How to control which photos an app can access on iPhone

The first time an app asks for your photos, iOS offers a choice, usually Select Photos or Allow Access to All Photos. If you picked Select Photos, the app can only see the pictures you chose, and nothing else in your library. This is called Limited Access.

That is by design and it is a good default. It also explains the common complaint that an editing or messaging app shows an almost empty library, or a recent photo is missing: the app was never given that photo.

1. 1Open Settings and go to Privacy & Security, then Photos. On newer iOS versions you can also find the app in the Apps list in Settings and open Photos there.
2. 2Tap the app.
3. 3Choose Selected Photos, All Photos or None.
4. 4With Selected Photos, tap Edit Selected Photos, tick the pictures the app may use, and tap Done.

Some apps only ask to add pictures, for example to save an edited photo. iOS lists those under a separate Add Photos Only option, which lets the app save to your library without reading it.

Menu names and the order of the options differ a little between iOS versions. If you cannot find an option, look for the app's name under Privacy & Security, then Photos.

• If the app is on Selected Photos, the photo has to be in the selection. Tap Edit Selected Photos and add it.
• Some apps keep showing the old selection until you close them fully and open them again.
• If the setting looks right but nothing changes, switch the app to None, leave Settings, then come back and choose the level you want.
• Check that the photo is on this iPhone. A picture that is only in iCloud Photos may take a moment to download before an app can use it.

• Selected Photos suits apps you only use occasionally to edit or send a picture. You decide what they see.
• All Photos suits an app you trust to work across your whole library, such as a backup tool. It can read everything, including pictures you would rather keep private.
• None suits an app that has no real reason to touch your pictures. You can still share a single photo with it through the system share sheet or the photo picker on most apps.

Periodically iOS reminds you which apps have access to your photos. It is worth a look: an old game or a one-off tool rarely needs more than Selected Photos.

Limiting an app only controls what that app can read. It does not change anything about the photos themselves. They stay in your Photos library, they sync through iCloud Photos if you use it, and anyone who unlocks your iPhone can still open Photos and scroll through everything.

Photos that other apps can see also carry their metadata, such as the date, and often the location. See how to remove location data from photos on iPhone before you share them. And if someone borrows your phone, access settings do not help, see how to lend your iPhone without exposing your photos.

If a picture should not be in your library at all, the more reliable option is to store it outside of it. Lockboxy is a private, encrypted vault for iPhone. Photos stored in it are not part of your Photos library, so other apps with Photos access cannot see them.

1. 1Open Lockboxy with its passcode and go to the Media tab.
2. 2Use the import button and pick the photos in the iOS photo picker. Only the items you pick are imported.
3. 3Lockboxy can then offer to delete the originals from your library. iOS asks you to confirm, and deleted photos still sit in Recently Deleted for up to 30 days. See how to hide photos on iPhone for how this compares with the Hidden album.

Lockboxy does not browse your library on its own. The photo-library permission in its iOS settings exists so it can delete originals when you ask it to. Everything stored in the vault is encrypted with AES-256 on your device, with no account and no server holding a copy.

• Importing a photo does not remove it from other places. Leave the original and it stays in your library, visible to apps that have access.
• Copies elsewhere are not touched: a shared album, a chat app's own saved copy and other backups.
• The vault key comes from your passcode. If you forget it, nobody, including us, can open the vault, unless you made a Recovery Key (Premium) beforehand.
• Which plan includes what, and the price, are on the Premium page; the app shows the exact price before you buy.