Stop iPhone photos appearing in Memories and Featured Photos
Photos picks pictures to show you. Here is how to choose what it can pick from.
In short
To stop Photos featuring someone, open a photo of them, tap the More button, tap Don’t Feature a Person and choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person. To turn off Memories and Featured Photos entirely, open Photos, tap Collections, tap your account in the top-right corner and turn off Show Featured Content. Hidden photos do not appear anywhere in Photos outside the Hidden album.
Key takeaways
- Show Featured Content off stops Memories and featured photos.
- You can feature a person, day or place less without turning it all off.
- Hidden photos appear only in the Hidden album.
Where photos resurface
The Photos app builds Memories and picks featured photos from your library, and the Photos widget shows them on the Home Screen. A photo you forgot about — an ex, a medical picture, a screenshot — can appear there in front of whoever is looking at your screen.
Feature someone or something less
A person
- Open a photo of the person in the Photos app.
- Tap the More button, then Don’t Feature a Person (Don’t Feature This Person on some versions).
- If several people are in the photo, tap the one you mean, then Next.
- Choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person, then Confirm.
Apple says this changes how Memories, featured photos and the Photos widget are curated.
A day, a place or a memory
- In Photos, tap Collections and find Memories.
- Touch and hold a memory, then tap Feature Less.
- Choose Feature This Day Less, Feature This Place Less or Feature This Person Less, depending on the memory.
Turn featured content off
- Open Photos and tap Collections.
- Tap your account in the top-right corner.
- Turn off Show Featured Content to stop Photos generating featured photos and memories. Turn off Show Holiday Events to keep holidays out of them.
Apple notes this also turns off memories and featured photos in the Photos widget on the Home Screen.
Undo it
To bring someone back, open Photos, tap Collections, tap your account and tap Reset People & Pets Suggestions. Apple’s Personal Safety guide also lists Settings › Apps › Photos › Featured Content, where Reset Suggested Memories undoes your Feature Less choices. On a Mac, both buttons are in Photos › Settings › General.
Keep specific photos out
For individual pictures rather than people, hide them: open the photo, tap More, then Hide. Hidden photos do not appear in the library, in other albums or in the Photos widget. You can also turn off Show Hidden Album in Settings › Apps › Photos so the album itself is not visible.
Photos that are never candidates
Pictures stored in a vault such as Latent are not part of the photo library at all, so they cannot be picked for a memory, a widget or a featured photo. Photos taken with Latent’s secure camera never enter the library in the first place.