If you want to hide files and folders on your Android phone, there are many things you can try. For example, locking your phone prevents people from watching, and password-protecting your folders prevents unauthorized access. But what if you could go one step further and hide a folder or file?
Let’s see how we can do this using a trick in the Android operating system and an app that can help.
How to Hide a File or Folder in Android
First of all, we need a file explorer app to do this trick. Your favorite app should do the job, but before we get started, poke around in the app’s settings and double-check to see if you have an option to “show hidden files” or “show system files” .
While not essential, it makes it easier to modify and access these hidden files and folders. For this tutorial, we’ll be using FileExplorer. Not only can it show hidden files, but it’s a good tool overall!
Now go to the file or folder you want to hide. Rename this file or folder. Some file manager apps may let you do this if you long press the target. Then just add a period at the beginning of the name. For example, if you want to hide a file called “Secret Folder”, rename it so that it reads “.Secret Folder”.
After you complete the naming convention, the file or folder may suddenly disappear. Don’t worry, it’s still around – you just hid it! If you want to see it again, go to the file explorer settings and enable the option to unhide hidden/system files.
Why does this work?
The reason things disappear when you add a period at the beginning is due to the way Android (and Linux) handles files. You may not have seen them before, but your Android phone has a lot of system files that are needed to keep everything running.
To prevent users from accidentally deleting or renaming these files, Android uses a special feature that hides any file starting with a dot. Then each system important folder is added with a period at the beginning to hide it from the user.
Related : How to disable USB ports in Windows 10
When you rename a file or folder in this way, it activates the hide feature used for system files. As such, Android believes it is something that should be hidden, so it hides the file.
Using an app to hide photos and videos
If you want, you can go even further and use a third-party app to hide your photos and videos. hide something allows you to select the media files you want to hide and then store them in a hidden area. You can still see the items through the app, but they are hidden from the file system. Set a password for the app and you’re good to go!
If you think someone is getting suspicious of the app hanging out, you can get the premium version to hide it. The premium version disguises Hide Something to resemble a harmless calculator app, which unlocks the real thing when you enter a passcode.
If you’re really concerned about your privacy, you should also check out these privacy-focused browsers for your Android phone and learn how to share your phone with others without compromising your privacy.
