The Files app or a vault for your documents?

Where a document sits in Files

Files shows two places of its own. Apple’s page says On My iPhone holds files saved on the device, and iCloud Drive holds files and folders that sync across your devices (Apple, article 102570). The same page says nothing about a passcode on a folder. Folders, tags and Recents help you find a file. None of them asks who is looking.

That is the right home for most paperwork: a manual, a receipt, a boarding pass. The question is the handful of files that would hurt if someone read them.

Files, then Sealed, row by row

What Files can’t do for a private document

It has no passcode of its own. You can lock the app, but that check is your iPhone’s Face ID or passcode, and it covers every file at once (iPhone User Guide, locking an app). The guide also says the lock stays on that one iPhone.

A PDF password is per file and per copy. In Preview, open the PDF, tap the arrow next to its name, tap Lock and type a password twice; Require Password turns on by itself (iPhone User Guide, Lock PDFs in Preview). That protects that one copy. A copy you shared earlier, or the scan’s first version, has no password. Our guide to password-protecting a PDF has the details.

Names stay readable. Apple’s overview says that even with Advanced Data Protection on, the name of each iCloud Drive file and a checksum of its content stay under keys Apple holds (Apple, article 102651). A file called “tax return 2025” says what it is, even when nobody can read its pages.

Copies multiply. Each time a file is shared, or opened in another app, that app can keep a copy of its own. That is what makes Files handy, and it is also why one signed contract ends up in Mail, Messages, Downloads and a shared folder.

What changes in Sealed

1. Move the file in from Files. You can add photos from Photos, files from Files, and items from the share sheet of other apps. A PDF or other file that is not a photo, video or audio file becomes a document in the vault, with a thumbnail that is sealed too, and you find it under Documents.
2. Delete the copy left in Files. Then check Recently Deleted in Files, so the old copy is gone too.
3. Turn on backup and save your recovery key. Sealed asks you to save your recovery key before it turns backup on. Encrypted iCloud backup is free.
4. Choose how Sealed opens. With Face ID unlock on, and Dual Lock and Maximum Security off, Sealed asks iOS for owner authentication and not for a face match alone. In iOS, an app that asks for owner authentication gets Face ID or Touch ID first, and the device passcode when biometry isn’t available or the person taps the fallback button. With plain Face ID unlock on, someone who knows your iPhone passcode can open Sealed through the Face ID prompt. To keep out someone who knows that code, leave Face ID unlock off or turn on Dual Lock. Dual Lock asks for your passcode and a Face ID match together, and it is part of Sealed Pro.

Once a document is in the vault, its name is sealed too. Names, notes and the fields of a record are sealed with your vault key too, not just the photos. Our guide to storing documents securely on iPhone covers scanning paper and keeping numbers as records.

Files still has a place

Sealed can put a copy of your vault in Files, in a form that opens without the app. The open copy keeps a copy of your vault in your iCloud Drive, in a folder named Sealed, that opens without the app on any computer, with your recovery key and the Sealed reader. The open copy is off until you turn it on, and the automatic copy starts only once your recovery key is saved. The copy stays encrypted, so it is a way out if you ever stop using Sealed, not a way to browse your documents in Files.

If you’d rather add no app, read the ways to lock files in Files, and compare a locked note, which can’t hold a PDF, with a PDF password, which can.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps when a few files need their own passcode, sealed names and a backup that only your key opens. Sealed has a passcode of its own, a gate inside the app that is separate from your iPhone passcode. Files, names, notes and record fields are encrypted on your iPhone before they are uploaded, so iCloud receives only ciphertext.

It doesn’t hold documents on the free plan. On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.

It doesn’t let other apps open your files in place. To work on a document in another app, you export a copy, and that copy is no longer sealed. Your files never leave your iPhone unless you turn on iCloud backup or export them yourself.

It doesn’t sync documents to your other devices to work on. Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.

It can’t open without your passcode or your recovery key. Because your key never reaches us, we cannot recover your vault or reset your passcode for you. Read how Sealed protects your files for what is sealed and what isn’t.