How to Keep Photos of Your Credit Cards and ID Encrypted on iPhone
A photo of your credit card, passport or insurance card in Camera Roll is readable by anyone who gets into your phone, and it syncs to iCloud, shared albums and backups. Keep those photos in an encrypted vault instead: take them inside the vault app, never in Camera Roll, and they are encrypted before they are saved.
What do I need to know?
- Camera Roll is not private. Anyone with your passcode, any shared album, and every backup sees a card photo.
- Take the photo inside the vault. Then there is no original to delete and nothing for iCloud Photos to sync.
- Turn location off for these. A card photo does not need to say where you were. Cryptile's camera has a GPS on/off button on screen.
Should I photograph cards at all?
For payment cards, Apple Wallet is better when your bank supports it. It stores a token, not the number. Photograph a card only for the moments Wallet does not cover: reading the number to a bank on the phone, filling a form, or proving a membership. Passports, insurance cards, driver's licences and gym cards have no Wallet equivalent in most places, and these are the photos people lose a wallet over.
How do I do it in Cryptile?
- Open Cryptile and draw a pattern. A pattern you have not drawn before opens a new, empty vault.
- Write down the 9-word recovery phrase on paper. There is no reset.
- Tap Add → New folder and name it IDs. Make another for Cards if you like.
- Open the folder, tap Add → Take photo. Check the GPS off button at the top before you shoot.
- Photograph the front, then the back. Each shot is encrypted as it is saved and never enters Camera Roll.
- Lock the vault with the lock button. It also locks itself when you leave the app.
If a card photo is already in Camera Roll, add it with Add → Photos & videos, then let Cryptile delete the original. Check Recently Deleted in Photos afterwards and clear it there too.
How do I find a card later?
With Cryptile Plus, text in your photos is read on the device when you add them and stored inside the encrypted vault. Search for the last four digits or the bank's name and the card comes up. Nothing is sent anywhere to do this. On the free plan, use the folder and the photo's name.
Can I keep the card number as a note instead?
Yes. Add → Note stores text in the same vault, encrypted the same way. Some people keep the number and the bank's phone line as a note and the photo of the card next to it.
What about iOS Hidden album?
Hidden hides photos from the grid and can ask for Face ID. The files are not encrypted separately, and anyone with your passcode can turn Hidden off. See is the Hidden album encrypted?
What this doesn't protect against
If someone watches you draw your pattern, they have your vault. If your phone is compromised by malware while a vault is open, what is open can be read. A photo of a card is still a card: if the phone is lost, cancel the card as you would if the wallet were lost. Nothing in an app changes that.
Do it with Cryptile
Cryptile takes the photo inside the vault, so there is no unencrypted copy to find. The key comes from your pattern on your device; there is no account and no server.
Cryptile is free for up to 3 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos, with files, notes and folders unlimited and encrypted iCloud backup included. Plus adds search inside the vault and the panic pattern for $19.99 a year (7-day free trial), $39.99 once, or $1.99 a week. Family is $49.99 a year or $99.99 once.
The price is the same every day.