If you have ever deleted something from your camera roll and still felt uneasy about it, the problem is not the deletion, it is that there was no secure place to begin with. This is how to build one, step by step.
Test the vault with a throwaway file first
Before you move anything that matters, put one unimportant file in, close the app, reopen it, and confirm the experience is what you expect. Two minutes of testing now prevents the much worse feeling of discovering a misunderstanding after you have already committed your important documents.
Set a password that is not your phone passcode
The entire value of a separate space is that it has a separate lock. If your vault password is the same four or six digits you use to unlock the phone, you have added a door without adding a wall. Use something longer that you can still recall, and think about how you will recover access if you forget it.
Use the vault for the things you will be asked about
The files most worth protecting are the ones that would be awkward or dangerous to have on screen in front of someone else. Keep that framing in mind when you decide what goes in: not 'is this technically secret' but 'would I be comfortable if this appeared right now'.
Import through the share sheet, not in-app
The friction you will actually fight is the friction of adding a file. If you have to open the vault, tap through menus, and then find the file again, you will stop doing it. Pick a vault that accepts files straight from the normal share sheet, so saving a PDF from Mail or Safari is one step.
You will judge a vault mostly on how little friction it adds. If adding a file takes more than a few seconds, you will drift back to the camera roll.
The goal is not to turn your phone into a fortress. It is to have one place for the handful of files that would cause real problems, and a routine that keeps them there. If you set that up with Private Vault today, you will stop thinking about it by next week.
If you want the workflow above without the usual iOS friction, Private Vault is where to start.
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