A private photo popped up in a widget or on your Lock Screen

Hide the photo, turn off featured content and check your Lock Screen wallpaper so a picture stops appearing where others can look.

You put your phone on the table, and a Home Screen widget is showing a picture from last spring that nobody else was supposed to view. The Photos app picks these on its own, with no sense of what is private. You have a few ways to stop it, from one photo up to the whole feature.

Fix the one photo

Hide it:

1. Open the photo in the Photos app.
2. Tap the More button, then tap Hide.

The photo moves to the Hidden album and stops appearing in the library, other albums and the widget. For several, tap Select in your library, choose them, tap the More button and tap Hide.

Turn off the automatic picks

If you do not trust the app’s choices at all:

1. Open Photos and tap Collections.
2. Tap your account in the top-right corner.
3. Turn off Show Featured Content.

Apple says this stops Photos from generating featured photos and memories automatically. Show Holiday Events is a separate switch on the same screen.

Remove the widget

Touch and hold the widget, then choose the option to remove it and confirm. Your photos are unaffected. A widget stack on the Home Screen can rotate in Photos by itself, so check any stacks too. You can also look in Today View, which you open by swiping right from the Home Screen or Lock Screen.

Keep a person from reappearing

An ex or a family member you have fallen out with can keep turning up in Memories. Open a photo of them, tap the More button and tap Don’t Feature a Person. Choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person, then tap Confirm. You can undo this later with Reset People & Pets Suggestions, on the same account screen as Show Featured Content.

Check your Lock Screen

Your Lock Screen shows to anyone near your phone, without a passcode.

1. Touch and hold the Lock Screen until the Customize button appears.
2. Swipe to the Lock Screen you use, then tap Customize.
3. If you chose Photo Shuffle, tap the photo thumbnail to change the selection or the frequency.

Changing to a different wallpaper also solves this, and you can delete a Lock Screen you no longer need. A Lock Screen with Photos shuffling through your library is worth rethinking if it includes people you would rather not put on display.

Check notifications and search

Photos often appear through other apps. Message previews can show images on the Lock Screen, for example. Apple says information inside a locked app stops appearing in notification previews, search and Siri suggestions, so locking an app helps here. Touch and hold the app icon, tap Require Face ID and confirm.

These settings make your phone less likely to display a photo by accident. They do little against someone holding your unlocked phone, or someone who knows your passcode. For that, read what to do when someone has seen your code.