Help / Your first check
Your first check
FirstHour looks through your pictures once, here on your iPhone, to find the cards, IDs and codes that need your attention and to sort everything else into groups.
Step by step
- Start. On the last welcome page, tap Check my pictures. You can choose I'll do this later instead.
- Answer iPhone's question. iPhone asks whether FirstHour may see your photos. Choose Allow Full Access so nothing is missed. With only some photos, FirstHour checks only those.
- Start the check. In Tidy up, tap Check my pictures. If you only shared some photos, the button says Check them.
- Carry on with your day. You can switch to another app while it works, though iPhone may pause it. If that happens, or you close FirstHour, it picks up when you come back.
- See what it found. Everyday pictures go to Tidy up. Pictures that may show a card, an ID or a code go to Protect.
How long it takes
It depends on your phone and how many pictures you have. On an iPhone 14 Pro Max in our testing, it took about 3 to 5 minutes per 1,000 pictures. Pictures stored only in iCloud take longer. Yours may be quicker or slower.
After the first check
New pictures are checked by themselves when you open FirstHour. In Tidy up, Check for new pictures shows how many have arrived since last time.
If you said no to iPhone's question
You can change your answer in iPhone's Settings › Apps › FirstHour › Photos › Full Access. You can also choose Limited and pick only some photos.
Good to know
- Your pictures are never uploaded. Pictures stored only in iCloud may download from Apple to be read.
- It doesn't check videos, or pictures in your Hidden album.
- FirstHour may miss ID cards written only in alphabets it reads less well, such as Hebrew, Persian, Bangla and Hindi. Passports are usually still found.
- "Nothing found" means nothing obvious, not "safe".