---
title: "What Is iCloud Photos on iPhone? Meaning and Settings"
description: "iCloud Photos keeps your whole photo library, including hidden and recently deleted photos, in iCloud and in sync across every device on your Apple Account."
url: https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/icloud-photos
lang: en-gb
published: 2026-10-31
updated: 2026-10-31
author: "VaultForYou Editorial Team"
publisher: VaultForYou
---

# What is iCloud Photos?

Published 2026-10-31 - Updated 2026-10-31 - By VaultForYou Editorial Team - Checked against iOS 27 - 31 Oct 2026

## Quick answer

iCloud Photos is the Apple service that stores your whole photo library in iCloud and keeps it in sync on every device signed in to your Apple Account. Hidden photos and Recently Deleted sync too, so hiding a photo on one device hides it everywhere, not deletes it.

- **Turn off on one device:** Settings -> [your name] -> iCloud -> Photos.
- **Turn off everywhere:** Settings -> [your name] -> iCloud -> Storage -> iCloud Photos.
- **Encryption:** End-to-end only with Advanced Data Protection.

Because everything syncs, a private photo saved on your iPhone can appear on a shared iPad or Mac. Turning iCloud Photos off on one device stops syncing there; turning it off from iCloud Storage stops it everywhere and deletes the iCloud copy after a grace period.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do hidden photos sync to iCloud?

Yes. Hidden photos stay in your photo library, so with iCloud Photos on they sync to iCloud and appear in the Hidden album on your other devices. Hiding changes where a photo is shown, not where it is stored.

## Sources

- [Apple Support: Hide photos with the Hidden album](https://support.apple.com/en-us/104987)

## Guides that use this term

- [How to turn off iCloud Photos syncing without losing your photos](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/blog/stop-icloud-photos-syncing)

## Related terms

- [Advanced Data Protection](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/advanced-data-protection)
- [Hidden album](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/hidden-album)
- [iCloud Shared Photo Library](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/shared-library)

## Browse

- [All glossary terms](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary)

---

Our guides are written and fact-checked by the VaultForYou team against Apple's own documentation. We make VaultForYou, a private vault app for iPhone. Download on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/vaultforyou/id0000000000