How to choose a private file app for your iPhone

Pick by the job, not by the word private. Photos you already have belong in the Photos app's Hidden album, which iOS locks by default. Documents you need on every device belong in the Files app with iCloud Drive. A dedicated vault app such as Keepsafe is built for a separate locked collection with encryption and a backup of its own. PWA Lock's vault is the narrowest option: it keeps downloads from one locked web app out of Photos and Files, and that is the only problem it solves. We make PWA Lock, so read this as a comparison by an interested party; for most readers one of the first three is the better answer.

Three questions hiding inside "private"

When the subject is a file, private means three different things.

• Who can open it? A lock: Face ID, a passcode or a password. All four options have one.
• What if the phone is lost? Encryption. A screen lock alone does not stop someone reading the storage underneath. Apple says that setting a passcode turns on data protection, which encrypts the data on the iPhone with 256-bit AES, though some apps may opt out; only Keepsafe advertises a layer of its own on top.
• Does it survive? Sync and backup. A file that exists in one place is one dropped phone away from gone.

Most people need a lock and a backup; fewer need encryption beyond the device's own.

The four options side by side

Apple's columns describe what Apple documents; Keepsafe's repeats what its product page advertises, unverified by us; PWA Lock's describes our own code.

The Hidden album: for photos you already have

For photos or videos already in your library, start here. Apple describes hidden photos as moving to the Hidden album so that they appear nowhere else in Photos: not the Library, other albums or the Photos widget. On iOS 16 and later the album is locked by default, and unhiding means opening it with Face ID or Touch ID first. Settings, under Apps, then Photos, can also hide the album itself (Show Hidden Album).

Two limits. The album is a view inside Photos, not a separate store: with iCloud Photos on, Apple notes that photos hidden on one device are hidden on your other devices too, so they still live in your library. And it only works on what is already in Photos; it does nothing about where the next download lands.

The Files app: organization, with the phone's passcode in front

Files is where Safari's downloads and most saved documents end up, in iCloud Drive or the On My iPhone folder; Where do iPhone web downloads go? traces each path. It has no lock of its own, so a folder in Files is exactly as private as the phone: the passcode and Face ID stand in front, and Apple's data protection covers the storage underneath. For a step in front of one app rather than the whole phone, iPhone app locks, private browsing and PWA Lock compared covers what iOS offers.

What Files does best is survive. Files in iCloud Drive live in iCloud and appear on your other devices. Apple's backup guide describes iCloud Backup as storing what does not regularly sync to iCloud, running daily while the phone is on power, locked and on Wi-Fi, with a Mac or PC backup as the alternative. Check Apple's list of what a backup includes before relying on it for the On My iPhone folder. If a document must outlive a lost phone, this is the plainest way to make sure it does.

PWA Lock's vault: for downloads from one web app, and only that

PWA Lock puts a lock page, optionally disguised as a cover app, in front of a web app. The vault is an option on each locked app: set a vault passcode when you create the app, and downloads started inside it are saved to the app's local vault instead of the Files app or the browser's downloads. You open it by performing the vault passcode on the lock page and entering the lock password. Inside, you can view, rename, delete and add files, and use Save to device to hand one back to the browser as an ordinary download. Setup is in the complete iPhone guide; the vault is part of every plan, and Starter, Personal or Pro: which plan fits you? compares them.

The vault is the browser's origin-private file storage on that one device. PWA Lock does not encrypt it, back it up to any server or sync it between devices. Clearing website data deletes it, and WebKit describes web storage as best-effort by default: data can be evicted when quota or device space runs out or a site goes unused for some time. Anyone with access to the unlocked browser or device can reach it. Files must come from the app's own address; a file from another domain, such as a CDN, may fall back to a normal browser download, and a download still in flight when iOS suspends the app is not guaranteed to finish. What PWA Lock protects, and what it does not draws the boundary; Before clearing website data explains how to keep a copy of anything you would miss.

It is the right choice when downloads from one web app should stay out of Photos and Files and sit behind that app's lock page instead. If losing them would hurt, keep a second copy in one of the other three columns.

Dedicated vault apps such as Keepsafe

A vault app is built for a locked, separate collection and deserves a fair look. Keepsafe's product page advertises PIN-code protection with fingerprint or Face ID unlock, AES-256 encryption on the device and in what it calls your private backup, cloud backup of photos, a free Basic level limited to 200 photos, and a paid Premium level that adds tracking of break-in attempts and restoring deleted files, on iPhone and Android. Its Calculator app, for Android, advertises a decoy calculator icon, the same idea as PWA Lock's cover apps; Cover apps: what a calculator on your home screen can hide explains what a disguise does and does not achieve.

Those are the company's claims; reviewing whether the app delivers them, or how its backup handles your data, is outside this article. The shape fits photos you want moved out of the library rather than hidden inside it, a collection that should follow you to a new phone, and a lock separate from the phone's own. Read its privacy policy before uploading anything.

Which one fits your situation?

If two rows apply, use two tools: originals in Files or Photos, and a vault, ours included, for its narrow job.