How to hide photos from Memories, widgets and search on iPhone

Your iPhone likes to resurface old pictures. Memories turns them into slideshows with music, featured photos put them at the top of the Photos app, the Photos widget shows them on your Home Screen, and search can bring them up in a couple of letters. That's lovely until it's a photo you'd rather not see, or rather nobody else saw. This guide shows how to hide photos from Memories on iPhone, and from featured photos, widgets, search and a Shared Library, using the settings in current iOS.

Hide photos from Memories, widgets and featured photos in one step

The quickest fix for a specific photo is to hide it. Apple says hidden photos don't appear anywhere else in Photos, including your library, other albums and the Photos widget, so they also stop being used for memories and featured photos.

1. Open the photo in Photos.
2. Tap the More button (⋯), then tap Hide.
3. To hide several, tap Select in your library, choose the photos, then tap the More button (⋯) and Hide.

Hidden photos go to the Hidden album, which is locked with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. Our guide on hiding photos on iPhone covers locking and removing that album from view.

Hiding works photo by photo. If the problem is a person, a place or a date, the options below are better.

Feature a person less, or never

Photos recognises faces and builds memories around people. You can tell it to show someone less often, or not at all, in memories, featured photos and the Photos widget.

On iOS 26 and later

1. Open a photo of the person in Photos.
2. Tap the More button (⋯), then tap Don't Feature a Person.
3. If there's more than one person in the photo, tap the one you mean, then tap Next.
4. Choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person.
5. Tap Confirm.

On iOS 18

1. Open a photo of the person.
2. Tap the More button (⋯), then tap Feature This Person Less.
3. Choose an option, then tap Confirm.

This doesn't delete or hide any photos of the person. They stay in your library and still appear when you scroll; Photos just stops putting them forward. If you're dealing with photos from someone you've split up with, photos from a past relationship talks through the wider choices.

Remove or tone down a specific memory

If one memory is the problem, you can delete it or tell Photos to feature what's in it less.

Delete a memory

1. In Photos, tap Collections.
2. Swipe left under Memories, or tap Memories to see them all.
3. Touch and hold the memory, then tap Delete Memory.

Deleting a memory doesn't delete the photos in it.

Feature a day, place or person less

1. In Collections → Memories, touch and hold a memory.
2. Tap Feature Less.
3. Choose Feature This Day Less, Feature This Place Less or Feature a Person Less, depending on the memory.

To undo these choices later, tap Collections, tap your account in the top-right corner, then tap Reset Suggested Memories (or Reset People & Pets Suggestions for people).

Turn off Memories and featured photos entirely

If you'd rather Photos never surfaced anything on its own, switch off featured content. This stops Photos generating memories and featured photos, which also empties the Photos widget of suggestions.

On iOS 26 and later

1. Open Photos and tap Collections.
2. Tap your account in the top-right corner.
3. Turn off Show Featured Content.
4. Optionally, turn off Show Holiday Events to stop memories built around public holidays.

On iOS 18

1. Open Settings → Apps → Photos.
2. Turn off Show Featured Content (and Show Holiday Events if you like).

The Photos widget and wallpaper suggestions

The Photos widget on your Home Screen shows memories and featured photos, so it's the place a private picture is most likely to be seen by someone glancing at your phone.

• Hide the photo, as above, and it won't appear in the widget.
• Turn off Show Featured Content to stop the widget showing featured photos.
• Remove the widget: touch and hold it on the Home Screen and remove it, if you don't want photos on your Home Screen at all.

Photos also offers Wallpaper Suggestions in the Collections tab, built from photos of people and pets. They're only suggestions until you pick one, but they're worth knowing about if you hand your phone to others.

Keep photos out of search

Photos search finds pictures by date, place, people you've named, objects, and text in the image. Hidden photos don't appear anywhere in Photos outside the Hidden album, so hiding a photo is the reliable way to keep it out of Photos search results.

iPhone's system-wide search (Spotlight, opened by swiping down on the Home Screen) can also show images from your library. To stop Photos results appearing there:

1. Open Settings → Search.
2. Scroll down and tap Photos.
3. Turn off Show App in Search.

This is a broad switch: it keeps Photos out of Spotlight results entirely, not just one picture.

If you use an iCloud Shared Photo Library

A Shared Library is shared with up to five other people, and Apple says its content is added to everyone's memories, featured photos and Photos widget. A photo in the Shared Library can turn up on someone else's iPhone this way.

• Move a photo back to your personal library. Open it, tap the More button (⋯), then tap Move to Personal Library. This works for photos you contributed.
• Check automatic sharing. In Photos, tap Collections, tap your account, tap Shared Library, then Sharing from Camera. Review Share Automatically and Share When At Home, which add new photos to the Shared Library without you choosing each one.
• Turn off suggestions with Shared Library Suggestions on the same Shared Library screen if you don't want prompts to add more.

On a family device the same idea applies more broadly; see sharing an iPad with your family.

Where these settings stop

All of these controls change what Photos shows. None of them makes a photo private from someone who opens your library, scrolls through it, or unlocks the Hidden album with your passcode. They're good for avoiding surprises, not for keeping something secret.

If a photo shouldn't be on view in your library at all, an encrypted vault app takes it out completely. Photos in a vault aren't part of your photo library, so Memories, featured photos, widgets, Photos search and Shared Library can't use them. VaultCave, for example, imports photos from Photos, can delete the originals once the encrypted copy is verified, and opens each vault with its own pattern or passcode rather than your iPhone's unlock. Remember to empty Recently Deleted afterwards.

Mistakes to avoid

• Assuming "Feature Less" hides photos. It only changes suggestions; the photos stay in your library.
• Forgetting the Shared Library. A photo there can appear in other people's memories and widgets.
• Deleting a memory and expecting the photos to go. They don't.
• Leaving the Photos widget on a phone others see. Turn off featured content or remove the widget.
• Treating these settings as a lock. Anyone browsing your library can still find the photos.

The short version

• Hiding a photo keeps it out of Memories, featured photos, the Photos widget and Photos search.
• Use Don't Feature a Person (iOS 26 and later) to stop someone appearing in memories.
• Turn off Show Featured Content to stop Memories and featured photos altogether.
• Turn off Show App in Search for Photos in Settings → Search to keep it out of Spotlight.
• Check your Shared Library: its photos appear in everyone's memories and widgets.