Photos you’re not ready to look at
What to do
See less of one person
Memories and Featured Photos are photos the Photos app gathers by itself and shows you. So photos that are hard to see can come up on any day. You can 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.
- In the Photos app, open a photo of the person.
- Tap the More button (three dots), then tap Don’t Feature a Person. On iOS 18 or earlier, tap Feature This Person Less.
- If the photo has more than one person, tap the person, then tap Next.
- Choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person.
- Tap Confirm.
To feature the person 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, or only holidays
Turning off Show Featured Content stops Memories and Featured Photos. Turning off Show Holiday Events stops only the memories about holidays.
- Open the Photos app.
- Tap Collections.
- Tap your account in the top-right corner.
- Turn off Show Featured Content, Show Holiday Events, or both.
Hide the photos themselves
Featuring someone less leaves the photos in your library. To stop seeing a photo in your library too, hide the photo. The photo then moves to the Hidden album. Apple says only the Hidden album then shows the photo. The photo leaves your library, your other albums and the Photos widget.
- In the Photos app, open your library.
- Tap Select, then tap each photo you want to hide.
- Tap the More button (three dots), then tap Hide.
With iCloud Photos on, a photo you hide is hidden on your other devices too.
To see the photos again, tap Collections, then tap Hidden, below Utilities. Tap View Album, then unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your iPhone passcode. To bring one photo back to your library, open that photo. Tap the More button, then tap Unhide.
If you’re thinking of deleting a photo
You don’t have to decide now. You can undo hiding at any time. A photo you delete waits in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and you can bring the photo back during that time. After 30 days, the photo is gone for good from your iPhone, iCloud and your other devices.
Underlock is coming soon to the App Store. Here’s how it will work.
Keep photos outside the Photos app
Underlock keeps photos in a vault, apart from the Photos app. You open your vault by drawing a pattern on a grid of dots. Your iPhone passcode doesn’t open your vault. Memories, Featured Photos, the Photos widget, Photo Shuffle and Apple Watch never show photos from your vault.
Importing puts a copy of each photo in your vault. The originals stay in the Photos app until you remove them.
- In Underlock, tap the Add button (a plus sign), then Import from Photos.
- Choose the photos you want in your vault.
- Keep Underlock open until the import finishes.
- When the import finishes, Underlock asks whether to remove the originals from the Photos app. Tap Remove or Keep.
If you tap Keep, the originals stay in the Photos app, and the originals can still show up in Memories. If you tap Remove, iOS asks you to confirm. The originals then wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and after that the originals are gone for good. See how to remove originals sooner.
When you open your vault
Your vault’s All tab shows every file in your vault, including files in folders. So if you also use your vault for other things, these photos can come up there. To keep these photos apart, use your vault only for these photos. Or add another vault, which opens with its own pattern.
Keep your way back in
You may not open your vault for a long time, and a pattern can slip your mind. When you set up Underlock, you write down your recovery phrase: 12 words on paper. The 12 words open your vault if you forget your pattern. If you forget your pattern and lose the paper, nobody can open your vault, not even us. So keep the paper somewhere safe.
What Underlock does
- Out of Memories. Memories, Featured Photos, the Photos widget, Photo Shuffle and Apple Watch never show photos from your vault.
- Not on your other devices. Photos in your vault aren’t in the Photos app, so they’re not in iCloud Photos, and your iPad, Mac and iCloud.com don’t show them.
- Your own pattern. Your vault opens with your own pattern, not your iPhone passcode or Face ID.
- 12 words for later. If you forget your pattern, your 12 words get you back in.
- Locks as you leave. By default, your vault locks the moment you leave Underlock.