How to Hide Photos on Android (2026): Locked Folder, Secure Folder or a Vault
Four ways to hide photos on Android — Google Photos Locked Folder, Samsung Secure Folder, gallery hiding and a vault app — ranked by who can still open them.
Android gives you more ways to hide photos than iPhone does, and the better ones genuinely take photos out of your library. The catch is shared by nearly all of them: they open with your phone’s screen lock. Here are the four realistic options, in order of how much protection they give.
Method 1: Google Photos Locked Folder
Available on any phone with Google Photos (and in the iOS app too).
- Open Google Photos and select the photos or videos.
- Tap the three-dot menu (or More) → Move to Locked Folder.
- Confirm. The items leave your library, backup, shared albums and Memories.
- Find them later under Library → Utilities → Locked Folder, behind your screen lock.
Protects against: someone scrolling your gallery; apps that read your photo library; accidental sharing. Locked Folder items are excluded from backup unless you turn Locked Folder backup on.
Does not protect against: anyone who knows your screen lock or has a registered fingerprint. The folder uses the phone’s credential, not its own.
Method 2: Samsung Secure Folder (Galaxy only)
Secure Folder is a Knox-backed container with its own lock, and it can hold apps as well as files.
- Settings → Security and privacy → Secure Folder (name varies by One UI version). Set it up with your Samsung account.
- Choose a lock. You can — and should — pick one different from the phone’s.
- Open Secure Folder → Gallery → Add files to move photos in.
Protects against: everyone who does not know the Secure Folder lock, if you set it to something different from the phone’s. Strong encryption backed by hardware.
Does not protect against: the common setup where Secure Folder uses the same lock as the phone, and it only exists on Samsung — moving to a Pixel means emptying it first.
Method 3: Hide in your gallery app
Samsung Gallery, Xiaomi’s Gallery, OnePlus Photos and others have a “Hide” or “Private” option that removes photos from the main view, often behind the screen lock.
Protects against: a casual scroll.
Does not protect against: the screen lock, file managers (the photos are usually still ordinary files), or switching phone brands.
Method 4: Move photos into a vault app
A vault app takes the photos out of the gallery and locks them with its own credential. TuckVault imports the photos you choose, encrypts them on the device with AES, and opens only with a PIN or pattern that is separate from the phone’s screen lock.
- Install TuckVault, open the vault and set a PIN or pattern that is not your screen lock.
- Tap Add and select the photos. Import them.
- Delete the originals from Google Photos or your gallery, then open the Trash / Recycle Bin and empty it.
- If Google Photos backup is on, open photos.google.com → Trash on a computer or in the app and empty it there too.
- Lock the vault.
Protects against: the casual scroll, the person who knows your screen lock, file managers (vault files are encrypted, not plain images), and Google Photos backup (the files are not in the library).
Does not protect against: an open vault in someone else’s hands, a PIN you have shared, or a lost phone with no other copy — TuckVault does not currently back the vault up.
Which one should you use?
| Hiding from… | Locked Folder | Secure Folder (own lock) | Gallery hide | TuckVault |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A friend scrolling your gallery | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Someone who knows your screen lock | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Google Photos backup | ✓ (unless enabled) | ✓ | depends | ✓ |
| A file manager | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works on every Android brand | ✓ | Samsung only | varies | ✓ |
| Also holds documents | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
A sensible setup: Locked Folder for things you simply want out of the grid, and TuckVault for anything that should survive someone knowing your screen lock. On a Galaxy, Secure Folder with its own lock is a strong alternative; the trade-off is weight and brand lock-in, covered in TuckVault vs Samsung Secure Folder.
Common mistakes on Android
- Leaving the originals in Trash. Google Photos keeps them for 60 days (30 if not backed up). Empty it.
- Forgetting the cloud copy. If backup ran before you deleted, the photo is in Google Photos’ cloud Trash too.
- Using your screen-lock PIN for the vault. Then anyone who knows one knows both.
- Trusting .nomedia or a renamed folder. Any file manager sees through it.
For the iPhone version of this guide, see how to hide photos on iPhone.
Lock what's private. Clear what isn't.
TuckVault keeps your private photos, videos and documents behind a PIN or pattern with AES encryption on your device — and cleans up duplicates, large videos and messy contacts on the same phone. Free to download for iPhone and Android.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Locked Folder in Google Photos?
Google Photos → Library (or Collections) → Locked Folder. On some phones it is under Utilities. It needs your screen lock to open and is empty until you move photos into it.
Do photos in Locked Folder back up to Google?
Not by default. Google added an option to back up Locked Folder to your account; if you turn it on, the items are stored in Google's cloud. Check Google Photos settings → Backup → Back up Locked Folder.
Can I hide photos without Google Photos?
Samsung Gallery, Xiaomi Gallery and others have their own hide or private album features, usually tied to the screen lock. A vault app works on all of them and is not tied to any gallery.
Does hiding photos free up storage?
No — hiding changes where photos appear, not how much space they take. To free up space, delete duplicates and compress large videos with TuckVault's cleaner.
What about the .nomedia trick?
Creating a .nomedia file in a folder stops gallery apps indexing it. It hides from the gallery only; any file manager shows the photos in full. It is not a lock.