Underlock vs Private Photo Vault
Private Photo Vault has its own lock, and the vault on your phone needs no account. Private Photo Vault’s backup, Cloud Vault, comes with Premium. Underlock is a private vault for your iPhone that opens with a pattern you draw on a grid of dots.
We make Underlock, so read this knowing that.
Underlock is coming soon to the App Store.
Which is right for you?
Private Photo Vault may be all you need if:
- you want Face ID to open your vault
- you also use an iPad or an Android phone
- you’d like a recovery email that can reset your password
Underlock is worth a try if:
- you’d rather not give an app your email
- you’d rather keep 12 words on paper as your way back in
Trying Underlock changes nothing in Private Photo Vault. Your photos stay in Private Photo Vault until you delete them there.
Side by side
The table shows where Private Photo Vault does as well as Underlock, or better. Analytics means data an app collects about how you use it.
| Feature | Underlock | Private Photo Vault |
|---|---|---|
| A lock of its own, not your iPhone passcode | Yes | Yes |
| Opens with Face ID | No | Yes |
| Encrypted on your iPhone | Yes | Yes |
| On iPad and Android too | No | Yes |
| No account or email to sign up for | Yes | Account needed for backup |
| If you forget how to open the vault | 12 words on paper | A recovery email, if you set one up |
| Analytics in the app | None | Yes, how you use the app |
What Private Photo Vault does well
Private Photo Vault gets the basics right, and it does some things Underlock doesn’t.
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A lock of its own
A PIN, password or pattern, separate from your iPhone passcode. You can also use Face ID, or Face ID and your PIN together.
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No account to start
The vault on your phone works without an account, and offline by default.
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iPhone, iPad and Android
Private Photo Vault runs on all three. With Premium, Cloud Vault syncs your photos between iPhone and Android.
If you forget your password
Private Photo Vault can reset a forgotten app password through a recovery email, if you set one up. Without a recovery email, that reset isn’t available. Ask Private Photo Vault’s support team what else they can do. Keep the app on your iPhone meanwhile, because deleting it can delete the photos inside. Cloud Vault, the Premium backup, uses a second password, separate from the app’s, and that one can never be recovered.
Underlock never asks for an email. When you set up a vault, Underlock shows you 12 words to write on paper: your recovery phrase. If you forget your pattern, those 12 words open your vault. Keep the paper somewhere safe: someone who has the paper and can unlock your iPhone could open your vault. If you lose both your pattern and the paper, nobody can open your vault, not even us.
Using Cloud Vault? Write down the Cloud Vault password. Keep the paper somewhere safe.
Moving photos from Private Photo Vault
Underlock is coming soon to the App Store. Here’s how moving will work.
First, Private Photo Vault exports your photos to the Photos app. Next, Underlock imports the photos. Then you delete the photos from the Photos app and from Private Photo Vault.
- In Private Photo Vault, choose the photos you want to move.
- Export the photos to the Photos app. If iCloud Photos is on, the photos also go to iCloud Photos until you delete them for good in step 7.
- In Underlock, tap the Add button (a plus sign), then Import from Photos.
- Choose the same photos. Keep Underlock open until the import finishes.
- When the import finishes, Underlock offers to remove the photos from the Photos app. Tap Remove, then confirm when iOS asks. The photos wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days.
- Before you delete anything for good, check that the photos are in your vault.
- In the Photos app, delete the photos from Recently Deleted. The photos then leave iCloud Photos too.
- In Private Photo Vault, delete the photos you moved.
Paying for Private Photo Vault Premium? Deleting the app doesn’t cancel Premium. If you move, cancel Premium only after your photos are in Underlock: when Premium ends and you switch to the free plan, Private Photo Vault deletes the Cloud Vault backup. To cancel, open the Settings app, tap your name, then Subscriptions.
Questions about Private Photo Vault
Against someone who picks up your phone, yes: Private Photo Vault has a lock of its own and encrypts your files on your iPhone. The free version doesn’t back up to Cloud Vault, though. For a lost iPhone, Private Photo Vault’s help suggests backing up your whole iPhone to a computer.
Yes, through Cloud Vault, its Premium backup, or through a backup of your whole iPhone on a computer. See how to move Private Photo Vault to a new iPhone.
If you set up a recovery email, the recovery email can reset the app’s password. Without one, ask Private Photo Vault’s support team what else they can do, and keep the app: deleting an app removes its data from your iPhone. See what to try next.
Export the photos from Private Photo Vault to the Photos app. Then import the photos into Underlock: tap Add, then Import from Photos. Afterwards, delete the photos from the Photos app and from Private Photo Vault. Private Photo Vault won’t open? See what to try.
No. Underlock is for iPhone, with iOS 17 or later.
Yes. Underlock is free forever: one vault, no file limit. If the free plan ever changes, you keep the plan you started with. More vaults come with Pro, Underlock’s paid plan.
Related
- Recovery phrase 12 words that get you back in.
- Underlock vs Keepsafe Keepsafe has its own PIN and works on iPad and Android, but it needs your email.
- Keepsafe vs Private Photo Vault How the two differ: email, the backup, and getting back in.
- Photo vault apps for iPhone, compared Four ways to keep photos private, row by row.
- Free photo vault apps What each free plan includes, and what costs money.
- How Underlock protects your files What we can’t see, and why.
A private vault that never asks for your email
Free for one vault, with no file limit. No account, no email.
For iPhone with iOS 17 or later.