Guides
How to Keep Private Videos Hidden from the iPhone's 'Up Next' Widget and Siri Suggestions
Mehmet Ali Kısacık · Developer of Secure Folder · August 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Updated September 26, 2026
Key takeaways
- The Up Next widget and Siri Suggestions can expose recently watched videos from the Photos app.
- Apple’s Hidden album reduces visibility but still syncs via iCloud and may appear in widgets.
- Disabling Siri Suggestions for Photos helps but does not remove videos from all widget sources.
- Moving videos to a third-party vault app like Secure Folder: Privacy Vault completely removes them from iOS suggestion systems.
- Secure Folder’s decoy vault and stealth mode provide additional layers of privacy protection.
- The app has no cloud sync, and nothing from the vault is uploaded.
Your iPhone's 'Up Next' widget and Siri Suggestions are designed to surface content you recently watched or opened, including videos from the Photos app. That convenience can become a privacy risk if private videos appear on your home screen or in search. Here’s how to stop that from happening, using both built-in iOS controls and a dedicated vault app that keeps content completely out of system integrations.
What the Up Next Widget and Siri Suggestions Display
The Up Next widget (often part of the Smart Stack) shows content the system predicts you’ll want next, including videos from the Photos app. Siri Suggestions similarly recommend recently accessed photos and videos across the system. According to Apple’s support documentation, you can adjust these suggestions per app (Apple Support).
Why Apple’s Hidden Album Isn’t Enough
Apple’s built-in Hidden album (available in the Photos app) moves selected photos and videos out of the main library and locks them with Face ID (iOS 16+). However, that protection has limits. Hidden album content is synced through iCloud if iCloud Photos is enabled, so it also appears in the Hidden album on any other device signed into the same Apple ID (Apple Support), and the album can be accessed with the same Face ID as the phone. That means anyone who can unlock your phone, or one of your other Apple devices, can potentially see the “Hidden” folder. For videos you truly want to keep private, the Hidden album has limits.
Step 1: Turn Off Siri Suggestions for the Photos App
You can prevent Siri from suggesting recent videos by disabling Siri Suggestions for the Photos app:
- Open Settings > Siri & Search.
- Scroll to Photos and tap it.
- Toggle off Show in App Library, Show in Spotlight, and Suggestions.
This stops Siri from recommending content from Photos, but the Up Next widget may still surface recently viewed videos unless you also remove them from the widget’s source.
Step 2: Remove Videos from the Photos App Entirely
The only way to guarantee a video never appears in an iOS widget or Siri suggestion is to store it outside the Photos app. A private photo vault app like Secure Folder: Privacy Vault moves videos into its own isolated storage that iOS cannot index or suggest.
How Secure Folder Solves the Problem
Secure Folder: Privacy Vault is a private vault app for iPhone that imports photos, videos, documents, and notes into on-device protected storage locked behind a separate PIN or Face ID/Touch ID. Secure Folder can delete the originals when you import. Once they are out of Photos, the Up Next widget and Siri Suggestions cannot access them there. The vault also includes:
- Decoy vault: A second PIN opens a fake vault with harmless content, leaving no trace of the real vault.
- Stealth mode: The home-screen icon can be disguised as one of nine ordinary apps (calculator, calendar, etc.), so it doesn’t draw attention.
- Intruder alerts: From the third wrong PIN by default (adjustable from 1 to 10), the app silently captures a front-camera photo.
There’s no cloud sync, and nothing from the vault is uploaded.
Summary of Steps
- Disable Siri Suggestions for the Photos app in Settings.
- Use a dedicated vault app such as Secure Folder: Privacy Vault to store private videos outside of iOS’s reach.
- Optionally enable stealth mode and decoy vault for extra privacy.
Common questions
Can the Hidden album still appear in widgets?
Not in Apple's own Photos widget: Apple's documentation confirms hidden content is excluded from it. But the Hidden album isn't fully private either way. If iCloud Photos is on, hidden photos and videos sync to the Hidden album on every other device signed into the same Apple ID (Apple Support), so anyone who can unlock those devices can still see them.
Will turning off Siri Suggestions completely hide videos from search?
It prevents Siri from suggesting those videos, but they may still appear in the Up Next widget if the widget pulls from recent activity. The most reliable method is to store the videos outside the Photos app.
Does Secure Folder: Privacy Vault prevent videos from showing in Up Next?
Yes, once the originals are removed from Photos. Secure Folder can delete them when you import. The vault copies stay in isolated storage, away from the Photos app and its suggestions.
Is it safe to store private videos in a vault app?
Secure Folder: Privacy Vault has no cloud sync, and your videos are never uploaded. Access is protected by a separate PIN or biometrics. The vault stays on your iPhone.
Can I still view the videos easily in the vault?
Yes. Once imported into Secure Folder, you can view, organize, and play videos within the app after unlocking it with your vault PIN or Face ID.
Hide private photos in a PIN-protected vault.
Secure Folder is free to download on the App Store, and your photos and videos stay on your iPhone.
Related: