Password-⁠protect a folder on iPhone

The built-⁠in ways to lock things away on iPhone are the Hidden album in Photos, locked notes, and locked or hidden apps. They differ in the one way that matters most: whether the lock is your phone’s passcode or a separate password. Here is what each one does according to Apple’s own guides, plus the Android equivalents.

Which built-⁠in option uses its own password

If the person you’re worried about knows your passcode, only the options with their own password help.

Photos: the Hidden album

To hide a photo or video:

1. Open Photos and touch and hold the item.
2. Tap Hide, then confirm.

Hidden items move to the Hidden album and stop appearing in your Library, other albums and the Photos widget. Since iOS 16 the album is locked by default and opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.

To take the album out of view as well, go to Settings > Apps > Photos and turn off Show Hidden Album. On the same screen, leave Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID or Use Passcode) switched on. Apple says turning it off unlocks the Hidden album too.

The limit is that the Hidden album has no password of its own. And if you use iCloud Photos, Apple says photos you hide on one device are hidden on your other devices too, so they still go everywhere your library goes.

Notes: lock a note with its own password

Apple’s Notes app can lock a note with your device passcode or with a separate password. Choose the separate password if anyone else knows your passcode.

Apple says locked notes are end-⁠to-⁠end encrypted with that passphrase. A key is derived from it using PBKDF2 and SHA-⁠256, the note and its attachments are encrypted with AES-⁠GCM, and the unencrypted original is deleted afterwards. Images, sketches, tables, maps and websites can be encrypted inside a locked note; other attachment types can’t.

That makes a locked note a workable password-protected place for a few photos or a scanned document. Three things to know:

• A reset doesn’t open old notes. If you forget the password and reset it, Apple says you can lock new notes with the new one, but you can’t see notes locked with the old one.
• It relocks on its own. Apple lists several triggers, including Notes sitting in the background for more than three minutes on iPhone.
• Check where the original went. If you add a photo from your library, look in Photos afterwards to see whether a copy is still there. Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days unless you delete them there too.

Apps: lock or hide them (iOS 18 and later)

Locked and hidden apps arrived in iOS 18. A locked app needs Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode to open, and what’s inside it stays out of CarPlay, notification previews, search, Siri suggestions and call history. A hidden app also disappears from the Home Screen, App Library and search, and moves to a Hidden folder in App Library that needs authentication to open.

Limits Apple lists:

• Only apps you downloaded from the App Store can be hidden.
• Some built-⁠in apps can’t be locked, including Calculator, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Find My, Maps, Shortcuts and Settings.
• Hidden app names still appear in Settings > Apps > Hidden Apps, Screen Time, Battery and App Store purchase history.
• Lock and hide status stays on that iPhone. It doesn’t sync with iCloud.
• Children under 13 in a Family Sharing group can’t lock or hide apps.

The passcode still opens a locked app. One setting narrows that: with Stolen Device Protection on, Apple says a locked app opens only with Face ID or Touch ID when your iPhone is away from familiar locations. Apple describes app locking as a check before the app opens; its guide doesn’t say it adds encryption.

Android: Locked Folder, private space and Secure Folder

• Google Photos Locked Folder. Protected by your screen lock, and Google says you can’t use a different password for it. Its items stay out of the Photos grid, memories, search, albums and other apps that can see your photos.
• Private space (Android 15 and later). A separate space for apps, built as a separate Android profile. You can use your screen lock or choose a new lock. While it’s locked, its apps are stopped and hidden from the launcher, recent apps, the photo picker and Settings. Google notes that its existence can’t always be hidden, for example from someone who connects the phone to a computer, and that private space isn’t included in device backups.
• Samsung Secure Folder. Samsung says it is protected by its Knox platform, which encrypts all data stored there, and you can add a passcode or biometric lock. It needs a Samsung Account, and a forgotten lock can be reset with that account. Samsung also warns that photos still synced to Samsung Cloud can reappear in Gallery after you move them in.

When built-⁠in is enough, and when it isn’t

• Someone might scroll through your camera roll. The Hidden album, with Show Hidden Album turned off, keeps photos out of sight. For many people that’s enough, and it’s free.
• Someone knows your passcode. You need a lock that isn’t your passcode: a locked note with its own password, private space or Secure Folder with its own lock, or a vault app that encrypts with its own key.
• You want a locked place for a whole collection. Notes works for a handful of images. For hundreds of photos and videos, a dedicated vault app is easier to live with. Before you trust one, check how it encrypts, whether it needs an account and what happens if you forget the PIN. The guides linked below walk through those checks.