To see hidden photos on your iPhone, open Photos, tap Collections, scroll down to Utilities, and tap Hidden. Then tap View Album and unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
If there’s no Hidden album under Utilities, it’s been turned off, not deleted. Go to Settings > Apps > Photos and turn on Show Hidden Album. Your hidden photos are still there either way. Hiding keeps them in your library and only removes them from the Library view, your other albums and the Photos widget on your Home Screen.
How to find and open the Hidden album
- Open the Photos app.
- Tap Collections. On iPad, you may need to open the sidebar first.
- Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap Hidden.
- Tap View Album.
- Unlock with Face ID or Touch ID, or enter your iPhone passcode if asked.
The album opens and shows every photo and video you’ve hidden, as described in Apple’s Hidden album guide.
Since iOS 16, the Hidden album is locked by default. On an older iPhone that can’t update past iOS 15, the album isn’t locked, and you’ll find it under Albums > Utilities > Hidden.
Hidden album missing? Turn it back on
- Open Settings.
- Tap Apps, then Photos. On iOS 17 and earlier, tap Photos right on the main Settings list.
- Turn on Show Hidden Album.
Go back to Photos, and Hidden appears under Utilities again. On the same Settings screen, the Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID or Use Passcode) switch controls whether the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums need unlocking. We recommend leaving it on.
Still can’t find a photo? Check Recently Deleted
A photo you can’t find may have been deleted rather than hidden. Deleted items sit in Recently Deleted, also under Utilities, for 30 days before they’re removed for good. Our guide to recovering recently deleted photos walks through getting them back.
If you use iCloud Photos, hidden photos sync across your devices. So a photo hidden on your iPad or Mac is also in the Hidden album on your iPhone.
With iCloud Photos on, the same hidden photos show up on your other Apple devices:
- iPad: Open Photos, open the sidebar if needed, tap Hidden under Utilities, then tap View Album and unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
- Mac: In Photos, choose View > Show Hidden Photo Album from the menu bar. Select Hidden in the sidebar, click View Album, and enter your login password or use Touch ID. To unhide a photo, Control-click it and choose Unhide Photo.
How to unhide photos
- Open the Hidden album and unlock it.
- Touch and hold the photo or video you want to bring back.
- Tap Unhide.
The photo returns to your Library and to any albums it was in before. To unhide several at once, tap Select, choose the photos, tap the More button (three dots), then tap Unhide.
How to hide photos on iPhone
Hiding works one photo at a time or in batches.
Hide one photo
- Open Photos and find the photo or video.
- Touch and hold it until a menu appears.
- Tap Hide.
- Confirm when your iPhone asks.
Hide several photos at once
- In your Library or any album, tap Select.
- Tap each photo and video you want to hide.
- Tap the More button (three dots), then tap Hide.
- Confirm the number of items to hide.
The items disappear from your Library right away and move to Hidden. To keep a whole album out of sight, see our guide to hiding an album on iPhone. Hiding doesn’t free up storage and doesn’t delete anything.
What hiding does and doesn’t protect
| Hidden photos are… | Hidden photos are not… |
|---|---|
| Removed from the Library, other albums and the Photos widget | Freeing up storage on your iPhone or in iCloud |
| Locked behind Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode (iOS 16 and later) | Protected from anyone who knows your passcode |
| Synced to your other devices with iCloud Photos | Deleted from your library |
Anyone who knows your passcode can open the Hidden album and switch its lock off. If other people use your iPhone, change your iPhone passcode to one only you know.
Matthew Roberts is the founder and editor of ARS Digitech. He started the site to answer the iPhone questions his friends and family kept asking him, and it has grown into a library of iPhone and iOS how-to guides. Matthew writes and maintains every tutorial on the site, checking steps and menu names against Apple’s official support documentation and updating guides when an iOS release moves a setting.