How to Lock Recently Deleted Photos on iPhone in iOS 16/17

Can you lock deleted photos on iPhone?

When we tap the Trash icon, the deleted photos will be moved to the Recently Deleted album. These deleted photos will stay there until they are completely deleted after 30 days. If necessary, we can go to the Recently Deleted album and delete the pictures from iPhone immediately. But usually, we just leave the deleted photos in that album in case we might need them someday.

Sometimes you delete or hide photos because you don't want people to see them in the photo library. However, the Recently Deleted and Hidden album are exposed in Photos app and anyone who has access to your unlocked phone will be able to see those deleted photos.

So how to lock recently deleted on iPhone? You may ask this question when you want to keep the deleted photos private. Well, in the past, there was no way to lock recently deleted photos on iPhone. But in the latest iOS16, you are able to lock both Recently Deleted and Hidden albums.

How to lock recently deleted on iPhone

iOS 16/17 is a massive release and the Photos app has some new features. Now you can cut the subject of a photo and copy it somewhere else. In addition, it will help you find duplicate photos on iPhone. What’s more, it puts a lock on your Recently Deleted and Hidden albums.

iOS 16/17 automatically locks deleted photos on iPhone

iOS 16/17 automatically locks the Recently Deleted and Hidden albums with Face ID, Touch ID or passcode. The only way to open two albums is to use biometric authentication or passcode.

How to lock hidden and recently deleted on iPhone

Recently Deleted and Hidden albums are locked by default in iOS 16/17 as long as you have set the Face ID, Touch ID or passcode. If you have updated to iOS 16/17 but find that two albums are not locked, you can go to Settings to enable this feature.

• Make sure you have set a screen look passcode. If not, you can go to Settings > Face ID (Touch ID) & Passcode to make it.
• Go to Settings > Photos > Turn on Use Face ID/Use Touch ID/Use Passcode.

• Now go to Photos app, you will see a lock icon on the Hidden and Recently Deleted album. When you tap the album, it will ask for Face ID/Touch ID/passcode to unlock it.

Learn an easy way to backup your important photos

We choose to keep the deleted photos in case we might need them someday. iOS 16/17 lets you lock deleted photos on iPhone, which makes hidden photos more private. However, these deleted photos will be completely gone after 30 days. If you want to delete photos to free up space but are worried about deleting important memories, then you may choose to back up the photos before deleting them.

You can turn on iCloud Photos to backup photos to iCloud server, however, the 5GB of free storage space may not be enough, especially if you have a large photo library. In this case, you can choose to backup iPhone photos to PC, USB flash drive or external hard drive.

Here is an example of how to transfer photos from iPhone to PC.

Step 1. Launch FoneTool and connect iPhone to computer via the USB cable.

Step 2. On the home interface, choose Phone Transfer and go to iPhone to PC.

Step 3. Click the plus icon > Choose Photos > Select the photos you want to transfer to PC. You can choose to transfer photo albums from iPhone to PC.

Step 4. Click Start Transfer > Select a storage path and adjust other settings as per your needs > Finally, click Transfer to save iPhone photos to PC.

Final words

That’s all about how to lock hidden and recently deleted on iPhone. Apple has added a new feature to Photos app, the ability to lock Hidden and Recently Deleted albums. These two albums are no longer accessible to everyone - only you can see the photos in them.

PS: If you do not want to lose any important photos on iPhone, you can choose to backup iPhone photos to computer with FoneTool. In this way, if something happens, you can quickly retrieve the lost photos.