# Which apps can see your iPhone photos? Check and limit access

> See which apps can read your photos in Settings, then use Limit Access so an app sees only the photos you choose. Also: what these settings cannot do.

Source: https://vault9app.com/guides/which-apps-can-see-your-iphone-photos/
Updated: 2026-11-12

Open **Settings**, tap **Privacy & Security**, then tap **Photos**. The list shows each app that has asked for your photos. Tap one to change what it can see. An app that has not asked is not on the list.

## Check the list

1. Open **Settings**.
2. Tap **Privacy & Security**.
3. Tap **Photos**.
4. Tap each app in turn and look at its access level.

Apple says an app can use your photos only if you gave it permission. You can add or remove that permission for any app that asked.

## Full Access or Limit Access

Apple's privacy page for Photos names two choices for a third-party app.

- **Allow Full Access.** The app gets your photos and videos, including hidden photos, even if the album is locked.
- **Limit Access.** You select which photos and videos the app may use.

Ask what the app does with your photos. If it only takes the one photo you pick, choose **Limit Access** and select that photo, and add more later if the app needs them. Full Access makes sense only for an app that must browse the whole library.

## Limit Access does not move a private photo

It controls what an app reads. The photo stays in your library. An app with Full Access can read any photo in it, and the lock on the Hidden album does not change that. See whether Full Access includes hidden photos.

A private photo that is not in your library is not on any app's access list. Vault9 stores it encrypted in its own vault, outside Photos. [Vault9 on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6830759639?pt=129716075&ct=which-apps-can-see-your-iphone-photos-md)

## Take one photo out of the library

Vault9 encrypts everything in the vault on your iPhone before it stores it. The vault opens with your pattern or passphrase and your Secret Key, or Face ID if you turn it on.

1. Import the photo from the Photos app. If it is in the Hidden album, unhide it first.
2. Delete the original in Photos yourself.
3. Delete it from Recently Deleted too. Apple keeps it there for 30 days.

Vault9 does not protect a vault that is open on an unlocked phone in someone else's hand.

## Sources

- [Apple: Photos and Privacy](https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/photos/) (checked 2026-11-06)
- [Apple Support: About privacy and Location Services in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102515) (checked 2026-11-06)
- [Apple Support: Control access to information in apps on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/control-access-to-information-in-apps-iph251e92810/ios) (checked 2026-11-06)