Sneaky ways cheaters hide sexy pics using secret files & X-rated ‘cloud’ tip

WHEN it comes to betrayal, a smartphone is a cheater’s best friend – with endless virtual nooks for love rats to hide naughty pics from prying eyes.

A savvy adulterer will make good use of hidden folders, secret photo safes, a cunning ‘deletion’ trick, and even invisible storage to lead their double life – but luckily, as The Sun’s tech editor, I know all the places they’re hiding their saucy selfies.

You shouldn’t go snooping on other people’s phones, but some partners will be at the end of their tether with a traitorous lover concealing an affair.

Of course, hiding pics might not just be a sneaky partner hiding their dodgy antics. You might have a special reason that you need to conceal a photo – like if you have kids or other people using your mobile – and there are plenty of ways to do it.

I spend a lot of time poring through little-known corners of smartphones for my job, so here’s where photos might be hidden.

TACTIC #1 – HIDING PHOTOS

Let’s start with the easy one: the Hidden Photos feature.

This is the absolute bare minimum that a cheater would do to hide a photo, as it requires very little effort or knowledge.

All a cheater needs to do is going into the Photos app, hold down on the image thumbnail, and then choose Hide Photo.

It’ll disappear into a special Hidden album in their photo collections.

And then they could even go into Settings > Apps > Photos and turn off Show Hidden Album, which hides the fact that there’s even a Hidden album. Sneaky.

TACTIC #2 – PHOTO DELETION

A savvier traitor will use a similar trick that is less obvious.

If you delete a photo, it doesn’t actually disappear from your phone.

Instead, it’s transferred into the Recently Deleted folder.

So some cheaters might delete their photos and then view them inside that Recently Deleted folder instead.

That folder is cleared out every 30 days.

But it’s very simple to restore them and then hit delete again to refresh that timer.

TACTIC #3 – FILES APP

A step above that is the Files app, which many people simply forget exists.

Usually people save images to their Photos album, but it’s not the only way to store pics on your phone.

You can also save content in the Files app. You can put loads of stuff in there: photos, videos, PDFs, and more.

Try it: go to your Photos and then click the share button, then choose Save To Files.

You can then delete the image from your Photos but it’ll still be in Files.

It’s a simple yet very effective way for someone to conceal a raunchy pic or video.

TACTIC #4 – FILE DELETION

You know I mentioned earlier that you can delete photos and then still see them in Recently Deleted?

Well, that trick also works over in the Files app.

So someone could be saving their dodgy pics to Files, then deleting them.

But they’re not really gone: they’re just in the Files app’s Recently Deleted folder.

And like Photos, they’ll stay there for 30 days before vanishing completely.

So a traitorous lover could very easily restore and delete them to skirt that deadline, keeping pics saved indefinitely.

TACTIC #5 – SECRET SOCIALS

Then there are secret social media accounts.

Yes, one easy way that a cheat might be concealing pics is by storing them on a social media account that their partner doesn’t know about.

There are some signs that this is the case.

Usually if a social media app has multiple accounts logged in, the option to switch between them will be on the profile picture or in the settings for that app.

Additionally, Instagram has a clever feature that lets you not only block a person’s account but any secondary accounts created by that individual.

So that might expose whether a person is in control of a second account.

On top of that, some apps let you lock chats inside the service.

For instance, WhatsApp lets you lock and hide chats.

Normally these would be hidden in a folder that is only revealed if you drag down on the main chat feed.

But the person could actually lock this chat with a ‘secret code’ that totally hides the conversation unless they type it into WhatsApp’s search bar.

So there could be dodgy pics in there, too.

The only way to expose that might be if a person had media set to auto-save, which would feed pics straight through to their Photos app.

TACTIC #6 – SECRET PHOTOS APP

Another tactic is when adulterers use secret apps for storing their photos.

There are two ways that this might work.

One is using a concealment app designed to look like something else – but that is actually a photo locker.

There are specific apps designed to do this. They might look like a calculator, or a PDF scanner, or an image editor, or something else that you’d probably never click on.

SCREEN TIME CAN BE LOCKED!

It’s possible for an iPhone owner to put a lock on their Screen Time settings so they can’t be spied on without a passcode…

First, you’ll need to go into Settings > Screen Time.

Then scroll down and tap on Lock Screen Time Settings.

This will let you set up a passcode for Screen Time.

You can take this off at any time if you change your mind.

Picture Credit: The Sun

But then you tap on it and you’re presented with a passcode lock that won’t let you through to the pics concealed inside.

Sadly there’s no definitive list of these apps, because there are so many and they come and go.

But there are some telltale signs that a phone has one.

The main one would be in either Screen Time or Battery Usage By App, both of which are settings that show how much a specific app is being used.

If a calculator app has 45 minutes used and that person isn’t an accountant or mathematician, there might be something lurking inside that download that isn’t legit.

Another way someone might be doing this is using Apple’s Shortcuts feature on iPhone.

This lets you create fake icons for apps, with whatever icon or branding you like.

It’s almost like a fake front that reroutes you to the legit app.

So a person could disguise a photo locker app as something else, like a book app.

Again, the truth of app activity would be inside Screen Time or Battery Usage.

TACTIC #7 – CLOUD STORAGE

Cloud storage is another option for cheaters.

These apps are meant to be places for you to back up files. Think Google Drive or Amazon Photos.

But someone could use that to store their dodgy pics too, keeping them far away from their phone’s proper Photos app.

And often, cloud storage will also feature a recycling bin that stores deleted content temporarily before scrubbing it forever.

So someone could be combining the cloud storage trick with the file deletion trick too. Sneaky.

TACTIC #8 – APP HIDING

No matter which app the person is using to store their photos, that app itself might also be hidden.

You can hide specific apps in a Hidden folder in the App Library, which won’t reveal what’s inside without performing an unlock.

In fact, you can’t even tell if any apps are inside the Hidden folder at all.

However, apps that have been hidden still appear in a few places.

One is in your phone’s Screen Time settings, which is where general phone usage is logged.

HIDING APPS ON IPHONE – THE RULES

Here’s what you can and can’t do when it comes to hiding iPhone apps…

Hiding an app makes it invisible and prevents it from being opened without Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode.

But its name will still appear in three places:

• Screen Time
• Battery Usage By App
• App Store Purchase History

An app that comes installed with iOS 18 can’t be hidden.

It’s only apps that you’ve downloaded separately from the App Store that can be hidden.

If you set an app as your default web browser, that can’t be hidden either.

You can unhide an app at any time.

But locking and hiding apps works on a per-device basis.

So if you hide an app on your iPhone, it won’t automatically be hidden on your iPad. You’d have to hide it there too.

Once an app is hidden, info inside that app won’t appear elsewhere.

That means it won’t show up in CarPlay, appear with notification previews, pop up on iPhone Search or Siri Suggestions, or appear in your call history (if there’s a calling feature, like on WhatsApp).

Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun

Just note that Screen Time has to be turned on first – and only tracks activity after being switched on.

And the second is in your phone’s Battery Usage settings, which will also display how much power a hidden app has drained.

Of course, neither of these methods will show you what’s inside a hidden app – they’ll just reveal that a hidden app is being used.

TACTIC #9 – APP DELETION

And lastly, a move that can be paired with most of the tricks above: app deletion.

When you delete an app, it doesn’t necessarily delete your data with it.

Think about it: deleting the Google Drive app on your phone doesn’t scrub your files away. They’re still stored by Google because they’re tied to your account.

It’s a similar story for Facebook Messenger or Tinder. Just removing the app won’t delete a person’s account.

So dodgy pics might still be tied to accounts, and the cheater is simply deleting their adulterous app and then reinstalling it when they need it.

After all, installing an app takes a matter of seconds.

There are a couple of giveaways for this.

Again, one would be in Screen Time and Battery Usage, both of which will still show the usage of apps that have been deleted.

And the other is in a person’s App Store Download History.

BEAT THE CHEATS!

There are loads of ways that cheaters might be working against you – and plenty of signs to help you spot infidelity…

Here are some of the best tech tips for Sun Club readers to spot a cheater:

I busted my ex cheating on an app you’d NEVER expect

Five sneaky Instagram hacks to spot cheating partner

Sneaky ways cheats hide spicy apps on their gadgets

Sinister truth behind ‘calculator’ app trick loved by cheats

How cheats conceal their DMs on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and text

The nefarious WhatsApp tricks cheating partners love to use

The Instagram and Google Maps settings that expose cheats

Top-secret iPhone features that cheats never want you to see

Telltale phone clues that cheaters ALWAYS forget to delete

The red flags that CHEATERS look for to expose their partner’s spying

This lists all the apps that have been claimed by a person – free or paid – even if those apps have been deleted.

And they’ll be ordered by most recently installed.

So this would show if someone had installed an app recently, and it would be very clear that that app wasn’t currently downloaded. You can just toggle by “Not On This iPhone”.

The caveat to this is that the App Store Purchase History is locked behind a person’s iPhone lock (like a Face ID face scan).

So there’s no way to view this without the phone owner’s involvement.