Canonical: https://hideroom.app/guides/do-hidden-photos-transfer-to-new-iphone Title: Do hidden photos transfer to a new iPhone? Updated: 2026-10-24 Author: Zaniar, Founder of Hideroom (https://hideroom.app/authors/zaniar) Sources: Hide photos on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro with the Hidden album, Apple Support, checked 2026-10-23 ; Back up and sync your photos and videos with iCloud, Apple iPhone User Guide, checked 2026-10-23 ; What does iCloud back up?, Apple Support, checked 2026-10-23 ; Use Quick Start to transfer data to a new iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, checked 2026-10-23 ; Transfer data from your previous iOS or iPadOS device to your new iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, checked 2026-10-23 ; Back up iPhone, Apple iPhone User Guide, checked 2026-10-23 ; iCloud data security overview, Apple Support, checked 2026-10-23 # Do hidden photos transfer to a new iPhone? ## Quick answer Yes. Hidden photos are part of your photo library, so they move to a new iPhone with it. With iCloud Photos on, they sync through iCloud and appear in the Hidden album once the new phone downloads your library; with it off, they come across in a Quick Start transfer or a backup of your old phone. Do hidden photos transfer to a new iPhone? Yes. The Hidden album isn’t a separate store; it’s part of your photo library, so hidden photos move with your library. How they get there depends on whether you use iCloud Photos and which transfer method you pick. This guide covers each route on iOS 27, the current version, and what to check before you wipe the old phone. It also covers photos kept in vault apps, which are where people most often lose things when they switch. ## Do hidden photos sync to iCloud? If iCloud Photos is on, yes. iCloud Photos uploads your whole library, and Apple says a photo you hide on one device is hidden on your other devices too. Hidden photos also appear in the Hidden section of Photos on iCloud.com, and they count towards your iCloud storage like any other photo. It’s worth knowing how they’re protected there. By default, iCloud Photos uses Apple’s standard data protection: your photos are encrypted, but Apple holds the keys. Advanced Data Protection makes Photos end-to-end encrypted, though Apple no longer offers it to new users in the UK. Either way, Apple doesn’t describe any extra protection for hidden photos beyond what the rest of your library gets. To check iCloud Photos is on, go to Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, tap Photos, and look for Sync this iPhone. ## If you use iCloud Photos This is the simplest case. Your hidden photos are already in iCloud, so the new iPhone downloads them along with everything else. 1. On the old iPhone, open Photos, tap Collections, and look at the top right. If you see a partly filled circle, uploads are still running; a yellow badge means syncing is paused. Tap your account icon to see when it last synced. 2. Set up the new iPhone with the same Apple Account, by Quick Start or from an iCloud backup. 3. Make sure iCloud Photos is on for the new phone, then leave it on Wi-Fi while your library downloads. 4. Open Photos, tap Collections, scroll to Utilities and open Hidden to check your photos are there. Because iCloud Photos already holds them, Apple’s iCloud Backup doesn’t include your photos when iCloud Photos is on. That’s normal; they’re synced, not backed up twice. ## Do hidden photos transfer to a new iPhone without iCloud Photos? With iCloud Photos off, your library, hidden photos included, has to come across with the rest of the phone. You have three routes. **Quick Start.** Turn on the new iPhone and hold it near your old one, which needs Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on. When asked how to transfer your data, you can transfer directly from the old phone or download from iCloud. A direct transfer means waiting until it finishes on both phones; keep them close together and plugged in. **An iCloud backup.** When iCloud Photos is off, Apple says iCloud Backup may include the photos and videos in your library. Back up the old phone (Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, tap iCloud Backup, then Back Up Now), then restore that backup while setting up the new one. A large library may not fit in your iCloud storage; Apple says you may be eligible for temporary extra iCloud storage when you buy a new iPhone. **A computer backup.** Back up the old iPhone to a Mac with the Finder, or to a Windows PC with the Apple Devices app or iTunes, then restore it to the new one. Ticking “Encrypt local backup” protects the backup with a password, which is worth doing for a library with private photos in it. Apple doesn’t document the Hidden album as an exception to any of these, since hidden photos are part of the library being copied. Still, check before you erase anything. Want to know the day Hideroom is ready? Hideroom is coming to iPhone. One email when it launches, then we delete your address. ## Check before you wipe the old phone > Careful > > Whichever route you take, don’t erase the old iPhone until you’ve seen your photos on the new one. 1. On the new iPhone, open Photos, tap Collections, then open Hidden under Utilities and unlock it. 2. Compare a few of the newest and oldest hidden photos with the old phone. 3. Check Settings > Apps > Photos > Albums on the new iPhone and make sure Use Face ID (or Touch ID, or Passcode) is on, so the album is locked. 4. If you turned off the Hidden Album switch on the old phone and can’t see the album, turn it on in the same place. See [how to find hidden photos on iPhone](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-find-hidden-photos-on-iphone) if it still won’t show. ## Photos in vault apps are a different story Everything above is about Apple’s Hidden album. Photos you’ve moved into a vault app are not in your photo library at all, so iCloud Photos never sees them. Whether they reach your new iPhone depends entirely on that app’s own backup and restore, and this is where people get caught out. In our review of recent one- and two-star App Store reviews across 12 vault apps, 28% were about lost photos and 11% about backups or moving to a new phone. The pattern repeats: someone upgrades their iPhone, reinstalls the vault, and finds it empty or only partly restored. If you use a vault app today, open its backup settings before you switch, find out exactly what it backs up and where, and confirm you know the code or recovery details it will ask for on the new phone. If you’ve already lost access, our guide to a [forgotten photo vault password](https://hideroom.app/guides/forgot-photo-vault-password) covers what’s still possible. > Where Hideroom fits > > This is the problem Hideroom is built around. Coming to iPhone soon, it keeps an encrypted backup in your own iCloud, reads back and checks every upload, and shows each room’s last verified backup on screen. You can run a practice restore to check it before you need it. Each room has a nine-word recovery phrase, so on a new phone the phrase fetches that room’s encrypted backup from your own private iCloud. If you still have the old phone, Move to a new phone makes an encrypted move file that only that phrase opens. Hideroom never holds the backup, and there’s no Hideroom account to sign in to. The [security page](https://hideroom.app/security) explains how the backup and the phrase work. For keeping private photos out of sight in the meantime, see [how to hide photos on iPhone](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-hide-photos-on-iphone). ## Questions ### Do hidden photos sync to iCloud? Yes, if iCloud Photos is on. Hidden photos are uploaded like the rest of your library, and Apple says a photo you hide on one device is hidden on your other devices too. They also appear in the Hidden section of Photos on iCloud.com. ### Are hidden photos included in an iCloud backup? Only if iCloud Photos is off. Apple’s iCloud Backup skips anything already synced to iCloud, so with iCloud Photos on, your photos, hidden ones included, travel through iCloud Photos instead of the backup. ### Will my hidden photos still be locked on the new iPhone? They’ll be in the Hidden album, which is locked by default on iOS 16 and later. The lock uses the new phone’s Face ID, Touch ID or passcode, so check it’s on in Settings > Apps > Photos > Albums. ### Do photos in a vault app transfer to a new iPhone? Not automatically in every case. Vault apps keep photos in their own storage, so whether they move depends on that app’s own backup and restore. Check it before you wipe your old phone. Written by Zaniar with AI research help, and checked against the sources below on 23 October 2026. [How we write guides](https://hideroom.app/editorial-policy) ## Related guides - [Hiding photos · 5 min read](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-hide-photos-on-iphone) ### [How to hide photos on iPhone](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-hide-photos-on-iphone) [Hide photos on iPhone with the Hidden album, lock it with Face ID, and learn what it doesn't protect against. Checked against Apple's guides for iOS 27.](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-hide-photos-on-iphone) - [Hiding photos · 5 min read](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-find-hidden-photos-on-iphone) ### [How to find hidden photos on iPhone](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-find-hidden-photos-on-iphone) [Find the Hidden album on iPhone in four taps, plus what to do if it's missing, won't open, or you meant the hidden apps folder. iPad and Mac too.](https://hideroom.app/guides/how-to-find-hidden-photos-on-iphone) - [Backups and moving phones · 5 min read](https://hideroom.app/guides/forgot-photo-vault-password) ### [Forgot your photo vault password? What you can and can’t do](https://hideroom.app/guides/forgot-photo-vault-password) [Forgot your photo vault password? Here's how vault recovery usually works, where else your photos may still be, and why nobody can reset real encryption.](https://hideroom.app/guides/forgot-photo-vault-password) ## Sources 1. [Hide photos on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro with the Hidden album](https://support.apple.com/en-us/104987), Apple Support, checked 23 October 2026 2. [Back up and sync your photos and videos with iCloud](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/sync-photos-videos-icloud-iph961b96c4d/ios), Apple iPhone User Guide, checked 23 October 2026 3. [What does iCloud back up?](https://support.apple.com/en-us/108770), Apple Support, checked 23 October 2026 4. [Use Quick Start to transfer data to a new iPhone or iPad](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102659), Apple Support, checked 23 October 2026 5. [Transfer data from your previous iOS or iPadOS device to your new iPhone or iPad](https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201269), Apple Support, checked 23 October 2026 6. [Back up iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-iphone-iph3ecf67d29/ios), Apple iPhone User Guide, checked 23 October 2026 7. [iCloud data security overview](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102651), Apple Support, checked 23 October 2026 Spotted something out of date? Email . > Hideroom > > - Encrypted on your phone > - Verified backups > - No account > > [Get notified](#notify)