If an app seems to have vanished from your iPhone, or you suspect someone else’s phone has apps tucked away out of sight, there are several places iOS allows apps to be hidden, each requiring a slightly different method to check. This guide walks through every location worth searching to find hidden apps on an iPhone.
The first and most common place to check is the App Library, reached by swiping left past your final Home Screen page. This screen automatically organises every app installed on the device into categories, including apps that have been deliberately removed from the Home Screen but not fully deleted. Use the search bar at the top of the App Library, or scroll through the categorised folders, to spot anything that isn’t showing up among your regular Home Screen icons.
Next, check whether Screen Time restrictions have been used to hide specific apps. Go to Settings, then Screen Time, then Content & Privacy Restrictions. If this is enabled, tap Allowed Apps to see whether any built-in apps have been toggled off, which removes them from view entirely until switched back on. This is a common way people hide default apps like Safari, Camera, or FaceTime from a shared or family device.
Newer iOS versions also allow individual apps to be locked and fully hidden using Face ID or Touch ID. If an app has been hidden this way, it won’t appear on the Home Screen, in the App Library, in search results, or in notifications at all. To check for apps hidden using this method, go to the App Library, scroll all the way down, and look for a folder labelled Hidden near the very bottom of the screen. Apps hidden this way will only reveal themselves here after you authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID.
If you’re specifically looking for hidden photos or videos rather than apps, these are stored separately. Open the Photos app, go to Albums, and scroll down to see whether a Hidden album is visible. If it isn’t showing at all, go to Settings, then Photos, and check whether Show Hidden Album has been switched off, which conceals that album entirely from the Albums tab until it’s turned back on.
It’s also worth checking the App Store’s Purchased history, accessible by tapping your profile icon in the App Store and selecting Purchased, which lists every app ever downloaded to that Apple ID, including apps that have since been deleted entirely rather than merely hidden. This won’t reveal a currently hidden app directly, but it can confirm whether an app was ever installed in the first place.
Between the App Library, Screen Time restrictions, the Face ID-locked Hidden folder, and the Hidden Photos album, these cover every genuine way apps and content can be tucked out of sight on an iPhone using Apple’s own built-in tools. If none of these turn up what you’re looking for, it’s likely the app in question has simply been deleted entirely rather than hidden.
If you’re checking someone else’s device with their permission, such as helping a family member locate a lost app, it’s worth walking through each location together methodically rather than assuming a single check will reveal everything, since apps can technically be hidden using more than one of these methods simultaneously, layering Screen Time restrictions on top of an already-hidden Home Screen icon, for example.
It’s also worth checking installed configuration profiles under Settings, General, VPN & Device Management, particularly on a work or school-managed iPhone, since a Mobile Device Management profile installed by an organisation can restrict which apps are visible or installable entirely, which is a different mechanism from the personal hiding features covered above but can produce a similar effect of apps appearing to be missing.
