Private videos
Hide videos where nothing can autoplay them.
To hide a video on iPhone so that it stops surfacing anywhere, you have to move it out of the Photos app entirely. Secure Folder: Incogni Vault imports videos into a hidden gallery locked behind your own PIN or Face ID, plays them back inside the app, and keeps them on your device with no cloud sync. Once you delete the original and empty Recently Deleted, the video no longer appears in your camera roll, in Memories, in the Up Next widget, or in Siri Suggestions. Video is the format most likely to give you away, because it can start playing, with sound, before anyone has decided to look.
- Plays in
- The vault, not Photos
- Stores
- Videos, photos, files, notes
- Cloud
- None. On-device only
- Price
- Free. Pro for unlimited imports
Why videos leak differently from photos
A photo sits still. A video announces itself. iOS surfaces recent and featured media in places you never chose: the Photos app assembles Memories montages on its own, the Up Next widget and Siri Suggestions can put recently opened media on your Home Screen and in search, and a preview can begin playing, with audio, while someone is only scrolling past.
That is a different exposure problem from a still image. Someone glancing across a table does not have to open anything, and silencing the phone does not help once the preview is already on screen. The surfaces that expose a video are precisely the ones designed to be helpful, which is why turning them off one by one is a losing game compared with removing the file from the library they read.
What happens when you import a video
Importing copies the video into the app's protected storage on your device. Secure Folder generates its own thumbnail there, so the preview lives inside the vault instead of in your camera roll, and playback happens in the app's own full-screen viewer behind your PIN. You never have to export a file back to Photos to watch it.
Nothing is uploaded and there is no account to sign into, so after you remove the original the video exists in exactly one place: the phone in your hand. That is also the trade-off worth understanding, because it means there is no copy for anyone to restore, including you.
Finish the job: originals and Recently Deleted
Importing does not remove the original. Until you delete it, the video is still in Photos and still syncing to iCloud if you have that switched on. Deleting is not instant either. Apple's documentation is explicit: "When you delete photos and videos, they go to your Recently Deleted album for 30 days. After 30 days, they'll be permanently deleted."
Videos are also the reason many people leave iCloud Photos on in the first place, because they are large. That is worth naming plainly: the storage pressure that keeps videos in the cloud is the same thing that puts a copy somewhere you do not control.
- Import the videos into the vault and confirm they play.
- Delete the originals from the Photos app.
- Open Recently Deleted and empty it, rather than waiting out the 30 days.
Common questions
Can I watch a video without taking it out of the vault?
Yes. Videos play in the app's own full-screen viewer once you unlock with your PIN or Face ID, so there is no need to export anything back to the Photos app to watch it.
Do hidden videos still show up in Memories or the Up Next widget?
Not once the original is gone from Photos. Those surfaces read your photo library, so a video that exists only inside the vault gives them nothing to pick up. Until you delete the original, though, it is still fair game for them.
How many videos can I hide for free?
The free version includes a limited number of imports, counted across photos and videos together, so you can try the vault properly. Incogni Pro, available as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase, unlocks unlimited imports.
Try it on your own photos.
Free to download — set your PIN in under a minute.