Forgot your photo vault password?

Before you try anything, work out which kind of lock you have. A forgotten code means very different things in different apps, and in some of them, deleting the app to “start over” deletes the photos too.

Three kinds of lock, three different answers

The sections below go through each one, using what Apple, Google and the app makers say in their own help pages. App details were checked on 24 October 2026. Apps change, so read your app’s current help pages too.

Apple’s Hidden album has no separate password

The Hidden album in Photos has been locked by default since iOS 16. It opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your iPhone passcode, so there is no extra password to forget. If you can unlock your iPhone, you can open it:

1. Open Photos and scroll down to Utilities.
2. Tap Hidden, then tap View Album.
3. Use Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.

If you can’t find the album at all, it may be switched off rather than gone. Go to Settings > Apps > Photos and turn on Show Hidden Album. Apple says that while it’s off, hidden photos aren’t visible anywhere in the Photos app. On a Mac, the Hidden album is off by default.

Google Photos Locked Folder uses your screen lock

Google says your Locked Folder password is the same as your device screen lock, and you can’t set a different one. In Google Photos on iPhone, it opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. As with Apple, if you can unlock the phone, you can open the folder.

The risk is elsewhere. Google says items you don’t back up are stored only on that device. With backup off, they are deleted if you factory reset the phone, clear the Photos app’s data or delete the app. If you have forgotten the phone’s screen lock and are thinking about a reset, find out first whether Locked Folder backup was on. With backup on, you can open the folder from other devices signed in to your Google Account.

Apps that reset a forgotten PIN by email

Several vault apps let you back in through an email account:

• Keepsafe asks for your name and email address during setup. If you forget your PIN, you get an access code through your account email.
• Calculator# says on its App Store page that you can retrieve a lost password through your registered email.
• LockMyPix offers email recovery as an option. It only helps if you turned it on before you forgot.

Hide it Pro is a separate case: it lists a “Password Reset” in-⁠app purchase at $4.99 on the US App Store, but the listing doesn’t say how the reset works or whether it uses email, so ask the developer before you buy.

To use a reset, follow the app’s own steps, use the email address you signed up with, and check your spam folder for the code.

There is a trade-⁠off worth knowing. If an email can get you back in, your PIN is not the only thing between a person and your photos. The reset runs through the app maker’s system and your inbox, so anyone who gets into that email account may be able to use the same route. Keepsafe says no admins or employees can access or view your content; it doesn’t say who holds the keys. If your vault resets by email, protect that email account as carefully as the vault itself, for example with two-⁠step verification.

Apps that can’t reset your password

Other apps are built so that nobody, the maker included, can open a vault without your secret:

• LockMyPix says that if you forget your password and didn’t activate a recovery option, you can’t get back in, and there’s no backdoor.
• Vaultaire gives each vault a recovery phrase, or lets you set your own, and says it doesn’t store keys or have a backdoor.
• Private Photo Vault says your Cloud Vault password is never backed up to its servers and works as a secret only you know.

If you use an app like this, here is what you can do:

1. Find the recovery phrase. Check paper notes, your password manager and wherever you keep important documents.
2. Try the codes you usually use, one at a time. Some apps record wrong attempts. Keepsafe Premium, for example, takes a photo of anyone who enters a wrong PIN and logs the time, so don’t be surprised to find a picture of yourself.
3. Accept the loss if neither works. It’s the cost of a vault nobody else can open, and the same property that makes it worth having.

A backup doesn’t skip the password

A cloud backup can feel like a way around a forgotten code. With a vault that holds its own key, it isn’t:

• LockMyPix backs up to your own Google Drive or iCloud, encrypted with your vault password, and a restore needs that same password.
• Vaultaire encrypts its iCloud backup on your phone first. Apple stores the encrypted copy but doesn’t receive the backup key in readable form.
• Keepsafe backs up to its own cloud: the first 200 items for free users, up to 10,000 with Premium. It doesn’t say who holds the keys to those backups.

So a backup protects you against a lost or broken phone. It doesn’t protect you against a lost secret, unless the app can reset you by email, with the trade-⁠off above.

How to avoid this next time

• Write the recovery phrase on paper as soon as the app shows it, and keep it somewhere safe away from the phone.
• Decide on email recovery knowingly. It trades some protection for convenience. Either choice can be right; just know which one you made.
• Pick a code you’ll remember that others can’t guess from your birthday or a simple shape. The unlock strength calculator linked below shows how many combinations a PIN or pattern has.
• Keep a second copy of photos you can’t replace, somewhere you control. A vault nobody else can open is also one no support team can open for you.