Quick answer: scan or photograph the print as sharply as you can, crop to the part you want, run Denoise if it is grainy, then Upscale if it is small, and use Faces only after comparing closely. Local Photo Upscaler does all of this on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac without uploading family photos.
1. Start with the best possible scan
The enhancement can only work with what the scan captured. Lay the print flat in even daylight, avoid glare, hold the phone parallel to the print, and fill the frame. A flatbed scanner at 600 dpi is better still. A good scan often matters more than any enhancement step.
2. Crop before enhancing
Output is capped at about 17 megapixels. On iOS 1.1.10, very large photos may be processed at a smaller size on devices with less memory; check the actual finished dimensions. Cropping to one person or one scene lets the upscaler use its full 4× on the part you care about.
3. Clean, then enlarge
Old prints and early digital photos often carry grain. Run Denoise, compare, and if it helps, run Upscale on that result. For small prints that you want to reprint larger, check the print size guide.
4. Use Faces carefully
Faces detects each face and runs an AI restoration model on it. On a soft portrait it can bring back crisp eyes and outlines. It can also make a grandparent look slightly unlike themselves, because the model redraws features it cannot see clearly. Compare the eyes, mouth, glasses, and hairline with the original, and keep both copies.
It does not remove scratches, tears, dust spots, or stains, and it does not colorize black-and-white photos. Genealogy services and cloud restoration apps offer those features if you need them and are comfortable uploading.
Why keep family photos on device
Old photos often show children, homes, and relatives who never agreed to be in a dataset. Processing locally means the photo stays in your library, not on a server with its own retention policy. The app has no account and the App Store privacy label says Data Not Collected.