Limited Photo Library Access
Also known as: limited photo access ios, select photos ios
Limited Photo Library Access is an iOS and iPadOS privacy option that lets you grant an app access to only a hand-picked selection of photos instead of your whole library. The app can see and act on the chosen images only, so anything you did not select stays hidden from it.
- Introduced in iOS 14 (2020); still present in iOS and iPadOS in 2026.
- Apps see only the photos you hand-pick, never the rest of the library.
- Change the grant anytime via Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos.
How limited access works
When an app first requests photos, iOS shows three choices: Limited Access, Full Access, and Don't Allow. Choosing Limited Access opens a picker where you select specific photos and videos. The app receives only those items through the PHPhotoLibrary API and is blind to the rest of your library.
Apple added this option in iOS 14 (2020) and it remains the default-friendly privacy model in 2026. You can change or expand the selection anytime in Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos, where each app shows whether it has Full, Limited, or no access.
Why some photos stay hidden from cleanup
A storage cleaner can only analyze the media it can read. If you granted Limited Access, the app cannot scan, deduplicate, or report on photos you did not include in the selection, so its space estimates will be smaller than your real library.
To let a cleanup tool review everything, grant Full Access in Settings, or tap Select More Photos when the in-app prompt appears. Limited Access never deletes or moves the photos it cannot see, so excluded items are safe but also unaddressed.