Can I play videos and music straight from the vault?
Yes, without taking them out and without a decrypted copy landing on disk. Files are encrypted in chunks, so the player decrypts only the piece it is reading, in memory, and seeking still works normally. On the lock screen and in the Now Playing controls, a vault item shows a generic title.
Reviewed 30 July 2026
The lazy way to play an encrypted file is to decrypt the whole thing to a temporary file and hand that to the player — which means a complete, readable copy of your file exists on disk for as long as playback lasts, and after a crash sometimes longer. FoxDL does not do that.
Because the encryption is chunked, the player can ask for any position in the file and get just that region decrypted in memory. A two-hour film starts as fast as an unencrypted one, scrubbing works, and the playback position, subtitle choice and audio track are remembered per file exactly as they are elsewhere.
What plays from the vault is masked everywhere it would otherwise be announced: the lock screen, the Control Centre controls, the Apple Watch companion and the widgets show a generic title rather than the file name. Play, pause and seek all work normally — only the label is withheld.
Documents and photos open the same way, inside the vault, without an unencrypted copy being written out for a preview.