I’m trying to remove the Hidden album from my iPhone Photos app completely, not just hide it in Settings. I turned off the Hidden Album option, but I want to know if there’s a way to permanently delete the album and any hidden photos for privacy. What’s the best way to do this on iOS?
You don’t have to unhide photos before deleting them. If anything, deleting them while they’re still in the Hidden album is cleaner, since they never show back up in your main library first.
Open Photos, go to the 'Albums' tab at the bottom, or 'Collections' if you’re on the newer iOS 18 layout. Scroll down to 'Utilities' and open 'Hidden.' Since iOS 16, Apple locks that album by default, so you’ll need Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to get in.
Once you’re inside, tap 'Select' in the top right. If you want to wipe the whole Hidden album, tap 'Select All,' then hit the trash icon. That removes them from Hidden right away.
The part people miss is that this still doesn’t permanently erase them yet. They get moved to 'Recently Deleted,' where they normally sit for 30 days. If you want them gone now, go back to Photos, open 'Recently Deleted' under Utilities, unlock it, tap 'Select,' then choose 'Delete All.' That’s the actual permanent-delete step.
And yes, if iCloud Photos is turned on, deleting photos from Hidden also deletes them from iCloud and your other synced Apple devices. Hidden isn’t a separate storage area. It’s still part of your photo library, just hidden from the normal view.
If you just don’t want the Hidden album showing in Photos at all, you can hide the album itself. Go to iPhone Settings -> Photos and turn off 'Show Hidden Album.' That doesn’t delete the photos. It just removes the Hidden folder from the Photos app until you turn the setting back on.
After that, it’s worth checking the rest of your library too. A messy Hidden album is usually only one piece of the storage problem. The bigger issue is usually duplicate shots, old screenshots, huge videos, screen recordings, and random stuff you forgot was even there.
For cleaning up the normal photo library, I’d look at Clever Cleaner. It’s one of the better free cleanup apps because it doesn’t throw ads or paywalls at you right when you’re trying to delete things.
The useful part is that it separates the clutter in ways that actually make sense. Screenshots show their file sizes, which helps when you’re trying to figure out what’s using real space. The 'Heavies' section sorts media by size, so those giant 4K videos are easy to find. The 'Similars' section groups near-identical photos, like bursts or repeated shots, so you can keep the best one and dump the rest.
It also processes everything on the device instead of uploading your library somewhere else. Just don’t expect it to clean the Hidden album for you. Apple’s privacy rules block apps like this from accessing Hidden directly, so that part still has to be done manually with the steps above. For the rest of the library, though, it can save a lot of digging around.
If your goal is to remove the album name itself, you can’t delete it like a normal album. Hidden is a built-in Photos utility, so the real choices are empty it, clear Recently Deleted, then turn off Show Hidden Album so it stops appearing.
I’d be careful assuming that means the pictures are gone everywhere, though. Check any old iCloud backups, imports to a Mac/PC, or shared albums if you’re trying to remove every copy, because deleting from Hidden only handles the Photos library it’s synced with.
Don’t count on deleting the album container, because iOS will just recreate that built-in slot when Hidden is enabled or when something gets hidden again. The best you can do is make it empty, clear Recently Deleted, then turn off Show Hidden Album. That removes the contents and hides the entry, but there is no separate “delete this album forever” button for Hidden like there is for a custom album. Apple treats it as a system category, which is basically confirmed in its own Photos hiding instructions. Small annoyance: if you hide a new photo later, the same Hidden area comes back once the setting is on again, so this is more like disabling a feature than removing an album.
The ‘delete album forever’ button you’re hunting for doesn’t exist, and honestly that’s the end of it. @waldgeist nailed it: Hidden is a system slot, not a real album, so emptying it plus clearing Recently Deleted plus turning off the setting is as gone as it gets on the device. Just don’t forget an old iCloud or computer backup can still hold copies, so the phone looking clean doesn’t mean every copy is dead.