How to store photos of your ID safely on your phone

Many countries now have an official digital ID or government app that can show or share your details with proper authentication. Where a service accepts that, it is safer than a photo, because there is no image file to leak or forward.

If you only need the ID number for a form, write it in a locked note rather than keeping a picture of the whole card with your face, birth date and address on it.

When a service really does need a photo, mark the copy with who it is for and when. A watermarked image is much harder to reuse for something else.

1. 1Open the photo in Photos and tap Edit.
2. 2Tap the Markup button (the pen icon).
3. 3Add a text box such as “For [company] account opening only — [date]” and drag it across the card, without covering the number the service needs to read.
4. 4Tap Done. Send this edited copy, never the clean original.

If you no longer need the photo after sending, delete both the original and the edited version.

Deleting the photo from your camera roll is rarely the end. Check each of these:

• Recently Deleted in Photos keeps deleted items for up to 30 days. Open it, then Select → Delete All (or delete just the ID photos).
• Chat apps often save received and sent images to their own storage or to your library. Search the chat where you sent the ID and delete the message for yourself (and for the recipient, if the app allows it and you no longer need them to have it).
• Cloud backups — iCloud Photos, Google Photos or another backup app — may still hold a copy after you delete it on the phone. Delete it there too and empty that service's trash.
• Email: search your Sent folder for attachments you sent to a bank, landlord or employer.
• Screenshots of your ID inside banking or e-government apps count too.

Some copies are worth keeping — for example, a passport scan for travel emergencies. Put them somewhere that does not open just because the phone is unlocked:

• The Hidden album in Photos, with Use Face ID turned on in the Photos settings.
• A locked note in Notes, using a custom password rather than your phone passcode (see how to lock notes on iPhone).
• A dedicated encrypted vault with its own passcode (see below).

Avoid the general Files app or a cloud drive folder without a lock: anyone holding your unlocked phone can open those in seconds.

Every lock above depends on the phone not being wide open:

• Use a 6-digit or alphanumeric passcode, and do not reuse it as your banking PIN.
• On iPhone with iOS 17.3 or later, turn on Stolen Device Protection (Settings → Face ID & Passcode). It requires Face ID for sensitive actions when you are away from familiar places, so a thief who watched you type your passcode cannot simply change your Apple Account password.
• Never send ID photos to someone who contacts you first by phone or message, however official they sound. Legitimate services ask for documents through their own app or office.

Lockboxy is built for exactly the files in this guide. Documents and photos are encrypted with AES-256 on the device, behind a passcode that is separate from your phone's, and there is no account or server holding a copy.

• Scan an ID, receipt or letter with the camera: Lockboxy finds the page edges, straightens each page and saves it into Files as one PDF or as images, encrypted. The suggested title is read on the device only.
• Photos taken with the in-app camera go straight into the vault and never into the Photos library, so there is no stray copy to clean up afterwards.
• You can also send an existing ID photo in from Photos or a chat app via the Share Sheet, then delete the original.

Keep in mind: if you forget the vault passcode and have no Recovery Key, nobody can open it. For documents you cannot replace easily, keep an encrypted backup somewhere you control.