Work photos and personal photos on one iPhone

What to do

Sort work photos into an album

An album in the Photos app keeps your work photos together. The steps depend on your iOS version. To see your iOS version, open the Settings app, then tap General, then Software Update. On iOS 26 or later:

1. 1. Open the Photos app.
2. 2. Tap Collections, then Albums.
3. 3. Tap the Add button (a plus sign), then New Album.
4. 4. Type a name for the album, like Work.
5. 5. Choose your work photos, then tap Create.

On iOS 18, open the Photos app. Tap Albums, then Create, then New Album. Type a name, and choose your work photos. Then tap Done.

On iOS 17, open the Photos app. Tap Albums, then the Add button, then New Album. Type a name, then tap Save. Choose your work photos, then tap Add.

To show a work photo, open the photo from that album. A swipe then moves through that album, not your whole library. An album has no lock, and the photos in the album still show in your library.

To show one photo and block every swipe, use Apple’s Guided Access. The steps are in Showing one photo.

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

Move photos into a vault

Underlock keeps photos, videos, files and notes in a vault. You open your vault by drawing a pattern on a grid of dots. Your iPhone passcode doesn’t open your vault. Photos in your vault aren’t in the Photos app. Importing puts a copy of each photo in your vault. The originals stay in the Photos app until you remove them.

1. 1. In Underlock, tap the Add button (a plus sign), then Import from Photos.
2. 2. Choose the photos you want in your vault.
3. 3. Keep Underlock open until the import finishes.
4. 4. When the import finishes, Underlock asks whether to remove the originals from the Photos app. Tap Remove.
5. 5. When iOS asks to delete the originals, confirm. The originals move to Recently Deleted in the Photos app.
6. 6. While the originals are in Recently Deleted, check that the photos are in your vault.
7. 7. To remove the originals for good, delete the originals from Recently Deleted. Until then, Recently Deleted keeps the originals for 30 days. After 30 days, the originals are gone for good.

For new photos, use Underlock’s camera. In your vault, tap Add, then Take photo or video. The photo goes straight into that vault, not your camera roll.

Add a second vault

A second vault keeps work and personal apart. Each vault opens with its own pattern, from the same pattern screen.

1. 1. In your vault, tap the Settings button (a gear).
2. 2. Under More vaults, tap Add another vault.
3. 3. Tap Create a new vault.
4. 4. Draw a new pattern, connecting at least 6 dots. Then draw the same pattern again.
5. 5. Write down the 12 words Underlock shows you. These 12 words are the new vault’s recovery phrase. The 12 words open the new vault if you forget the new vault’s pattern.
6. 6. Underlock then asks for 3 of your words. Tap the matching word for each one.

The new vault then opens. To name the new vault, tap Settings, then Name. The name shows only inside that vault. Each vault has its own 12 words, so keep one paper for each vault.

Vault DLMA

AllFolders

Move a file to your other vault

1. 1. In your vault, touch and hold a photo or file.
2. 2. Tap Move to vault.
3. 3. Draw the pattern of the vault the file should go to.

There’s no list of vaults: the pattern you draw decides where the file goes. If the pattern opens no vault, Underlock says Wrong pattern, and the file stays where it is. The vault you moved the file out of then keeps the original in Underlock’s own Recently deleted for 30 days. For several files, tap Select, tap each file, then tap More, then Move to vault.

Switch between vaults

1. 1. Tap the Lock button (a padlock) at the top of your vault.
2. 2. On the pattern screen, draw your other vault’s pattern. That vault opens.

Locked

Draw your pattern to open.

or

Use a passphrase

Forgot your pattern?

What Underlock does

• Each vault has its own pattern. Draw one vault’s pattern, and that vault opens.
• One pattern screen. The pattern screen looks the same for every vault: no names, no list, no count.
• A swipe stays in the open vault. Inside a vault, a swipe shows the next photo or file in that vault. Your other vault stays locked.
• Your passcode doesn’t open a vault. Each vault opens with its own pattern, not your iPhone passcode or Face ID.
• Locks as you leave. By default, your vault locks the moment you leave Underlock.