Photos disappear from album after hiding them in the library

I have created an album from the photo library . I go back to the photo library and hide the same photos. I go back to the album and the photos are missing. I then go into the hidden photos and restore them. Now they reappear in the album and library. This happens in all my devices: phone, iPad, mini Mac.



[Re-Titled by Moderator]


Posted on Jul 29, 2025 08:09 AM

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Posted on Jul 29, 2025 10:35 AM

In older system versions we could see the the hidden photos in the albums - hiding has originally been intended to be able to hide photos from the library temporarily, without having to delete them, to make it easier to manage the library views. Hiding did only apply to the Library view, not our own albums. But many users requested a hiding tool to keep confidential photos hidden everywhere, also in the albums. So Apple changed the behavior of hte hidden albums, with macOS 10.14 and iOS 13, many years ago. Since then we are no longer having a tool to take photos out of sight just in the Library view, but a tool to hide certain items completely. In the most recent system version we can even protect the Hidden album with Face ID.


On your Mac mini you can make the hidden photos visible in smart albums, but not on the iPad and iPhone, because the mobile devices do not support smart albums.

To see the hidden photo in an album without having to unhide them use a smart album like this on your Mac:

  • File > New Smart album
  • In the smart rules dialog for the smart album set the switch "Match " to "Match All".
  • Set the rule to "Album is" and select an album with hidden photos.
  • Add a second rule "Photo is Hidden".

This new album will show you all hidden photos in the album you selected. But you may need to unlock this album with Face ID if you have Face ID enabled for the Hidden album.


Any smart album with a rule "Photo is Hidden" can show you the matching hidden photos.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 29, 2025 10:35 AM in response to Dalipa

In older system versions we could see the the hidden photos in the albums - hiding has originally been intended to be able to hide photos from the library temporarily, without having to delete them, to make it easier to manage the library views. Hiding did only apply to the Library view, not our own albums. But many users requested a hiding tool to keep confidential photos hidden everywhere, also in the albums. So Apple changed the behavior of hte hidden albums, with macOS 10.14 and iOS 13, many years ago. Since then we are no longer having a tool to take photos out of sight just in the Library view, but a tool to hide certain items completely. In the most recent system version we can even protect the Hidden album with Face ID.


On your Mac mini you can make the hidden photos visible in smart albums, but not on the iPad and iPhone, because the mobile devices do not support smart albums.

To see the hidden photo in an album without having to unhide them use a smart album like this on your Mac:

  • File > New Smart album
  • In the smart rules dialog for the smart album set the switch "Match " to "Match All".
  • Set the rule to "Album is" and select an album with hidden photos.
  • Add a second rule "Photo is Hidden".

This new album will show you all hidden photos in the album you selected. But you may need to unlock this album with Face ID if you have Face ID enabled for the Hidden album.


Any smart album with a rule "Photo is Hidden" can show you the matching hidden photos.


Jul 29, 2025 09:05 AM in response to Dalipa

Dalipa wrote:

I have created an album from the photo library . I go back to the photo library and hide the same photos. I go back to the album and the photos are missing. I then go into the hidden photos and restore them. Now they reappear in the album and library. This happens in all my devices: phone, iPad, mini Mac.

Yes, that's expected behavior. Whatever you do to a picture in Library will be reflected in any album because, as Richard.Taylor explained, it's the same picture.

Jul 29, 2025 08:18 AM in response to Dalipa

That's right. A picture can be seen in different places. It's the same picture. Albums are just lists of pictures to see together. You can delete a picture in one album, but it remains on the lists of other albums with the picture. That way you can have a picture in five different albums without taking up any more space.


So albums give a specific view of your pictures. The picture of "Aunt Ethel at the Grand Canyon" can be in the "Aunt Ethel" album with other pictures of Aunt Ethel, and it can also be in the "Grand Canyon"  album with pictures of other people at the Grand Canyon. And it can also be in a the "September 2015" album with other things that happened then. Each album is pointing to a single file stored in the Photos Library, so having pictures in multiple albums takes up no more storage space. As you can imagine, this is very powerful in organizing pictures.

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Photos disappear from album after hiding them in the library

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