendar events. Among the advantages are the ability to organize backup copies, the presence of a function with notifications about a hacking attempt, and also the chance to choose an unlocking method.

There was also a place for standard mechanics, such as Touch or Face ID and graphic keys, 6 and 8-digit combinations and text answers to security questions.

Yandex.Disk

If protecting information locally is no longer interesting, and you want to transfer some of your photos to the network, then Yandex.Disk will help here better than its competitors. And there are two important reasons for this. Firstly, Yandex does not provide restrictions on image storage. If 10 thousand pictures have accumulated on the iPhone, then Yandex will easily accept each one, and even with minimal compression!

Secondly, Yandex protects information using a password, fingerprint or face scanner. And one more thing - the developers of the service have long provided for social integration, and therefore allow you to exchange information on Facebook, Instagram or Vkontakte directly from accessible pages, without opening a browser or individual applications.

Google+

In 2014, users of Apple products were enthusiastic about the news that it was now possible to hide photos on the iPad with iOS 8 - but their joy quickly gave way to disappointment. It turned out that this function on iOS works completely differently than on Windows for PC - hidden photos are still available to prying eyes.

When a user hides photos on iPhone, they disappear from all categories (“ Years», « Moments», « Collections") and end up in a separate folder called " Hidden" This folder is not encrypted or password protected, so anyone who gets the opportunity to “crack” the phone will be able to see its contents.

Photos on iOS 8 are hidden like this:

Step 1. Launch the built-in application " Photo"on iPhone.

Step 2. Click " Choose» in the upper right corner of the screen and check the boxes for all the photos and videos you want to hide.

Step 4. Two lines will appear - at the bottom, find the option “ Hide» (« Hide»).

Step 5. Confirm that you want to hide the pictures - click " Hide photo» (« Hide Photos»).

Folder " Hidden» (« Hidden") appears in the list of albums, and it contains the user's most intimate pictures. There is no way to hide this folder on iPhone.

This method of hiding photos on iPhone is extremely dubious. It’s better not to hide pictures at all than to place them in a catalog whose name attracts attention. If the gadget falls into the hands of ill-wishers, the folder " Hidden", most likely, will be checked first - after all, it promises compromising evidence.

What apps allow you to hide photos on iPhone?

You can reliably hide photos on your iPhone using mobile applications from the AppStore. There are now a lot of similar programs in the Apple store. Many of them have a level of conspiracy - they disguise themselves as calculators. Who would think that photographs could be hidden in a calculator?

A great utility for hiding data is Secret Calculator+, the “brainchild” of Chinese programmers. This application is free and very easy to use. After installation, it will be present on the desktop under the name Calculator+.

You can hide photos using this program like this:

Step 1. Launch the application and set a password. There seems to be no limit on password duration. We decided to stop at 20 characters.

When you are finished entering, press the % key.

Then enter the password again, also placing a dot with the button with the percent symbol. If the password setting was successful, the following window will appear on the screen:

Click " OK, I got it».

Step 2. First you need to start a new album. Click on the “+” button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3. Using the “+” button, add photos that you would like to hide from strangers.

Step 4. Proceed to the application " Photo» and delete hidden pictures from it.

After this you can return to the application Secret Calculator+ and make sure the photos are there. If you press the key with three horizontal lines, you will see: the program is capable of storing not only photos and videos, but also notes, contacts, and passwords from Internet resources.

Storing Word, Excel, Power Point files is possible with the full version of the application. iPhone owners can purchase it for 229 rubles.

The main thing for the Secret Calculator+ user is not to fall victim to a clever disguise and not to uninstall the application inadvertently. Together with the program, all the photos that it stored will be irrevocably erased.

A worthy alternative to Secret Calculator+ is the application Private Camera. The operating principle of this program is different. It doesn't hide photos behind a calculator, but allows you to take photos directly from its interface. These pictures are not reflected in the application " Photo", however, if necessary, they can be uploaded (exported) there.

The program allows you to store under a password not only photos from your own camera, but also pictures taken earlier, copied from albums in the Photo application.

Owners of Apple equipment note the vulnerability of applications for hiding photos - despite the fact that the pictures are password protected, it is still possible to gain access to them Can. It is enough to use a computer with special software. For example, the iTools utility allows you to view all the contents of your iPhone - whether it is hidden or not.

For a user who is looking for a 100% guarantee of photo confidentiality, the option of using special applications for storing photos is not suitable. It is better for him to resort to the next method.

The most reliable way to hide photos

iPhone users should store their most intimate photo sessions in programs that support AES-256 encryption. The AES-256 encryption algorithm is one of the most reliable; It is widely used by banking structures and government organizations. AES-256 enabled apps collect photos (and other data) in containers – specially encrypted files. In iTools and similar programs, the contents of containers are not visible. There is only one way to access the content - by entering a password.

Mobile apps that can encrypt data include:

The uPassword program, which performed the same functions as 1Password, is no longer distributed through the AppStore.

Conclusion

Hiding photos using the iPhone's own tools is a “so-so” method. Photos that need to be hidden are simply collected in one folder, access to which is not protected in any way. To place photos under a password, you should use one of the third-party applications - for example, Secret Calculator+.

Programs that support AES encryption can provide a 100% guarantee of information security. Such applications place photos in containers, the contents of which are not recognized by any special software.

If you have some photos on your iPhone that you don't want anyone to see, you can hide them using the "hide photos" option available on your iPhone or use a workaround to truly protect photo password on your device.

The ability to hide photos on iPhone and iPad was first introduced in iOS 8, and the feature has been improved in the next version of Apple's software, allowing users to select and hide multiple photos. However, the "hide photos" option, available by default on iPhone and iPad, only hides photos from the "moments", "collections" and "years" sections.

Hidden photos can be viewed in albums by selecting the “hidden” album. While iOS doesn't have the ability to truly hide photos, there is a workaround using the notes app, which hides photos and protects them with a password. We provide below two ways to protect photos: through the standard iOS capabilities and through Notes, which is a workaround.

Hide photos on iPhone and iPad using standard iOS features

Follow these steps to hide one or more photos.

As mentioned above, photos hidden using the above steps will be hidden in Moments, Collections, and Years, but they will still be visible in Albums.

How to see hidden photos (standard way) on iPhone and iPad

You can see hidden photos on your phone at any time by following these steps:

Now hidden photos will be visible!

How to hide photos on iPhone and iPad securely (via “notes”)

The previous method is not beneficial in that anyone who wants to look at your photos will still find it by clicking on the “albums” tab. While iOS doesn't provide an option to actually hide photos on iPhone, there is a workaround that can hide photos in locked notes so that no one can access those photos without knowing the note unlock password.

Now the photos you wanted to hide are really secure and there is no access to these hidden photos without a password to unlock the note.

Note. The original copy of the hidden photos will still be available in the Photos app. Therefore, you will need to delete photos from the Photos app and also delete them from the Recently Deleted folder.