Hide photos from Memories, widgets and Search on iPhone

Hide a photo, and only the Hidden album shows it

When you hide a photo, the photo moves to the Hidden album. Apple says a hidden photo doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Photos app. A hidden photo doesn’t appear in the Photos widget either: the box of photos you can add to your Home Screen. The Hidden album opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your iPhone passcode.

To hide a photo, follow our steps for hiding photos. Rather not hide a photo? Use the settings below instead. Each setting changes one place where photos show up: Memories, your Lock Screen, Search or your Apple Watch.

See less of one person

Memories and Featured Photos are photos the Photos app gathers by itself, from your photo library, and shows you. To keep Memories but see less of one person, tell the Photos app to feature that person less, or never. Your choice changes only what Memories, Featured Photos and the Photos widget show. Nothing is hidden or deleted.

1. 1. In the Photos app, open a photo of the person.
2. 2. Tap the More button (three dots), then tap Don’t Feature a Person.
3. 3. If the photo has more than one person, tap the person, then tap Next.
4. 4. Choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person.
5. 5. Tap Confirm.

To feature someone again, open the Photos app and tap Collections. Tap your account in the top-right corner, then tap Reset People & Pets Suggestions.

Turn off Memories and Featured Photos

Turning off Show Featured Content stops Memories and Featured Photos, in the Photos app and in the Photos widget on your Home Screen. Photo Shuffle and Apple Watch have their own settings, below.

1. 1. Open the Photos app.
2. 2. Tap Collections.
3. 3. Tap your account in the top-right corner.
4. 4. Turn off Show Featured Content.

Choose the photos for Photo Shuffle

Photo Shuffle changes your Lock Screen background from one photo to another. Apple calls the background the wallpaper. Photo Shuffle can use an album you choose. Or Photo Shuffle can use Featured Photos, from categories like People, Nature or Cities. To decide exactly which photos show, use an album. You can make a new album with only the photos you want. To start a new Photo Shuffle from an album:

1. 1. Open the Settings app.
2. 2. Tap Wallpaper, then tap Add New Wallpaper.
3. 3. Tap Photo Shuffle.
4. 4. Choose an album that holds only photos you want on your Lock Screen.
5. 5. Choose how often the photo changes.
6. 6. Tap Use Album.

Or choose each photo yourself: after step 3, tap Select Photos Manually. Choose your photos, then tap the checkmark button. Then tap Add.

Leave the Photos app out of iPhone Search

iPhone Search, the search you open by swiping down on your Home Screen, can show photos from your library. You can choose which apps iPhone Search includes, and leave the Photos app out:

1. 1. Open the Settings app.
2. 2. Tap Search. If you don’t see Search, tap Siri & Search.
3. 3. Scroll down, then tap Photos.
4. 4. Turn off Show App in Search.

Choose what your Apple Watch shows

Your Apple Watch shows photos from your iPhone in its own Photos app: one album, plus Featured Photos and Memories. Apple calls this syncing. Your Apple Watch starts out showing your Favorites album: photos you marked as favorites.

1. 1. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app.
2. 2. Tap My Watch, then tap Photos.
3. 3. Turn off Sync Memories and Sync Featured Photos.
4. 4. To change the album, tap Sync Album. Then choose an album with only photos you’re happy to show.

To stop sending photos to your Apple Watch at all, turn off Photo Syncing on the same screen.

Keep private photos outside the Photos app

We make Underlock, a private vault for photos, videos, files and notes. Photos in your vault aren’t in the Photos app. Memories, Featured Photos, the Photos widget, Photo Shuffle and Apple Watch never show photos from your vault. Nothing from your vault shows up in iPhone Search either.

Vault DLMA

AllFolders

Underlock is coming soon to the App Store. Here’s how it will work.

• Your own pattern. You open your vault by drawing a pattern on a grid of dots. Your iPhone passcode, Face ID and Touch ID don’t open your vault.
• Move photos in. Tap Add (the plus at the bottom right), then Import from Photos, and choose your photos. Importing puts a copy of each photo in your vault. Keep Underlock open until the import finishes.
• Remove the originals. When the import finishes, Underlock asks whether to remove the originals from the Photos app. Originals you keep there can still show up in Memories. If you tap Remove, the originals move to Recently Deleted, in the Photos app. Recently Deleted keeps the originals for 30 days.
• Then delete the originals for good. Your vault keeps its own copy. Anyone with your passcode can open Recently Deleted, under Utilities in the Photos app. So delete the originals from Recently Deleted. Apple’s page shows how to delete from Recently Deleted.
• 12 words to get back in. At setup, Underlock shows you 12 words to write on paper: your recovery phrase. If you forget your pattern, the 12 words open your vault. Keep the paper somewhere safe. If you forget your pattern and lose the paper, nobody can open your vault, not even us.
• Locks as you leave. By default, your vault locks as soon as you leave Underlock for another app.

See how Underlock’s setup works, step by step.

Questions people ask