How to Password Protect Photos on iPhone (3 Ways)

iPhone has no "password" option for individual photos or regular albums. You have three real options: lock the Hidden album with Face ID or your passcode (built in, but it's the phone's own passcode), put photos in a locked note with a separate Notes password, or use an encrypted vault app that has its own secret. Which one is right depends on whether you need a password that's different from your phone's.

Option 1: Lock the Hidden album (same passcode as your phone)

This is the quickest and is already on for most people running iOS 16 or later.

Hide the photos

1. Open Photos and tap Select.
2. Tap the photos you want to protect.
3. Tap the More button (three dots), then Hide, and confirm.

Require authentication

1. Open Settings > Apps > Photos (on iOS 17 and earlier, Settings > Photos).
2. Turn on Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID / Use Passcode).
3. Optionally turn off Show Hidden Album so the album isn't listed.

To view them later on iOS 26: Photos > Collections > Utilities > Hidden. On iOS 18, scroll to the bottom of Photos to Utilities > Hidden.

Good for: keeping photos off the main grid and out of Memories. Limit: the "password" is your phone passcode. Anyone who knows it can open the album. Details in how to lock the Hidden album.

Option 2: Put photos in a locked note (separate password)

Notes is the only built-in app that lets you set a password different from your phone passcode.

Set a Notes password first

1. Open Settings > Apps > Notes.
2. Tap Password and choose your account (for example iCloud or On My iPhone).
3. Choose Create Password rather than Use Device Passcode, and set a hint.
4. Optionally turn on Use Face ID. It's convenient, but it makes your face a second key to those notes; leave it off if you want the password to be the only way in.

Add photos and lock the note

1. Open Notes and create a new note.
2. Tap the camera / attachment button and choose Choose Photo or Video, then select your photos.
3. Tap the More button (three dots) and choose Lock.
4. Tap the lock icon at the top to close it.
5. Go back to Photos and delete the originals, then empty Recently Deleted.

Good for: a handful of photos that need a password different from your phone's. Limits:

• Clunky for more than a few images; no grid, no albums.
• You can't lock notes that are shared, have tags, or contain videos, PDFs, or audio.
• If you forget a custom Notes password, Apple can't recover those notes.
• The note title stays visible in the list, so give it a dull one.

How to lock notes on iPhone covers this in more depth.

Option 3: An encrypted photo vault with its own secret

If you want a real photo library behind a separate password, this is the option that scales. A good vault does three things: it encrypts the files themselves (not just puts a PIN screen in front of them), it uses a secret that's not your phone passcode, and it doesn't send your photos to someone else's server.

sigil. is built that way:

• Its own key. Each vault is encrypted with a 256-bit key that only the sign you draw on a 5×5 dot grid can unlock, not your phone passcode. See pattern encryption.
• Separate vaults, invisible to others. Use one sign for everyday private photos and another for documents. The app shows no list, so nothing in the app shows how many vaults exist. See multiple hidden vaults.
• No account. Nothing to sign up for, no server holding your files.
• Metadata stripped. Location and EXIF data are removed when you import and export.

Setting it up

1. Install sigil. Draw a sign for your first vault. Avoid obvious shapes; the pattern strength meter shows how guessable a sign is.
2. Write the 12-word recovery phrase on paper and store it somewhere safe. We can't reset your sign for you.
3. Import photos from your library or the Hidden album.
4. Delete the originals in Photos and empty Recently Deleted.
5. For new sensitive photos, use the private camera so they never land in the Camera Roll.

Free covers 100 photos and documents and 10 videos per vault, in one vault plus the decoy vault, with every feature included (decoy vault, self-destruct, disguised icon). Pro adds unlimited photos and videos and up to 7 vaults, with a one-time lifetime option and no subscription required; see pricing.

Pattern, PIN, or password?

People reasonably ask whether a drawn sign is as strong as a password. It depends on the sign. A 5×5 grid has far more possible shapes than the 3×3 Android pattern most people picture, and a non-trivial sign is much harder to guess than a four-digit PIN. A long passphrase can still be stronger. Pattern lock vs PIN vs password compares them honestly, and the password strength checker helps if you go the password route elsewhere, such as Notes.

Which option should you pick?

Things that undo a password, whichever option you choose

• iCloud copies. If the original was in iCloud Photos before you moved it, delete it there too. Deleting in Photos removes it from iCloud when sync is on.
• Message threads. Photos you've sent or received in Messages or WhatsApp stay in those chats.
• Screenshots. A screenshot of a protected photo is a new, unprotected photo.
• Shared albums and Shared Library. Anything in an iCloud Shared Library is visible to other participants.

Password protection only works if the protected copy is the only copy. Once you've moved everything, a quick sweep of these places is worth the five minutes. If your reason is a specific situation, such as kids using your phone or a shared family iPad, those pages cover extra steps.