Where to keep a passport, medical or tax document on iPhone
The most sensitive files on a phone are rarely photos.
In short
Avoid the camera roll, your email inbox and unlocked notes: they sync widely and open with your passcode. A locked note or the Files app is better than nothing, but only an encrypted vault with its own secret protects a document from someone who knows your passcode.
Key takeaways
- The camera roll syncs to every device on your Apple ID.
- Files app documents are not protected by a separate secret.
- A vault keeps documents behind a code that is not your passcode.
Where these documents usually end up
- The camera roll, after a photo of the document — where it syncs, appears in search and sits next to holiday pictures.
- An email sent to yourself — stored on a mail server, often for years.
- A note — readable by anyone with the phone if it is not locked.
Better, but limited
Locked notes in the Notes app and documents in the Files app are a step up. Notes can be locked with the device passcode or a separate password; Files documents rely on the phone’s own lock. Neither hides that the documents exist.
In a vault
Latent stores PDFs and any other file alongside photos, encrypted, with tags such as “ID” or “Taxes” that are themselves encrypted. The secure camera scans a document straight into the vault, so it never touches the camera roll.
Before sharing a scan
A photo of a document also carries its metadata, including the place it was taken. Remove the location before sending it.