Sometimes you want to hide, move or archive pictures and videos from your photo album so they don’t appear in your main camera roll. Both popular mobile operating systems make this easy. Here’s how:
iOS: Create and Use Hidden Folders
Apple lets you scoot images or videos into a separate folder so they are not easily seen when flipping through your main album. They’re removed from your main albums and galleries but are safely stored in another location. This works on iPhones and iPads.
- Launch the Photos app
- Tap the album that you want to hide images (or videos) from
- Tap Select in the upper right corner.
- Tap to select all the photos and videos you want to hide
- Tap the Share button (the icon with the up arrow)
- Choose Hide from the list of options for the images (you may have to scroll down)
- You will be prompted to confirm that you want to hide the files
Later, to find your hidden photos and videos, scroll down to Other Albums and tap Hidden. The photos you’ve hidden from view will be stored here. You can unhide a file by tapping the Share button and selecting Unhide. For more details visit Apple’s support page.
How to create hidden folders on Android
Please note, every Android is not the same. If these steps do not work for you, do a search for “hide photos on {your phone model and Android version}.”
For most stock versions of the Android operating system, these steps should work:
- Open the Google Photos app.
- Select the images that you wish to hide.
- Tap the three-dot icon in the top right-hand corner.
- Tap Move to Archive in the drop-down menu.
This hides your photos and videos in a separate folder (called Archive). You can access this from your main Google Photos menu, but the contents of this folder will not be included in any of your other feeds. For more details and tips, visit Android Central.
To view hidden photos on an iPhone, open the Photos app and tap "Albums." Scroll down to the Utilities section at the bottom of the list and tap the "Hidden" album under it. If you don't see it, head to Settings > Photos and ensure "Show Hidden Album" is enabled.
Did you hide some photos on your iPhone but you are now not sure where those photos are? It’s easy to see those hidden photos on an iPhone, and we’ll show you how.
Note: Respect other people’s privacy when using this knowledge, as they have their own reasons for hiding photos on their iPhones.
RELATED: How to Hide People from Memories in Google Photos
See Hidden Photos on iPhone
To view your hidden photos, first, launch the Photos app on your iPhone.
At the bottom of the Photos app, tap “Albums.”
Scroll down to the bottom of the albums list and tap the “Hidden” album in the Utilities section.
(On older versions of iOS, the “Hidden” album is located under Other Albums rather than Utilities.)
Note: If you do not see the “Hidden” album option, the album itself might be hidden. To enable it, follow the steps in the section below.
The “Hidden” album screen shows all your hidden photos and videos.
To unhide a photo or video, tap that item on the list. When the item opens in full-screen, tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner, then tap “Unhide” in the drop-down menu.
And your selected photo or video is now visible to everyone in Photos.
If you’re not finding the photos you were looking for, consider trying to recover deleted photos on your iPhone or iPad.
Enable the “Hidden” Photo Album on iPhone
Starting in iOS 14, you can turn off the “Hidden” album in the Photos app. To re-enable that album, you will have to change an option in your iPhone’s settings.
To do so, open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap “Photos.” Then, enable the “Show Hidden Album” option. Your album is now visible in the Photos app, and you can access your hidden photos.
There are all sorts of reasons why you'd want to hide photos on your iPhone. Maybe you took an embarrassing photo of your sibling and need to keep it safe while having it at the ready to tease them about. Or, maybe you're planning a gift for your significant other and don't want them to find the evidence before they receive it. Whatever your reason, here's how to hide photos in iOS 16.
Contents
- How to hide your pictures with the Photos app
- How to unhide or view hidden photos
Difficulty
Easy
Duration
5 minutes
What You Need
Apple iPhone or iPad running iOS 16 or iPadOS 16
In situations like these, the ability to hide photos on your phone becomes invaluable, especially if you have children or friends who use your device often. Here, we’ll detail how to hide your images on your iPhone or iPad — the methods are nearly identical.
Note that Apple's changed how this used to work a little with the new iOS 16 release.
See more
- How to take good photos with your phone
- How to transfer photos from an iPhone to your computer
- Best camera apps for the iPhone
How to hide your pictures with the Photos app
The quickest way to hide photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is to use the native Photos app. It essentially removes the selected images from all available views within the Photos app, but it doesn’t tuck them away in a locked vault. Anyone with access to your device can still tap the Hidden folder listed under Utilities in the Albums tab and see what you’re hiding. You can even access them on a Mac.
Step 1: Tap on the Home screen icon to open the Photos app, or use Spotlight search.
Step 2: Find the album that contains the photos you need to hide. If the app opens to Library by default, skip this step and search there directly.
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Step 3: Tap the Select button located in the top-right corner to open up the multi-selection menu.
Step 4: Tap on every photo you'd like to hide.
Step 5: Tap the Overflow icon displayed in the bottom-right corner. It looks like (...).
Step 6: The selected photos will now move to the Hidden album listed under Utilities on the Albums tab.
How to unhide or view hidden photos
Unhiding or viewing hidden photos is as easy as navigating into your album section and scrolling all the way down. We'll show you how.
Step 1: Tap to open the Photos app.
Step 2: Tap the Albums tab listed at the bottom.
Step 3: Scroll down and tap the Hidden folder listed under Utilities. You'll have a FaceID prompt at this point to enable access.
Step 4: Tap the Select button displayed in the top-right corner.
Step 5: Tap on every photo that you want to unhide.
Step 6: Tap the Overflow button located in the bottom-left corner. As before, it resembles an ellipsis enclosed by a circle.
Step 7: Tap the Unhide option on the pop-up menu. The photos will then move back to their original spots. Alternatively, you can tap Add to album to move them to a specific album.