Private Photo Vault - Pic Saf‪e‬ 17+

Best in class for photo security

One of my friends recommended this app to me years ago for securing my private photos and videos. I’ve now been using it since 2015, it continues to be supported with each new version of iOS and they provide good customer support when needed.

To break down the features that I like, the break-in report and decoy password are really cool. The break in report will take a photo whenever someone tries to get into the app. It is great for detecting snoopers. The decoy password gives you a whole separate account you can login to that opens to a different set of photos. This is perfect if someone wants to know what is in the app.

The app has the ability to create a pin for the overall app as well as passwords for each of the individual albums.

When you import photos from the photos app, it asks you if you’d like to delete them from the Photos app which is really convenient. Just make sure you also delete them from recently deleted too.

Looking at some of the reviews, it looks like people are forgetting their passwords. The app gives you the ability to set a backup email address, so if you set that setup you are fine.

Each update brings new features. I’m glad to have picked this one. It is fast, secure, reliable and feature rich. I highly recommend this app if you want a well supported app for securing your photos. I’m excited to see what they add next.

Don't trust this app to make backups to iCloud.

I've been using the pro version of this app for about 4 years. Currently it's pretty well developed. The only issue I've ever had was losing 400+ pictures/videos due to the app not backing up to iCloud (2 years ago). I lost my phone while on a trip in Europe, after returning I tried a backup only to find that all data within the app was lost (literally as if I had never used the app before). I tried a fresh backup several times, each with the same results. Going into detail: I used photo vault for 2 years prior to the loss of the phone. I had pictures in my stock photo album that were dated same as some photos in the photo vault. The backup recovered 700+ pictures that were in my photo album (and other apps/app data) ... some dating up to just a couple weeks before I lost the phone. Basically I guess photo vault was never backed up, while just about everything else was? You'd think after paying for the pricey Pro Version and 2 years of constant use, there would be some element of assurance... I have had little use for this app since losing everything.

Developer Response ,

First of all, we apologize for this issue. We are currently working on a solution that will allow for backing up/syncing to new devices. This should be available within the next couple months.

In general, in the meantime, if you recover your phone from an iTunes or iCloud backup when you get a new one, the photos should transfer.

Great App Until You Lose your Phone and all Pictures are Lost

I have been a regular user of photo vault. I started with the regular version and then paid to get upgraded to the pro version. Everything seemed fine even until I lost my iPhone in summer 2019 during my research trip and had to restore/recover lost data. Lol and behold, not even a single one of the over 3,000 archival/research document pics that I got and moved to the vault were restored; I mean, not even a single one. I tried restoring from my itunes and iCloud yet no way. Never trust this app to recover your lost photo files. To make matters worse, I wrote several emails to the developers and even went to their company website to lodge a request to Legendary Software Labs LLC and not even a single response. At least, if you cannot solve the situation, calm your clients and respond to a single request. I cannot believe that after paying the monthly fee, I cannot even recover any thing. I felt frustrated because I so much believed in this app and even got my friends to get it. Now, I am lost and disappointed to say the least. Thanks but no thanks.