I didn’t realise that it was possible to create a hidden folder until about a week ago and up until this point i had never been bothered to try and figure out how to do it. But today i decided to try figure it out as i’ve seen a lot of people talking about it and got curious. I wish i hadn’t. For some added context, i’m 18(f) and i have an older brother 22(m) who was kind enough to give me his old phone as he decided to get the iphone 14. I now have his old iphone 13 (yes i’m giving him money for it). Anyway, i spent ages trying to figure out how to find the hidden folder and i’m honestly embarrassed at how long it took. I moved a random picture into it as i was unsure if it even existed without pictures in there. So eventually i find this folder and it’s locked so i try using face ID to unlock it, doesn’t work. Instead i have to put in my password which isn’t a big deal and i do so. What i was met with has traumatised me and i’m gonna need therapy or something. I won’t go into detail about what was in there, and honestly i don’t fully know as i’ve never swiped off of something so quickly in my life. My brother did a full reset on the phone before he gave it to me so i don’t understand why the contents of the folder weren’t also wiped along with everything else. I’m disappointed in what is very clearly an oversight on apples part and i hope they realise this is an issue before any other younger siblings are traumatised too.
TL;DR It doesn’t delete the hidden folder when you reset your phone. Do it manually or risk traumatising your old phones new owner.
Edit: Didn’t think my wording would be criticised so much lol. I wrote this as if it were something i was sending to my friends and so certain things are exaggerated, such as me being traumatised and needing therapy (i thought that was funny but apparently it stigmatises sex - this is reddit calm down). I understand people have sex, i’m not surprised, they’re married. I would just prefer not to watch. If that’s weird to you then you’re weird to me. Anyone suggesting i was actively seeking out nude pictures of my family, you’re even weirder. Also i love my SIL and this doesn’t change that, again, i was joking.
Edit 2: From my understanding, you have to go to settings to make the hidden folder visible under utilities for it to be there, which i did before i even went into the photos app. So because of that, i was under the impression that that was me “creating” the folder, or at least making it visible under utilities and therefore usable. I also moved a picture into the folder before opening it (or even finding it) again, this was me attempting to “create” the folder as before that point i could not find it. None of this was an excuse to snoop (the phone had been fully reset so how anyone could come to that conclusion anyway is their own fault). In my mind, I had “created” the hidden folder before going onto the photo app as i turned it on in settings. -I’m talking about the hidden album in the photo app, not some random folder on the phone (even then my immediate thought would not be that my brother stored nudes in there because again, the phone had been reset to its factory settings).