Kryptis Private Vault

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How to hide videos on iPhone, and keep them out of iCloud

Hiding a video takes three taps and puts it in the Hidden album behind Face ID. It still syncs to iCloud Photos, still counts against your storage, and still opens for anyone with your passcode. For a video that must stay off iCloud, record or import it into an encrypted vault instead.

Updated September 6, 2026 · 2 min read

The short answer

Open Photos, touch and hold the video, tap Hide. It moves to the Hidden album, which needs Face ID or the passcode. For a video that must not reach iCloud or a shared device, move it into Kryptis and delete the original from Photos and Recently Deleted, or record it with the Kryptis camera in the first place.

Hide a video in Photos

  1. Find the video in Photos.
  2. Touch and hold it, or open it and tap the three dots.
  3. Tap Hide and confirm.

To hide the Hidden album itself: Settings, Apps, Photos, turn off Show Hidden Album.

What hiding does not change

  • iCloud Photos still uploads the video, and it appears in the Hidden album on every device on your Apple Account.
  • It still counts against iCloud storage, and videos are the large part of it.
  • It is still in your device backup.
  • Anyone with the passcode can open the Hidden album.

Keep a video out of iCloud

Import it into Kryptis, then delete it from Photos and empty Recently Deleted. The vault copy is encrypted on the phone with AES-256-GCM and is not part of iCloud Photos. If you want a backup, Kryptis makes an encrypted file you save to iCloud Drive yourself.

Record straight into the vault

The Kryptis private camera records video directly into the vault, with optional face blur applied to every frame as it records. Nothing is written to Photos, so there is nothing to hide afterwards.

Videos from the web

Downloading a video with a shortcut or a browser puts it in Photos or Files first. Download from Link in Kryptis fetches a public video straight into the vault instead.

Frequently asked questions

Do hidden videos take up iCloud space?

Yes. They are ordinary items in the library and sync like any other video.

Can I hide a video so it does not sync?

Not within Photos. Move it to a vault app with its own storage, or record it there in the first place.

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Kryptis is on its way to the App Store.

Coming soon to theApp Store

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