My iPhone Photos app still shows the Hidden album even though it’s empty. I already removed the hidden photos, but the album won’t disappear from Albums. Is there a setting or fix to hide or remove the empty Hidden album on iPhone?
The main thing to know is that deleting stuff from the Hidden album usually does not free the space right away. It gets moved to Recently Deleted first, and it can sit there for 30 days. So if your storage bar looks unchanged after deleting hidden photos, that’s probably why.
To actually clear it, open the Photos app, go to Albums (or Collections on newer iOS versions), then scroll down to Utilities. That’s where Hidden should be. Tap it and unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
If you don’t see the Hidden album at all, check Settings > Photos and turn on Show Hidden Album. Apple lets you hide the album from view, but that does not mean the photos stop taking up space.
Once you’re inside Hidden, you don’t need to delete everything one photo at a time. Tap Select. If your iOS version shows Select All, use that. If not, tap one photo and drag your finger across and downward while it scrolls. It’ll keep selecting photos as you go. After they’re selected, hit the Trash icon.
Then go straight to Albums > Recently Deleted, unlock that folder too, tap Select, and choose Delete All. That’s the part that actually removes them from the phone and should give you the storage back.
One thing to be careful with: if iCloud Photos is turned on, deleting from Recently Deleted is not just local cleanup. It syncs across iCloud, so those photos will also disappear from your iPad, Mac, and iCloud.com.
After doing that, you may still find that the bigger storage problem is the regular photo library. Hidden photos are only part of it. The usual mess is duplicate-ish shots, old screenshots, huge videos, and random screen recordings you forgot about.
For that part, I’d honestly suggest trying Clever Cleaner. A lot of cleaner apps are pretty awful, either full of ads or useless unless you pay. Clever Cleaner is completely free, with no ads or paywall nonsense.
The useful parts are pretty straightforward. The Heavies tab sorts your media by file size, so it’s easy to spot giant videos or screen recordings. The Similars tab groups photos that are almost the same, so you can keep the best one and delete the extras. It also shows exact file sizes for screenshots, which helps when you’re trying to clear space fast.
It also processes everything on your phone, so your photo library is not being uploaded somewhere for analysis. The one limitation is the Hidden album. Because of Apple’s privacy restrictions, Clever Cleaner cannot access or clean that folder, and no third-party app can. You still have to handle Hidden and Recently Deleted manually, but for the rest of the library, it can save a lot of time.
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If there are still hidden items, you need to unhide or delete them; if the Hidden album is empty, you’re probably just seeing the built-in album because the visibility setting is turned on. The Hidden album doesn’t behave like a normal album you created, so there’s no delete button for the album itself.
Go to Settings > Photos and turn off Show Hidden Album. On newer iOS versions it may be under Settings > Apps > Photos. After that, the Hidden album should disappear from the Photos app’s Albums/Utilities area. It can come back later if that setting gets turned on again.
I’d separate this from the storage issue mentioned above. Clearing Recently Deleted matters if you want the photos gone and the space freed, but it usually won’t decide whether the empty Hidden album is shown. If the toggle is off and you still see it, force close Photos and reopen it, or restart the phone. If it still sticks around after that, it’s likely just a Photos/iOS display bug rather than hidden photos still being there.
Don’t expect the empty Hidden album to vanish just because there’s nothing in it. It’s more like a system folder than a normal album, so @shizuka has the right fix: turn off Show Hidden Album in Photos settings. The small catch people miss is that this is a per-device display setting, so if you use iCloud Photos, hiding it on your iPhone doesn’t necessarily hide it on your iPad or Mac. If the toggle is already off and Photos still shows it, don’t keep deleting things looking for a “hidden” leftover. Close Photos from the app switcher, reopen it, and if needed restart the phone. After that, I’d chalk it up to iOS being slow to refresh rather than an album you can manually remove.
You probably can’t make that album cease to exist; you can only stop Photos from listing it. It’s an Apple-managed section, so an empty Hidden album is not treated like an empty custom album that you can delete.
A small trap here is that there are two different ideas people mix up: hiding the Hidden album and locking the Hidden album. If you only changed the Face ID/passcode setting for Hidden, that just controls access. It does not remove the album from view. The setting you want is specifically Show Hidden Album.
Check:
Settings > Photos > Show Hidden Album off
On some newer iOS layouts it may be:
Settings > Apps > Photos > Show Hidden Album off
After changing it, fully leave the Photos app and reopen it. If Photos was already open in the Albums or Utilities area, it can look like nothing changed until the app refreshes. I would not spend time hunting for a leftover hidden photo if the album says it is empty.
The only other caveat is device mismatch. If you are checking an iPad, Mac, or iCloud.com too, each one can have its own display behavior. Turning it off on the iPhone does not mean every Apple device will instantly hide that section in the exact same way.
So the realistic answer is: no, you do not delete the empty Hidden album. You turn off its visibility. If the correct toggle is off and the album still appears after closing Photos and restarting the phone, then I’d treat it as a Photos app refresh bug, not as proof that something is still hidden.
If you ever hide another photo down the line, that toggle flips itself back on. That’s the part nobody flagged yet. So even after you turn off Show Hidden Album and the folder disappears, the moment you hide something new, iOS re-enables visibility on its own and the empty-looking album shows up again. People then think the fix broke, when really it worked and just got undone.
@shizuka and @caminantenocturno already nailed the core answer, so I won’t rehash it. You don’t delete that album, you hide it. The only thing I’d push on is the ‘restart the phone if it sticks’ advice. Before rebooting, back all the way out to the main Photos screen first, not just the Albums tab. That view caches hard, and staying parked in Albums or Utilities is what makes it look frozen. A reboot works, but it’s usually overkill.
On the cleaner tool from the first reply, it’s fine for trimming the regular library, but it’s completely irrelevant to your actual question. No third-party app touches Hidden, so it won’t make an empty album disappear either way. Keep the two problems separate in your head. The album visibility is a one-toggle thing. Storage is a different chore entirely.