How to hide files and documents on iPhone

The Files app is where most documents on an iPhone end up: PDFs from email, scans, downloads, contracts, medical letters, tax forms. It's also completely open to anyone using your unlocked phone. If you want to hide files on iPhone, there's no "hide" button in Files, but there are a few real ways to do it, from built-in tricks to an encrypted vault.

This guide is for anyone keeping documents that would matter if someone else saw them: ID scans, bank statements, health records, a private journal, work files.

What the Files app can and can't do

It helps to start with what isn't possible, because a lot of advice online suggests otherwise:

• No file or folder passwords. Files has no option to lock a single file or folder.
• No hidden folders. There's no setting to hide a folder. Burying a file five folders deep or giving it a boring name only slows someone down; Files search finds files by name from the main screen.
• "On My iPhone" isn't hidden either. Files stored locally instead of in iCloud Drive are just as visible in Files to anyone holding your unlocked phone. They're only off your other devices.
• Recents shows everything. The Recents tab lists files you opened lately, wherever they're stored.

What you can do is lock the app itself, or move private files somewhere that has a real lock.

Option 1: Lock the Files app (iOS 18 and later)

1. Touch and hold the Files icon on the Home Screen.
2. Tap Require Face ID (or Require Touch ID / Require Passcode).
3. Tap it again and authenticate.

Files now asks for Face ID every time it opens. It's a quick win if you lend your phone unlocked. But it's all or nothing: it locks every file, not just private ones, and it opens with your iPhone passcode. For more on how app locking works and where it stops, see how to lock apps on iPhone.

Option 2: Scan paper documents into a locked note

For paper documents like an ID card, a prescription or a letter, Notes can scan and lock in one place.

1. Set a Notes password first: Settings → Apps → Notes → Password. You can use your device passcode, or create a separate Notes-only password with a hint.
2. In Notes, create a new note, tap the attachment (paperclip) button, and choose Scan Documents.
3. Hold the iPhone over the page. It captures automatically, or you can take the shot yourself. Adjust the corners if needed, tap Keep Scan, then Save.
4. Tap the ⋯ button in the note and tap Lock. Tap the lock icon at the top to close it.

If Lock isn't offered, the note contains something Notes won't lock. Apple lists PDFs, audio, video, tags, and Pages, Numbers or Keynote documents, plus notes shared with others and notes in Gmail, Yahoo or other IMAP accounts. That also means you can't drop an existing PDF from Files into a note and lock it.

If you chose a Notes-only password and forget it, Apple can't recover the notes you locked with it.

Option 3: Password-protect a document

Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps can put a password on a document, and Apple says doing so encrypts the file.

1. Open the document in Pages (or Numbers or Keynote).
2. Tap the ⋯ button, then Document Options (in Numbers it's Spreadsheet Options, in Keynote Presentation Options).
3. Tap Set Password, enter a password and an optional hint, and tap Done.

According to Apple, if the original document has a password, PDF and Word copies you export from it carry the password too. That's a practical way to make a password-protected PDF on iPhone from something you've written. There's no way to recover the password if you forget it.

The limits: this works for documents you create or can open in those apps. It doesn't help with a PDF someone emailed you, a photo of your passport, or a spreadsheet in another format. And the file itself still appears, with its name, in Files and Recents; only its content is locked.

Where the built-in options stop

Each built-in method covers one slice of the problem:

• Locking Files protects everything with your phone passcode, which other people may know.
• Locked notes take scans and photos but not PDFs, videos or office documents.
• Document passwords only work in Apple's iWork apps, one file at a time, and leave file names visible.

None of them gives you a single private place for any file type, behind a code that isn't your phone's passcode, where even the file names are hidden. That's the gap an encrypted vault fills.

Option 4: Move files into an encrypted vault

A vault app keeps files in its own encrypted storage instead of in Files, behind its own code. A good one encrypts names and folders, not just the contents, and handles any file type: PDFs, Word and Excel files, ZIPs, audio, scans.

VaultCave is one example. Each vault opens with its own pattern or passcode, separate from your iPhone passcode, and it accepts any file type. There are several ways to get files in:

1. From Files: open VaultCave, draw your pattern, tap + and choose Files, then pick the documents.
2. From any app's share sheet: in Mail, Safari or another app, tap Share and choose Save to VaultCave, then draw your pattern to choose the vault.
3. With "Open in…": when an app offers to open a document in another app, choose VaultCave.
4. On iPad: drag and drop files into the vault.

Inside, PDFs and documents open within the vault, and you can sort files into folders and search them by name. File names, folders and thumbnails are encrypted along with the files themselves (the full model is on the security page). If you need to send a file to someone, exporting creates a readable copy, and VaultCave warns you first, because once a file leaves the vault it's no longer protected.

After importing, delete the originals from Files and clear them from Recently Deleted under Browse in Files, or the unprotected copies are still there.

Honest limits: a vault can't stop screenshots of an open document, and someone who watches you draw your pattern can open that vault. Write down the 12-word recovery phrase you're given at setup: if you forget both the pattern and the phrase, nobody can recover the files. For ID documents specifically, see how to store your passport and ID safely on iPhone.

Comparing ways to hide files on iPhone

Method	Works for	Separate from phone passcode?	Hides file names?	Main limit
Lock Files app (iOS 18+)	Every file in Files	No	No	All or nothing; passcode opens it
Locked note	Scans, photos, text	Yes, with a Notes-only password	Yes	No PDFs, video or office files
Pages/Numbers/Keynote password	iWork documents and their exports	Yes	No	One file at a time; name still visible
Encrypted vault app	Any file type	Yes	Yes (in VaultCave)	Separate app; keep your recovery phrase

Mistakes to avoid

• Relying on folder names. "Old receipts" doesn't hide anything from Files search.
• Leaving the original behind. Copying a file into a note or vault leaves the original in Files, Recents and Recently Deleted until you remove it.
• Forgetting email and messages. The PDF you saved is probably still attached to the email or chat it came in. Delete it there too if it matters.
• Exporting and forgetting. Exported or shared copies are readable. Delete them when you're done.
• Using your phone passcode as the document password. If someone knows one, they'll try it on the other.

The short version

• The Files app can't hide or password-protect files or folders.
• Lock the Files app with Require Face ID on iOS 18 and later for quick, all-or-nothing protection.
• Scan paper documents into a locked note; password-protect Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents.
• For any file type behind a separate code, with names hidden too, use an encrypted vault.
• After moving files, delete the originals and clear Recently Deleted.