Google has announced that its “Locked Folder” for the Google Photos app will be available to all users. Previously, the feature was only available on Pixel devices. With this announcement, the feature that hides your private photos in a password-protected folder becomes available to all users. In this article, I’ll show you how to use this feature to hide your private photos with a password, as well as a bonus tip for doing so.
Hide Photos Using a Password
There are a number of apps available on both the Apple Store and the Google Play Store that allow you to hide sensitive media behind a locked folder. However, we are discussing Google Phots because the majority of users use it, and we will look at another way to do so.
Create a Locked Folder in Google Photos
You must first set up your photos before moving them to this folder. Follow the instructions below:
- On your phone, launch the Google Photos app.
- Now, from the bottom options, select “Library.”
- Tap on “Utilities” at the top of the next page.
- Under the ‘Organize Your Library’ section, you will find the “Locked Folder” option. Tap it to activate it.
- Now, select “Set up Locked Folder” and follow the on-screen instructions.
You’ll be prompted to enter your lock screen password or pattern, which will be saved as the Locked Screen password.
Move Photos to Locked Folder
- After you’ve created the Locked Folder, you should know how to move your photos to it.
- Navigate to the Photos tab and select the photo(s) you want to hide.
- Tap the three dots icon in the upper right corner.
- Select “Move to Locked Folder” from the menu, then tap “Move.”
- Your photos will now be transferred to this folder, and you will need to enter your lock screen password to access them.
Save images directly from the Pixel camera to the Locked Folder.
On Pixel and stock Android phones, you can also make this folder the default location for saving camera roll photos. Take the following steps:
- Launch the camera app on your Google Pixel phone.
- Tap on “Photo Gallery” in the upper right corner, then “Locked Folder.”
That’s all there is to it; now take a photo, and it will be saved to the Locked Folder automatically.
You can save all of your sensitive photos and videos to the Locked Folder, which will be password-protected. This folder’s media will not appear in the Photos tab, Memories, or search. Furthermore, these will not be visible to other apps that have access to Photos.
Google Photos Archive is an added bonus.
There is an alternative method for hiding photos in Google Photos. This method also hides your personal sensitive photos from searches, memories, and other apps, but it has one disadvantage: it is not password protected.
However, if the “Locked Folder” has not yet arrived on your phone, you can still use this feature. To add photos to the Archive folder, follow the steps below:
- Open the Google Photos app and select the photos you want to hide from the Photos tab.
- You can select multiple photos by tapping and holding them and then tap on the three dots menu in the top right corner.
- Select “Archive” from the menu.
That’s all. These images have been moved to the Archive section. You can view them by selecting Library -> Archive. If you want to unarchive any photos from there, simply tap and hold to select and then select “Unarchive” from the menu by tapping three dots.
