Private Albums - Secret Lock 4+

Finally ! A St@sh (Stash) replacement.

For years I have searched for a replacement to the great St@sh (Stash) app. It was by far the greatest for hiding all kinds of files from snoops. *****

But every other photo / video protection app on the iPhone falls grossly short. Most don’t play videos beyond the simple playing. They don’t offer Replay, Slow Motion, and more needed abilities. *****

And other protection apps have an essentially stupid problem. Those apps don’t truly encrypt their files. Password protection doesn’t mean the videos and photos can’t be seen via alternate methods used by knowledgable people. To truly protect files, the must be truly encrypted. And when those developers call them encrypted, they are simply lying to you. You can simply backup or download the iOS data to your computer by iMazing, etc. and browse through the photos and videos at will. *****

Finally, I found this Private Photo Video app. *****

It has almost all the abilities that St@sh had, and some it did not have. (St@sh is no longer available on the new iOS operating system.) *****

Private Photo Video has the ability to Rotate videos independent of turning your iPhone for instance. St@sh could not do that. *****

And it has the abilities of St@sh, like Speed Control, forward and backward to other videos, and Repeat Play (done via a Global Setting). *****

Where the app surely needs improvement are the following. *****

It absolutely needs a Decoy Password. *****

Part of the reason the Decoy Password area is needed is the name of the app itself. It invites snoops. And the name says there is ONLY secret stuff and it is behind a password. *****

So put in the Decoy Password and the person begging to see what is in there is taken to a totally different set of Photos and Videos. Perhaps just photos of ladies at a public swimming pool. *****

This function is sooooo needed. *****

Private Photo Video apparently tries to get around that by password protecting individual folders. We can encrypt a single folder by Long Pressing on the folder. So one folder is password protecting photos at swimming pool. “But I want you to show me what is in the other folders that you won’t open for me. They must be super racy.” *****

The way St@sh did the Decoy Password was this. You could name folders and password protect some with the Decoy Password. So now the app looks and works like any one would expect. *****

But to gain access to your “treasure”, you open the app anew and for the first few seconds, you can tap the app’s window with 3 fingers. That causes another folder to appear labeled “Trash”. Tap on the Trash icon and the Real Password entry area would appear. It looks like files from the decoy area are discarded therein. *****

Another needed function of Private Photo Video is Nested Folders. *****

Here is an example of why it is needed. *****

A Private Investigator may have one contract were he is tailing a person, John Doe. Another contract may have that investigator watching a warehouse for some illegal activity. He would want to have a John Doe folder in the Video Folder. In the John Doe folder, he would put Folders with videos for John Doe on the weekend. A separate folder in the John Doe folder would be videos taken at a business convention. *****

I’m not sure if this app will automatically delete all its files if more than x number of password attempts is made. But that would be an excellent option. *****

A numeric password may be more or less secure than a Gesture Password. But having the option for a Numeric Password like the app has the Finger Print Password option would be good. *****

I originally was going to delete this app from my iPhone when I found out I could see its files after backing ii up. But… *****

I emailed the developer about my concern. He immediately corrected that problem by making it impossible to be backed up. I tested it and sure enough, your files are as protected as your other iOS data. *****

There is one bug that I am going to mention here and I am sure the developer will fix forthwith. (I always wanted to use that word.) Here is the bug. *****

Click away from the app and you will need to enter you Gesture Password again. That is standard. However, when you Double Click on the Home Button to reveal all open, running apps, you (and anyone looking over your shoulder) can easily see the video last watched when using Private Photo Video. Until he fixes this, simply swipe the app up off the screen to completely close it. *****

Even though the app needs a Decoy Area with Password and it needs Nested Folders, I’m giving it 5 stars. This is because it is EASILY head and shoulders above EVERY other competing such app on the iOS. Also, he responded to me so quickly to fix the encryption deal breaker. *****

I will be so delighted with this app when those two functions are added.