Does a photo vault really encrypt your files?

By The StrongRoom team · Published 2026-10-30 · Updated 2026-10-30 · Last verified on iOS 26.x on 2026-10-30

A real encrypted vault turns your files into ciphertext with a key you control, so the stored bytes mean nothing without that key. A fake one only hides the files behind a screen. To tell them apart, ask which cipher the app uses, where the key comes from, and what is still readable on the phone.

Hide, lock and encrypt are three different things

Apps and phone features use these words loosely, so it helps to separate them.

• Hiding moves a file out of sight. The file is unchanged, and anyone who finds the place it went can read it.
• Locking puts a check in front of the file: a passcode, a face scan, a pattern. The check is enforced by software. The file underneath can still be a normal, readable file.
• Encrypting rewrites the file so it is unreadable without a key. The check is no longer a door in front of the data; the data itself is scrambled.

A vault can do one, two or all three. Only the third protects you when someone gets at the stored files rather than at the screen: someone reading a copy of the app's files, or a person with access to the app's storage but not to its screen. Apple's own Hidden album is a good example of the first two: Apple documents that it is locked by default and that hidden photos do not appear in the Library or other albums. That page describes hiding and locking; it does not describe a separate encrypted store of your own.

What encryption needs

Three things have to be true for encryption to mean anything.

1. A cipher. The scrambling method. A well-known, published one is what you want. StrongRoom uses AES-256-GCM: AES with a 256-bit key, in a mode that also detects tampering. The cipher is almost never the weak point, as the guide on what AES-256 is explains.
2. A key. The secret the cipher needs. A strong cipher with a key that is easy to guess, or one stored next to the data, protects nothing.
3. A place the key comes from. This is where most products differ. A key can be made from something you know (a pattern, a passphrase), from something in the phone's hardware, from a server, or from a mix. Each choice decides who can open the data.

Three questions to ask any vault app

If a vendor cannot answer in a few plain sentences, treat the claim as marketing. No answer here replaces being able to check the app yourself, and nobody outside the vendor can promise from a web page that an app is built as described.

How StrongRoom does it, in layers

This is how StrongRoom is built, in plain words. The encryption feature page and the security page go deeper.

• Every item is encrypted. Photos, videos and documents, their thumbnails, and the index that lists them (including folder names and counts) are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, using the encryption built into iOS.
• A random Master Key. Each Vault has a random 256-bit Master Key. It is never stored on its own; it is wrapped by a key made from your pattern or passphrase.
• Slow guessing. Your pattern or passphrase is stretched with a slow function (PBKDF2), so each guess costs real time. A separate rule, the Throttle, makes the app wait longer after repeated attempts.
• A secret tied to this phone. The stretched key is mixed (with HKDF) with a Device Secret derived from a key inside the iPhone's Secure Enclave, which is never exported. Files copied to another computer are ciphertext with a missing ingredient.
• A key for every item. Each item has its own key, so deleting an item destroys its key. That is crypto-erase.
• Nothing leaves the phone. The app makes no network connections of its own and marks its data as excluded from iCloud and computer backups. There is no account and no server holding a key.

What encryption cannot do

Be wary of anyone who skips this part. Encryption protects stored data. It does not:

• protect an unlocked Vault from someone looking at your screen, or watching you draw your pattern;
• protect a phone that already has spyware on it;
• protect a file after you export or share it as an ordinary file;
• recover anything you have lost. StrongRoom keeps no copy of your data or keys, so a lost phone with no Export Package and no Recovery Phrase means the data is gone.

StrongRoom has not been checked by an outside expert yet, and its source code is not published, so do not read more into this page than it says. The honest list of limits is on the limits page.

Test it yourself

You cannot see the cipher from outside, but you can learn a lot.

1. Read what the vendor publishes. Look for a named cipher, a description of where the key comes from, and a plain list of limits. Compare against the checklist for choosing a vault app.
2. Check the privacy label. The App Store privacy details are filled in by the developer, and Apple's documentation says the developer is responsible for keeping them accurate. Treat the label as a statement, not proof.
3. Try to lose access. On a spare device, set a credential, then see what the app offers when you forget it. If a company can reset your vault for you, it holds a way in. If it says it cannot, that fits a design where the key comes from you.
4. Look for a plain copy. After you import a photo, check whether it is still in your library and in Recently Deleted. Importing copies a file; removing the original is a separate step you control.
5. Look at the app switcher. An app that shows your photos in its preview card has a plain copy of what is on screen. StrongRoom shows a blank screen there.

Keep reading

• What is AES-256?
• What is the iPhone Secure Enclave?
• What is crypto-erase?
• How StrongRoom encrypts, feature page
• What StrongRoom does not protect against
• A checklist for choosing a vault app
• Is the Hidden album safe?

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Hide photos on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro with the Hidden album (Apple Support), checked on 2026-10-30.
• App privacy details on the App Store (Apple Developer), checked on 2026-10-30.