Why Your Vault Code Should Differ From Your Passcode
A photo vault only adds protection if it opens with something your iPhone passcode does not. If the two codes match, anyone who knows your passcode opens your vault too.
Your passcode is the secret most likely to leak. Use a different code for the vault, and never one based on it.
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What do I need to know?
- The passcode already opens Hidden. Apple says Hidden and Recently Deleted unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
- A vault is the second lock. It is worth having only if it does not share the first lock's key.
- Different means unrelated. Same digits in another order, or your PIN drawn as a shape, is not different.
Why is my passcode the weak point?
You type it many times a day, often in public. People nearby can watch your hand or the screen.
Partners, children and friends often know it. It may also be the one code you have told a repair shop.
Stolen Device Protection limits what a passcode alone can do. Away from familiar places, it asks for Face ID or Touch ID, with no passcode fallback, to open locked apps. That is on Apple's Stolen Device Protection page.
What can someone do with my passcode alone?
On a phone they hold, a lot. They can open Photos and the Hidden album. Apple's iOS 27 guide says those collections unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
If your vault uses the same code, it opens as well. Read can someone see my photos if they know my passcode? for the full list.
What about vaults that open with Face ID?
Face ID is convenient, but check what happens when it fails. If a vault falls back to your phone passcode, the passcode opens it.
Look in the vault's settings for its own code. Turn off any option that lets the phone passcode stand in for it.
How do I choose a good vault code?
- Make it unrelated to your passcode. No shared digits, dates or shapes.
- Make it long. For a pattern, use 8 or more cells. For a PIN, use more digits than your passcode.
- Do not reuse it. Not in another vault app, and not on a banking app.
- Write the recovery details down. A vault code you forget may not be resettable.
- Unlock where no one can watch. A pattern is easy to see as you draw it.
Does a pattern help?
A pattern cannot be your numeric passcode, which helps. It is still a guessable secret, and a short one is weak. Compare the options in pattern, PIN or Face ID.
Do not draw your passcode digits on a keypad layout. That turns the pattern back into your passcode.
What this doesn't protect against
A separate code does not help if someone watches you enter it. It also does nothing for photos left in the Photos app. If you forget a code that has no reset, the vault may be gone.
Do it with Cryptile
Cryptile opens with a pattern you draw, not your iPhone passcode. The pattern becomes the key on your device, so there is no passcode fallback and no account to reset. Another pattern opens a different vault.
Cryptile is free for up to 2 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos, with encrypted iCloud backup included. Plus adds search inside the vault and the panic pattern for $19.99 a year (7-day free trial) or $39.99 once.