Unwanted photos continue to appear on my iPhone. What gives?

I definitely opened my iPhone just to be struck in the face with photos of people or moments that I prefer to forget.

Apple wants to remind you of the good moments you have had with photos and memories featured, but this trip in the path of nostalgia can turn against him. These two iPhone features work together to create “star content” to highlight the moments you want to remember. Unfortunately, as well as your favorite vacation with friends, you could also end up looking at photos of your ex.

The worst is that the star content is not exclusive to the Photos Application. The star content appears on your device, as in the search page and on the widgets of your home screen.

Does not miss: How to download iOS 26 now

Having these unexpected photos that appear at random on your iPhone, especially if you show something on your phone, or someone else uses your phone, can become a headache … that you can happily avoid.

If you want to stop unwanted photos by appearing at random on your iPhone, here is how to stop it.

While you are here, see all the new features to come on iOS 26 and how to deactivate the most boring Apple Intelligence feature.

You can show a person less frequently or not at all

If someone is presented in a fairly large way in your photo library, iOS will consider them an important person in your life. This person will certainly appear in your memories and features photos on your device. For the most part, it is a joyful experience, reviving precious memories with your favorite people.

If things are no longer so precious and you no longer talk to this person, you probably don’t want to see their faces appear random on your phone. Of course, you can go through your camera and rub each photo and video with this person, but it’s a lot of work. Fortunately, there is an easy way to hide photos with a specific person.

To present a person less frequently or not at all in memories, offers photos and widgets, open the photo application, Find a photo or video with the person You want to show less often, press the Three -point menu button At the top right then strikes Put this person less.

You can now choose from two options:

• Stretch this person less: You will not see any individual photo or videos of this person in memories or featured photos, but if this person is in a group photo, they can always appear.
• Never include this person: You will not see any photo or videos with this person, including group photos.

You can also completely deactivate memories and features

Now, the unexpected photo of everyone will not be a former spouse or a former friend. An embarrassing photo of yourself or something inappropriate can appear on your phone somewhere, and if you worry about this, you may want to get rid of memories and completely include photos.

In the parameters application, go to Applications > Photos and switch Star content show. This will stop all the featured content on your device, including the albums of the Photos application, the widgets on your home screen and the photos of the search.

Other tips that you can follow to prevent unexpected photos from displaying

What I detailed above is an excellent start to prevent certain photos from appearing on your device, but you can do more, especially if the two tips do not really do it for you.

• Remove the photo widgets from your lock and your home screen. There is a photo widget that only shows star photos, and which can end up being embarrassing or unwanted photos. Simply remove them from your phone or choose a photo widget that is not a “featured”.
• Hide the collections in the photo application. Starting with iOS 18, you can now mask certain collections that can prevail the photos you don’t necessarily want to see. In Photosgo to Personalize and reorganize And check the collections you want to hide. These collections include Recent days,, People and animals,, Trips And more. If you have presented disabled content, you will notice that some collections are grayed out.
• Turn off vacation memories. If you don’t want to see memories of recent holiday events, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, you can go there Parameters > Applications > Photos and switch Show off.
• Stop photos to appear in search. If you type something in search, you can see photos appear. You can prevent this from happening by going Parameters > Applications > Photos and switch Show the application in search And View content in search.
• Do not choose a star wallpaper on your locking screen. On iOS 18, you can have featured photos appearing as your locking screen, changing the day. Choose any other wallpaper than the featured photo wallpaper to prevent unwanted photos from appearing on your locking screen.

Look at this: I am impressed by iOS 26. Apple has just improved iPhones

05:40

If you want to know more about iOS, see how to get more iPhone storage with these two tips and why the iPhone 16 camera control button is also a secret action button.