How to Hide Someone From People & Pets on iPhone
iPhone can do this without an app. In Photos, touch and hold the person in People & Pets and tap Hide. To keep them out of memories and featured photos too, use Don't Feature a Person.
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What do I need to know?
- There are two separate controls. Hide removes a face from People & Pets. Don't Feature keeps them out of memories, featured photos and the Photos widget.
- Hiding is not deleting. The photos of that person stay in your library.
- It syncs. Apple says People & Pets stays up to date on all your devices when you use iCloud Photos.
How do I hide a person from People & Pets?
These steps are from Apple's guide to finding and naming people and pets. They are the same in iOS 26 and iOS 27.
- Open the Photos app.
- Tap Collections, then People & Pets.
- Touch and hold the person's key photo.
- Tap Hide [name].
The same menu offers Don't Feature [name], if you want them to stay in the list but out of memories.
How do I stop someone appearing in memories?
Apple's guide to hiding people, memories and holidays has these steps for iOS 27.
- Open a photo of the person in Photos.
- Tap the More button, then tap Don't Feature a Person.
- If there is more than one person, tap the one you mean, then tap Next.
- Choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person.
- Tap Confirm.
To undo it, tap Collections, tap your account at the top right, then tap Reset People & Pets Suggestions.
Can I turn off memories altogether?
Yes. In Photos, tap Collections, tap your account at the top right, and turn off Show Featured Content. Photos then stops making featured photos and memories.
This is the simplest fix after a breakup or a loss. Old photos stop turning up in memories and the Photos widget.
What if the photos themselves are the problem?
Hiding a person only changes what Photos suggests. Anyone who opens your library can still scroll to those pictures. A shared library or shared album also keeps its own copies.
If you want to keep the photos but out of reach, move them out of the library. The Hidden album is one option, but it is still part of the library. Our page on whether the Hidden album is encrypted explains the limits.
An encrypted vault is the other option. Import the photos into the vault, then delete them from Photos. Remember that deleted photos sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Our guide to what happens when you delete photos covers that step.
What this doesn't protect against
Hiding a person is a display setting, not a lock. Anyone with your passcode can still scroll your library and find their photos. If you move photos into a vault, anyone who watches you draw your pattern can open it. If you lose both your pattern and your 9-word recovery phrase, the vault is gone.
Do it with Cryptile
Cryptile can take photos from your library and then delete the originals. Once Recently Deleted is cleared, they are out of your library. Each photo is encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key made on your device from your pattern.
Cryptile is free for up to 2 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos. Plus removes the limits and adds the panic pattern and search inside the vault, for $19.99 a year (7-day free trial) or $39.99 once.