Both work; they scale differently
A locked note is genuinely practical for a handful of documents or images — a few scans, an insurance record, some reference photos. Notes are encrypted, familiar, and already installed.
A vault is built for volume: original-quality media, previews, albums, search, export controls, and a backup format designed for bulk restore. Choosing between them is mostly a question of how many items and what lifecycle.
Attaching does not remove the source
Adding a photo to a note creates a copy inside the note. The original stays in Photos, still synchronizing and still visible in the library.
This is the most common misunderstanding here, and it means the attachment step must be followed by a deliberate cleanup of the source — exactly as with a vault import.
Where notes become awkward
Notes are optimized for writing rather than media management. A note holding fifty images is slow, hard to navigate, difficult to export selectively, and offers no way to verify that the stored originals are intact.
It is also a single object: one note that fails, syncs badly, or is accidentally deleted takes everything in it.
Choosing
- Count the items and formats you actually need to protect.
- Check whether originals remain in Photos or Files after attaching.
- Test unlock, export, backup, and recovery with non-sensitive samples in either tool.
- Confirm how account synchronization affects the notes, since they travel with the account.
- Choose the workflow that leaves the fewest uncontrolled copies.
Three mistakes
- Assuming attaching a photo deletes the source.
- Using one note as an untested long-term archive.
- Forgetting that notes synchronize with the account by default.
Questions people ask
Is a locked note a full gallery replacement?
Usually not; it becomes awkward for many photos and videos.
Is NullVault for iOS installable?
Yes, on compatible devices from the App Store.