Vaultumi

How to keep private videos private on iPhone

By Vaultumi. Published .

Videos leak in more ways than photos. They are large, they carry sound, they get previewed in the grid and they are easy to send on by accident. This guide covers where the traces are and how to deal with each one.

Key takeaways

  • A video can leave copies in Photos, Recently Deleted, iCloud, messages and shared albums. Moving it somewhere safer does not remove them.
  • The Hidden album works for videos, with the same limits as for photos.
  • A vault stores each video encrypted, but playing it needs a short-lived decrypted file on the phone.
  • Casting a video to a TV is a separate exposure. Check what is connected before you press play.

Why videos need extra care

A private photo is a small file. A private video is a large one with a preview frame in your grid, a duration, sometimes a location and sometimes audio you did not think about. Each of those can give it away.

  • The grid shows a thumbnail of a frame from the video, so a glance at the library can give it away.
  • Size matters. A long clip is a big attachment that is easy to share by mistake and slow to back up.
  • Sound comes out of the speaker when you play it, which is a different kind of leak.
  • Metadata such as the date and, depending on your camera settings, the place can travel with the file when you send it.

Find every place the video lives

Before you protect a video, find its copies:

  • the main Photos library, and Recently Deleted, where deleted items stay for about 30 days;
  • iCloud Photos and any other device signed in to your account;
  • shared albums, and chats where you sent it;
  • trimmed or edited versions, which are separate items;
  • files you exported, which are plain copies.

Moving a video into a vault protects the vault copy only. The rest is yours to clear.

The Hidden album for videos

Open the video, tap the more button and choose Hide. The video leaves the grid and sits in the Hidden album, which recent iOS versions lock behind Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. It is a good answer for a clip you simply do not want to meet while scrolling. It is still part of your library, still follows iCloud Photos and still opens for anyone who knows your device passcode.

Moving videos into a vault

In Vaultumi you can pick videos from your Photos library, or share them in from Photos or Files with Vault Drop. Each video is encrypted on your iPhone under its own key, in 1 MiB pieces that are each authenticated, so a damaged or tampered file is detected. Large videos are handled in small pieces, so memory use stays low.

Three practical points:

  • Free space. The original and the encrypted copy exist together until you delete the original. Vaultumi checks free space before it writes anything and keeps a safety margin, so a nearly full phone will refuse, not corrupt.
  • Verification. After encrypting, Vaultumi decrypts the stored copy in memory and compares it with the source before it offers to remove the original from Photos. iOS then asks you to confirm.
  • Plan limits. On the free plan each video counts as one of the 20 items. Premium removes the limit.

With Vault Drop the original stays in Photos until you delete it yourself, and iOS makes a temporary unencrypted copy for the share extension that it removes afterwards; Vaultumi cannot control exactly when.

Recording privately

The normal Camera app saves to your Photos library. Premium includes a private camera that records photos and videos straight into the encrypted vault instead, so they never appear in the library. It uses the camera and the microphone only while you record. If you use another camera app, assume the video lands in Photos and move it afterwards.

Watching without leaking

To play a video from the vault, Vaultumi has to hand it to the system video player, which means a decrypted temporary copy exists in the app’s temporary folder while you watch. It is removed when you close the viewer, when the vault locks and at the next launch. If the app is force-quit during playback, the file waits for the next launch cleanup. iOS may also cache things the app does not control.

Other points to know:

  • While the screen is being recorded or mirrored, Vaultumi covers its content. AirPlay video output is not covered, so do not cast a private video unless you mean to.
  • Anyone can point another camera at the screen, and screenshots cannot be blocked by any app.
  • Use headphones if the sound itself would give it away.

Sending and exporting videos

Exporting from the vault gives you an ordinary, unprotected copy in Photos or Files, and Vaultumi does not strip details such as the date or place from the file. In the iOS share sheet, the Options button lets you leave some details out when you send a video, so check it. A sent video is a copy you cannot take back.

Back up videos on purpose

A private video that exists once is one accident away from gone. A Vaultumi backup file includes everything in the unlocked vault, so with many videos it can be large; save it somewhere with room, keep the passphrase elsewhere and run the Backup safety check. The routine is in how to back up a private photo vault.

What this does not fix

A vault cannot help against a compromised phone, malware, someone watching you or coercion, and Vaultumi has not been independently audited. See the security page for the full list.

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