10 Apple Photos Life Hacks Every IPhone User Should Know.
Apple’s Photos app isn’t just a photo gallery that takes up all your iCloud space. Contrary to popular belief, you can customize the app to make it easier to find the photos and videos you need, and hidden features can help you free up storage space and organize your media collection. If you have an iPhone, these 10 life hacks are essential.
Use the Reorder feature to customize the display of items on the Collections screen.
The Collections tab in the Photos app automatically organizes files, displaying a list of suggested photos, Memories, and Highlights at the top. Unfortunately, Apple’s file ordering is a bit confusing. The Photos app has many useful categories and shortcuts for quickly accessing media files, such as screenshots, user albums, and utilities like Hidden Folder. Therefore, for a more convenient experience, you should rearrange the items in the Collections tab. Tap the Menu button at the top of the Collections tab and select Reorder . My recommendation is to move the Utilities and Media Types collections to the top, as they serve as convenient shortcuts.
Use the “Taken by me” button to hide screenshots and saved photos.
If you’re like me, your photo gallery is filled with too many screenshots, saved photos, memes, GIFs, and videos. They all have their place, but the clutter gets in the way when you want to see or share photos you actually took with your iPhone’s camera . iOS 27 adds a new feature called “Shot by Me,” which filters only photos and videos you’ve taken yourself. If you go to the Collections tab, you’ll find the new “Shot by Me” section under Utilities . You can also activate this feature when viewing photos in your library using the “Filter” button.
Hide photos of your ex in the Memories section
Apple Photos’ suggestions are so good that I let the app choose images for my iPhone and Apple Watch wallpapers, as well as a widget on my iPhone’s home screen. But the quality of the suggestions depends on your approach. The last thing you want is to see a photo of your ex (or ex-friend) when you’re trying to check your email in the morning. If you don’t want to see them too often, open their photo, tap the Menu button, and select “Don’t show this person.” Here you have two options: either ” Show this person less often” or ” Never show this person.” The latter option is, of course, better for exes, while the former is better for people you don’t want to completely cut off from your list but would like to see a little less often.
Hide the Hidden folder to truly protect your private photos.
The hidden folder in the Photos app is a great way to protect photos and videos from the main library. The problem is, anyone who gets their hands on your iPhone can access this folder. So, be sure to lock the hidden folder with Face ID to truly protect your private photos. To do this, go to Settings > Apps > Photos > Albums and enable Face ID to automatically lock the hidden folder.
Be sure to completely delete the photos from your trash.
Deleted photos aren’t actually deleted—at least not right away. Apple keeps deleted photos for 30 days, which is useful if you accidentally delete a photo or change your mind, but it’s a double-edged sword. Someone who knows about it can view your deleted album and recover images you thought were lost forever. These photos and videos also take up storage space you likely hoped to regain by “deleting” them. So, be sure to empty your trash. Go to Photos > Utilities > Recently Deleted and click “Delete All.”
Use the ID section to quickly find photos of your identification documents.
While it’s not the most secure option, storing certain identification documents, passes, or tickets as photos can be a lifesaver in a pinch. Apple seems to recognize this is a common use case. In iOS 27, if you go to the Collections tab, you’ll find a new “ID Documents” section in the Utilities drop-down menu. Open it and you’ll see an automatically generated grid of all photos containing identification documents. If you like this feature, I highly recommend using the first method in this list to rearrange the display order of the Collections section, placing the “ID Documents” section at the very top.
Use this hidden feature to force photos to sync with iCloud.
iCloud can make managing your ever-growing photo library much easier. When your cloud storage space is available, photos and videos are automatically uploaded in the background, and if your iPhone is low on space, the Optimize Storage feature automatically migrates files to the cloud.
Unfortunately, sometimes this doesn’t work when you really need it. Perhaps you want to add photos to a shared album or view photos on your Mac. But your iPhone’s battery is low or the connection is unstable, so the photos never seem to sync. Now, if you’re using iOS 27, you can use a hidden setting to force iCloud syncing. Go to Settings > Photos > Sync Immediately and enable “Today.”
Use the High Quality mode in Cleanup to remove objects from your photos.
At launch, Apple’s Cleanup tool left much to be desired. It removed objects, but left strange shadows or blemishes. With the advent of Siri’s new AI, Cleanup has improved significantly —but only if you use Apple’s iCloud servers. (Apple claims its Private Cloud Compute service keeps your data secure.) So, Cleanup is now a reliable option for quickly removing objects from your photos. Open an image, tap Edit , select Tools , and then select Cleanup . At the top, be sure to switch to High Quality to use Apple’s servers. Select the areas you want to remove and tap Clean . If you’re doing a serious edit, you may have to wait a minute or two. In my experience, the results are worth it.
Use the Paste Edits feature to copy and paste changes from one photo to multiple photos.
Applying the same edits to multiple photos can be tedious. Luckily, you don’t have to waste time adjusting sliders for each image: the Photos app lets you copy all the edits from one image and paste them into multiple photos. To do this, select the edited photo or video, tap the Menu button, and select Copy Edits . Then, review and deselect any unnecessary edits and select Copy . Now, return to your Library , tap Select , and select all the photos or videos you want to apply the same edits to. Tap the Menu button and select Paste Edits to apply the same edit settings to all images.
Use the Live Text feature to extract text from images.
Apple’s Live Text feature turns any text into digital text. Take a photo of a menu, and you can copy it. Scan a page, and you can paste it into Notes. But it’s not limited to just the camera or screenshots: the feature is integrated directly into the Photos app, and that’s arguably the easiest place to use it. When you view an image with text, you’ll see a Live Text icon in the lower right corner. Tap it, and iOS will highlight the text in the image. You can tap and hold to perform an action on the text, and you can also easily copy text from here.