Frequently asked questions

No. PicWay browses, analyzes, compresses, organizes, and deletes your photos and videos on your iPhone. Your photos, videos, and what’s in them aren’t uploaded.

The one exception is the Private Vault: while the vault’s iCloud sync is on (it’s on by default), what you put in the vault leaves your iPhone. It’s encrypted on your iPhone first, then stored in your own iCloud, and only you can open it. See Will my Private Vault survive a new iPhone or a reinstall?

In these cases:

• When the original is only in iCloud and not on your iPhone, viewing it, compressing it, or moving it to the Private Vault may need to download it first.
• When Precise Places is on, to turn a photo’s coordinates into a place name (how that works). The small map in a photo’s details also comes from Apple Maps.
• To sync your stats and Moments (what syncs), and for the Private Vault’s iCloud sync.
• When you tap Send feedback in PicWay’s settings to send an email.

With Precise Places on, the coordinates saved with your photos go to Apple’s geocoding service to get place names: down to a street or nearby place in mainland China, and to the city elsewhere. Apple’s map partners may provide this service, and PicWay has no server of its own that receives coordinates. Place names stay on your iPhone.

PicWay doesn’t use your phone’s location. It only reads the coordinates saved with your photos, to group them by place.

To turn it off, tap the gear at the top right of the Memories tab, tap Photos & iCloud, and turn off Precise Places. This clears every place name found so far and keeps only the built-in offline list. Turning it back on doesn’t restore them: they rebuild slowly as you browse your photos. It’s on by default.

No account needed. Just open it and start. PicWay has no accounts, no ads, no behavior tracking, and no third-party SDKs.

Crash and hang diagnostics from iOS stay on your iPhone and aren’t sent to the developer automatically. If you tap Send feedback, the email includes the app version, iOS version, and an anonymous ID to help us find the problem. It doesn’t include photos, file names, or locations.

PicWay can only see and review the photos you selected. You’ll see this line: “Only some photos are available. Tap to choose more.”

• To add a few more, tap that line and pick photos.
• To allow everything, tap Allow all photos in Settings under it, then choose Full Access in iOS Settings.
• You can also open Settings (the gear icon), then tap Photos & iCloud and Adjust photo access.

If you narrow access, PicWay immediately clears the place names it has found.

Yes. Your days with PicWay, photos revisited, space freed, and review activity sync automatically between devices signed in to the same Apple Account, along with the dates, names, and status in Moments. Only these numbers and records sync, not your photos, videos, or thumbnails.

Yes. Turn on App lock in PicWay’s settings. PicWay locks when you leave it, and you open it again with Face ID. If Face ID isn’t available, you can use your device passcode.

No. Set aside is a holding area in PicWay. Photos you don’t want go there, but they stay in your photo library, and none are deleted. Actual deleting is only confirmed on the Set aside page, when you’re ready.

To set a photo aside, swipe left during a review (you can change the direction in Settings), tap Set aside at the bottom, or tap the X at the top right of a thumbnail in your library.

• If you just swiped, tap Undo, which appears right below the photo.
• If it’s already set aside, open Set aside, then tap Put back on the photo. To bring back several at once, select them and tap Put back on the bottom bar.

Deleting one photo takes two steps: you review on the Set aside page, then iOS asks you to confirm. Deleting two or more at once adds a third, because PicWay first asks “Delete N?” Tap Continue deleting and iOS shows its own prompt. Nothing is deleted until you allow it there.

Yes. Deleted photos and videos go to Recently Deleted in the Photos app, and you can recover them for 30 days. Open Photos, tap Collections (Albums on iOS 17), tap Recently Deleted under Utilities, unlock it, select what you want back, then tap Recover (Apple’s guide). PicWay can’t empty Recently Deleted for you, because iOS doesn’t let apps do that, so you do it in the Photos app.

• Duplicate items (exact copies of a photo or video): each group keeps the one you favorited. If none are favorited, it keeps the earliest. With Keep one per group, each group keeps one and the rest are set aside.
• Similar photos: PicWay puts what it thinks is the best shot first. You choose which to keep.

With duplicates, extras are only set aside: they stay in your library until you review them and confirm deleting.

• Similar photos: shots taken one after another, each within 60 seconds of the last and within 30 minutes overall, are compared by how they look. The ones that look alike become a group. Two photos of the same place on different days won’t be grouped.
• Duplicate items: only photos of the same size whose image details match, or videos with exactly the same length and file size. Bursts of the same scene go to Similar photos instead.
• Bursts: the bursts your iPhone took. Open one and choose the frames to keep.

The Duplicates album in the Photos app finds duplicates and can merge them (Apple’s guide). Shots of the same moment from a slightly different angle are what Similar photos is for.

Yes. In a group of similar photos, tap Keep on each photo you want, then tap the button below that shows the count, like Keep 2. To keep the whole group, tap Keep all. In a burst, select the frames you want to keep.

The rest are set aside, not deleted, and stay in your library until you review them.

No. Life only hides them from the grid in PicWay’s Photos tab. They stay in your library. A note at the top of the grid says how many screenshots and documents are hidden. Tap Show in it, or switch back to All, to see everything again.

Nothing is deleted, and your photos aren’t uploaded.

In the All grid of the Photos tab, touch and hold the photo, then tap Remove from Life or Add to Life. It moves right away, and what you choose beats PicWay’s own guess.

To see why a photo is hidden, open it and swipe up for info. It says why, such as “Screenshot · hidden in Life.”

Yes, in the Other view. Touch and hold All at the bottom of the Photos tab, then pick Other. It shows the photos Life hides: screenshots, screen recordings, animated images, and documents.

Want to clear them out instead? Use Screen captures in Tidy, where you swipe through them one at a time (how to clean up screenshots).

Because you took it with the camera. Life only hides receipts, IDs and documents in images that weren’t taken with a camera. A photo you took stays in Life however much text is in it, and when PicWay isn’t sure, the photo stays in Life too.

PicWay goes by text it has already read in your photos, so a newly saved receipt can stay in Life for a while. Tickets, boarding passes, handwritten cards and QR codes don’t count as documents. To hide any photo yourself, touch and hold it and tap Remove from Life.

PicWay brings your past photos back a set at a time: On This Day, journeys, a week from the past, your favorites, plus Memories by month, album, or place.

Before picking, it leaves out anything you chose to skip, anything set aside, and by default screenshots, screen recordings, animated images, and document photos. That leaves your life, not your clutter.

On This Day shows photos taken on this date in past years. To get a reminder, on the Memories tab, open Settings, tap On This Day reminder, turn on Remind me about On This Day, tap Allow notifications, and allow them when iOS asks. It reminds you at 9:30 AM by default, and you can change the time.

You only get a reminder when that date really has photos from past years. Memories you chose to skip won’t appear in it.

Not by default. No screenshots or documents in memories is on by default, so reviews, On This Day, memories, and widgets leave out screenshots, screen recordings, and animated images. They’re all still in your library.

The cleanup tools (Screen captures, Similar, Duplicates, Bursts) ignore this setting and can still find them.

Use Memories to skip: tap the gear at the top right of the Memories tab, tap Memories to skip, then Add date range or Add album. For one photo, touch and hold it in your library and choose Skip in reviews.

Skipping only affects what PicWay suggests to you: On This Day, journeys, Moments, Tidy, reminders, and widgets. You can still see those photos when you open your library or an album. To undo it, remove the rule on the same page, or touch and hold the photo and choose Resume reviews.

By default, swipe right to Keep, left to Set aside, and up to Favorite. If you prefer it the other way, open Settings (the gear icon), tap Review settings, and change Set Aside direction to the right (right swipe sets aside, left keeps).

Photos you set aside stay in your photo library, and you can bring them back anytime. See What is Set aside? and how to get a photo back.

If you take photos away from where you usually live over several days in a row, those days automatically become a journey. You don’t need to make an album. Changing cities along the way still counts as one journey. Photos without a location don’t count, so a few casual shots may not form one.

Pinch with two fingers to expand that day. That’s That day. If you like the day, tap Favorite at the top right. Later, tap the heart at the top left of PicWay’s home page to find it in Moments.

It’s your review streak. Each day you review photos adds a day to the streak. Tap the flame on the Memories tab to see your daily record and longest streak. Devices signed in to the same Apple Account share one streak, and the longer count wins.

It plays the videos you’ve shot one after another, so you don’t have to tap through each one. Swipe up or down to change videos, double-tap to favorite, and touch and hold to speed up. Keep holding and drag up to lock the speed. Swipe right to exit. Tap the screen to show or hide the controls, and use the play button to pause.

Screen recordings and clips under 5 seconds are left out, since they’re usually accidental, and so is anything you chose to skip.

It depends on where you’re reviewing. Photos you set aside never come back on their own.

• On This Day and the other picks PicWay chooses for you: a photo you keep rests for 7 days, then it can come back.
• A review of an album, a place, or a year or month you picked: kept photos don’t come back in the first pass. They return only after you finish and confirm you want to look again.
• The categories under More ways to tidy: once you’ve decided on a photo, kept or set aside, it leaves the list. The reset on the summary page puts the kept ones back.

Yes. Open Settings, tap Review settings, and you can change both.

• Swipe distance: choose Light (a light swipe, easy tidying), Standard (swipe further, fewer mistakes), or Firm (a steady swipe, fewer mistakes).
• Photos per round: 10, 25, 50, 100, 150, or 200. The default is 50.
• Videos per round: 20, 30, 50, 80, or 120.

Every round ends with a summary. The number only sets how long a round is, and it doesn’t change your photos.

Yes. In Moments, open the menu at the top right of a saved moment and choose to name it, for example “Summer by the sea.” The name can be up to 24 characters and appears on the cover. The date is still kept, and if you leave the name empty, the cover goes back to showing the date.

No. PicWay shows you the swipes first, then lets you try them, and the practice leaves your photos unchanged. You can watch the practice again whenever you like.

Scroll down the Memories tab to More ways to tidy, tap View all, and open Tall photos. You can also tap the Filter button in your library and choose Tall photos under Photo types.

A photo counts as tall when it’s at least 2.5 times as tall as it is wide.

Up to 20 photos in standard ratios (3:4, 1:1, 4:5, 9:16), and up to 30 in Long strip. Once it’s made, you can still change the ratio, layout, and background: tap the ratio button to switch, tap Shuffle layouts for new arrangements, and choose an automatic color from your photos, a solid color, or a gradient.

Yes. If a collage has a Live Photo in it, the collage moves. There are three ways:

• All at once: every Live Photo plays together.
• One by one: they play in the order you took them, and the exported collage keeps each clip’s original sound.
• Spotlight: one fills the whole collage, plays, then returns to the collage.

With only still photos, it exports as a still image.

Before you save or share, choose a format: Live Photo (touch and hold to play), Video (shared as a moving video), or Still image. Without any Live Photos in it, only Still image is available.

Pick a photo, add a title and a short line, and you have a card. You can change the design, ratio, and text, and add filters or adjustments to the photo.

Touch and hold a video in your library and choose Make Live Photo. Adjust the selection to pick the seconds you want (3.9 seconds by default), or tap No Time Limit to use the whole video. You can also change the speed and choose a cover. The Live Photo saves to the PicWay Conversions album in Photos.

Collages and cards you save go in the PicWay Creations album in the Photos app, and converted Live Photos go in PicWay Conversions. They’re saved once, there, and PicWay doesn’t keep a separate copy of those. Anything you haven’t saved to Photos is lost for good if you remove it from Creations.

You’ll also find your collages and cards in PicWay’s Creations, along with Live Photos you make from Live Photo on the home screen. Creations remembers which photo in your library each one is, and opens or shares it from there. So:

• If you delete one in Photos, it shows Deleted in Photos in Creations, and you can remove it from Creations. Recover it from Recently Deleted and it comes back on its own.
• If you delete one from Creations, the photo you saved to your library stays put. One you never saved to Photos can’t be recovered.

You don’t have to open PicWay and look for the feature. These start it directly, and PicWay opens on that screen with your choice ready:

• From the Share menu: select photos or a video in the Photos app, tap Share, and scroll to Collage (2 to 30 photos), Live Photo (one video), or Compress.
• From Home Screen widgets: Collage, Make a card, Creations, and Edit photo take you straight in when you tap.
• From Shortcuts: pick “Collage,” “Make a card,” “Creations,” or “Edit photo” in the Shortcuts app.

No. You can adjust, add filters, mark up, and crop photos, and trim or change the speed of videos. When you save, you can replace the original (and revert to it anytime) or save a new copy and leave the original alone.

Yes. In PicWay, open the video, tap Edit, then Trim. Tap Split where the part you don’t want starts and again where it ends, select that section, and tap Delete. Apple’s guide for the Photos app covers trimming only the start and end (iPhone User Guide, iOS 27). To keep just one section, select it and tap Keep Only.

Yes. After you split a video in PicWay’s Trim editor, each section has its own Speed (0.5× to 3×) and Volume (0 to 200%). Select a section, tap Speed or Volume, and drag the slider. Voices keep their pitch when you change speed. Tap Apply to All to use the same setting on every section.

Only if you choose to. When you save, pick Save as new video to keep the original untouched, or Replace original to keep one video. A replaced video can still be reverted to the original later.

Your color settings: light and color adjustments, the built-in filter you chose and its strength, and grain. Crop, rotation, markup, and frames aren’t saved in a filter. Edit a photo, tap Save filter, and give it a name.

Up to 60, each with its own name of up to 40 characters. Touch and hold a filter to Rename or Delete filter. Deleting a filter doesn’t change photos you already saved with it.

Yes. Photos, Live Photos, and videos all have Filters in PicWay’s editor, and your filters are under Custom filters in each of them. Tap one to apply it.

No. PicWay saves a new copy in the format you pick, and the original isn’t replaced or deleted. Copies go to the PicWay Conversions album, with capture date, location, favorite, albums, and PicWay tags kept where possible.

JPG, HEIC, and PNG. Touch and hold a photo in PicWay and tap Convert format. It works on regular still photos; Live Photos and animated images aren’t supported for now.

Yes. Open the video in PicWay, tap Edit, then Convert, and pick MP4 · H.264 or MP4 · HEVC. MP4 saves a new video and keeps the original unchanged. MOV · H.264 and MOV · HEVC are there too.

Cutout is only for still photos. PicWay finds the subject in one image, and a Live Photo or video would need that on every frame, so the tool isn’t offered there. Very large photos, over 24 megapixels, also can’t use the background options.

Yes. Edit the video in PicWay, open Markup, and tap Blur out. Place the box over the face and choose Blur or Pixelate. The box covers the same spot for the whole video. It doesn’t follow someone who moves, so it works best when the face stays put. Save as new video keeps the original.

Up to three lines, filled in from the photo: the camera, the settings (for example 24mm · f/1.8 · 1/120s · ISO 64), and the date and place. If the photo doesn’t have a detail, that line isn’t shown. Tap a line to turn it off, or write your own line in place of the camera.

Between 0.5 and 3.9 seconds. PicWay keeps GIFs short and small: 12 frames per second, up to 480 pixels on the long side. The GIF is saved as a new item in the PicWay Conversions album. For something longer, make a Live Photo instead and turn on No Time Limit.

Yes. While you’re looking at a photo in PicWay, for example during a review or in full screen, take a screenshot with your iPhone’s buttons. The card editor opens with that photo. Pick a card design, such as Paper, Instant, Ink Wash, or Film, then add a title and a short line.

Edit the Live Photo in PicWay and open Live. Drag along the strip to the frame you want; an outline marks the original key photo. Not sure which one? Tap Suggest a frame. Then tap Save as photo, and that frame is added to your library as a new still photo.

There are two, so choose by what the video is for:

• Standard compression (the default the first time you compress): the change in quality is hard to see. Good for videos you’ll want to look at closely.
• Strong compression: shrinks them further. Good for everyday clips.

Capture time and location are kept. Spatial and Cinematic videos are skipped automatically, so they keep their depth.

Yes.

• Compress Live Photo: it’s still a Live Photo, with both the photo and the motion smaller.
• Convert to still photo: removes the motion when you only want the still.
• Compress photo: makes it smaller and may lose some detail. Photo info stays as it was.

You can compare before and after side by side.

Yes. Compressing makes a new photo or video and leaves the original untouched. Both appear on the Set aside page first. Check that the new version looks right, then delete the original. Space is freed only once the original is deleted.

Changed your mind? Tap Put back in Set aside. The original is kept, and the compressed copy goes into Set aside.

If it saves too little (for example, a video shrinks by less than 10%), it isn’t worth keeping. PicWay discards the compressed copy, leaves the original alone, and tells you why.

Yes, for photos and videos. Compression needs a connection: PicWay downloads the original from iCloud first, then compresses it. By default, videos of 500 MB or more that are still in iCloud download only over Wi-Fi, not cellular. You can change this in PicWay’s settings under Large videos: Wi-Fi only. Videos already on your iPhone can be compressed anytime.

No. Queued compressions can continue in the background, and turning on Background App Refresh for PicWay in iPhone Settings helps them keep going. They pause in Low Power Mode and continue when it’s off. They also pause if your iPhone gets hot and continue when it cools down, and your queue stays in place.

Note that background compression needs an internet connection and may use cellular data to download originals from iCloud (by default, videos of 500 MB or more use Wi-Fi only).

The Private Vault holds photos and videos just for you. Content is encrypted on your iPhone before it’s saved. Photos you hide there no longer appear in PicWay’s reviews, memories, widgets, or search.

To get in, touch and hold Search in the bottom bar. The first time, it walks you through setup: draw a pattern, set three questions, and write down 12 words.

You open it with a pattern: connect at least 6 dots on the 5×5 grid. The Private Vault can’t be opened with Face ID.

Separately, you can turn on App lock for all of PicWay in its settings. PicWay then locks when you leave and unlocks with Face ID when you return. If Face ID isn’t available for the moment, you can use your device passcode.

Tap Forgot your pattern? on the unlock screen, then do one of these:

• Answer all three questions from setup correctly to draw a new pattern. Capitalization and spaces don’t matter.
• Enter your 12 words. The first 4 letters of each word are enough.

PicWay doesn’t store those 12 words and can’t recover them. Write them on paper, and don’t take a screenshot.

Yes, as long as you use one of these two ways:

• iCloud sync (on by default): photos, videos, files, and albums are encrypted, then stored in your own iCloud, and only you can open them. You get them back on a new iPhone or after reinstalling. You can turn this off in the vault’s settings. New changes then stay on this iPhone, and what’s already in iCloud isn’t deleted.
• Offline backup: in the vault’s settings, tap Advanced, then Export Encrypted Backup. You get a backup that doesn’t depend on iCloud or your Apple Account. Keep it on a Mac or an external drive. On a new iPhone, use Restore from Backup and enter your 12 words. Keep the backup and the words apart.

While screen recording is on, the vault won’t open. It asks you to stop recording first, then draw your pattern.

It also locks on its own: after 2 minutes without a touch by default (you can choose 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or Never). Time spent playing a video doesn’t count. If you leave the app and come back, you draw your pattern again.

No. Photos are encrypted and saved first, then iOS asks you to confirm deleting the originals from your library. It always happens in that order: the originals are only removed once the encrypted copy is safely saved. Deleted originals stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and PicWay reminds you to clear them there. To take a photo back out, choose Put Back in Photos in the vault.

Choosing Hide on a photo in your library takes the same path: the photo goes to the Private Vault.

Photos, videos, files, and notes. You can also scan documents into PDFs.

• Private camera: tap Take Photo or Video in the vault. What you shoot goes straight in, encrypted, without passing through your library.
• From the Share menu: tap Share in another app and choose PicWay Vault. You can save it there without drawing your pattern, and it’s put away the next time you open the vault.
• Photos and videos you put in can be viewed and exported.

With Background App Refresh on, PicWay keeps organizing while you’re not using your iPhone. It looks for similar and duplicate photos and, when plugged in, recognizes text and objects in photos, so the results are ready next time.

It holds back. It works only when your iPhone is idle and steps aside as soon as you open the app. On battery, it does only light searching, and stops below half charge or in Low Power Mode. It stops on its own if your iPhone gets hot. iOS decides when it runs.

All analysis happens on your iPhone, and photos aren’t uploaded. Background searching doesn’t use cellular data. Only when plugged in and on Wi-Fi does it fetch a small number of originals from iCloud to check results.

We recommend it. PicWay still opens and works with it off, but automatic tidying while you’re not using your phone needs Background App Refresh. Once it’s on, similar photos, duplicates, and compression keep finishing while you’re not using your phone.

To check, open Settings (the gear icon), then tap Photos & iCloud and Background processing. If it’s off, tap Turn on in Settings.

On first launch, PicWay sorts through your library, putting photos in order, mapping your travels, preparing search, and choosing memories, and it shows what it’s doing as it goes.

After that, PicWay keeps small previews in a cache on your iPhone so scrolling is faster. The cache has a size limit, and iOS can clear an app’s cache when storage runs very low.

You need iOS 17.0 or later. PicWay works on both iPhone and iPad. On iPad, it works in every orientation. On iPhone, screens stay in portrait, and immersive video temporarily opens in landscape.

Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, and French. PicWay follows your iPhone’s system language.

Yes. Home Screen widgets include Random, Videos, Streak, and your stats with PicWay, plus one-tap Collage, Make a card, Creations, and Edit photo. On the Lock Screen, you can add your streak and stats. PicWay’s settings have the steps under Widgets.

For the look, choose System, Light, or Dark. There are also several accent themes, which change both the accent color and the app icon.

Yes. Touch and hold an album and tap Pin album. You can pin up to 3 albums. To pin a fourth, unpin one first with Unpin. Favorites is already the first album, so it doesn’t get a Pin button.

• Dates: an exact day like May 1, 2025, two dates joined by a hyphen like 20240801-20240921, or May 1 with no year to see that day in every year.
• Places and journeys: search a place, and your journeys there show up first.
• Album names and tags you added to photos yourself.
• Words in a photo and everyday things like a dog, a cat, or flowers. PicWay looks for these in the background, only while your iPhone is charging.
• Types: add video, Live, screenshot, or favorite to narrow the results.

Every search runs on your iPhone.

In PicWay, tap Search and type the two dates joined by a hyphen, like 20240801-20240921. You get every photo from the first day through the last. Two years work the same way: 2019-2021 covers all three years.

The Photos app on iPhone searches by month or year (Apple’s guide). For a range of days, use PicWay. Step by step: search iPhone photos by date range.

PicWay recognizes words and everyday things in your photos only while your iPhone is idle and charging, and stops if it gets hot or the battery runs low.

• Charge your iPhone and leave it idle for a while.
• Turn on Background App Refresh in the iPhone Settings app. Without it, the search pauses while your iPhone is locked and may miss some.
• To search by place, keep Precise Places on in PicWay’s settings. Place names come from it, and turning it off clears them.

If a search with several conditions finds nothing, try fewer conditions or another format.