Turn off Featured Photos and Memories
Use this setting when you do not want Photos automatically creating featured pictures or Memories:
- Open Photos on your iPhone.
- Tap Collections.
- Tap your account picture in the top-right corner.
- Turn off Show Featured Content.
Apple says this prevents Photos from automatically generating Featured Photos and Memories, including featured content in the Photos widget. It does not delete anything from your library.
Remove the Photos widget
If the immediate concern is the Home Screen, you can also remove the widget:
- Touch and hold the Photos widget.
- Tap Remove Widget.
- Confirm Remove.
Removing the widget only changes the Home Screen. It does not change Featured Photos or Memories inside the Photos app, so turn off Show Featured Content as well if you do not want that automatic curation.
Show a person less often or never
- Open a photo of the person in Photos.
- Tap the More button.
- Tap Don’t Feature a Person.
- If several people appear, choose the relevant person and tap Next.
- Select Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person, then confirm.
You can also open Collections, choose People & Pets, touch and hold a person, and use the corresponding Don’t Feature option. This changes suggestions; it does not hide or delete the underlying photos.
Feature a day, place, or person less
- In Photos, tap Collections.
- Scroll through Memories or open the complete Memories collection.
- Touch and hold a memory, then tap Feature Less.
- Choose the available day, place, or person option.
This is useful when one trip, location, date, or person keeps appearing. Apple describes it as showing that material less frequently, not as a guarantee that every related photo will disappear from every view.
Hide one private photo or video
If one item should stay out of the main library and Home Screen widget, touch and hold it in Photos, tap Hide, and confirm. Apple says a hidden item no longer appears in the main Library, other albums, or the Photos widget. It remains in the protected Hidden collection and is not deleted.
Keep authentication enabled for Hidden and remember that the device passcode can unlock it. See the complete Hidden album guide for current steps and limits.
Show Featured Content controls automatic curation. Feature Less changes suggestions about a person, place, or day. Hide removes an item from normal library views after you identify it. None of these controls searches the whole library for forgotten private media.
Reset the suggestions later
To undo suggestion changes, open Photos, tap Collections, tap your account picture, then choose Reset Suggested Memories or Reset People & Pets Suggestions. Resetting suggestions does not unhide photos or restore a removed widget.
Review before screen sharing
Automatic suggestions are only one exposure path. Before screen sharing, opening Photos for remote help, or handing an unlocked phone to someone, review the exact screens and albums you expect to show. Search dates, screenshots, downloads, and imported media manually.
A local scanner can help create a smaller queue of likely sensitive items, but it can miss items and produce false positives. Treat every match as a suggestion, review it yourself, and use Apple’s own Hide or Delete controls only after making the decision.