If you need to hide something on your Android device, there are many ways to do it. Let's consider each of them.
How to hide files on Android
You can hide files on Android with or without Root rights.
If you have Root rights, you can:
If you don't have Root rights, you can:
How to find out if the device has Root
To find out if your phone has Root rights, do the following:
Click on the "CHECK ROOT" button in the Root Checker application
Video: how to use the Root Checker program
If you have Root rights
With Root rights, you can hide files by renaming them to ES Explorer, creating a .nomedia file, or installing the Hexlock App Lock program.
Renaming files in "ES Explorer"
To hide a file in ES Explorer:
If you want to hide a group of files:
Select the second item in the list, in the name field, enter a period, click "OK"
Toggle the toggle to Enabled to view hidden files
Creating a .nomedia file in ES File Explorer
To create a .nomedia file in ES Explorer, do the following:
Video: How to Hide Files with .nomedia in ES File Explorer
Installing Hexlock
Hexlock is free app, which allows you to hide all types of data, as well as personal information of the user (SMS and contact list). Loaded from the official store.
To hide files using Hexlock, do the following:
To recover hidden files:
Video: Hexlock app overview
If there are no Root rights
If you do not have Root rights, you can hide files by putting a period in front of the name, creating a .nomedia file, or by installing the Hide All Files application.
Period in front of file name
To hide the file in this way, do the following:
When renaming an audio recording, its title should not be separated by a hyphen or dash. Otherwise, the file will not be hidden.
Create a .nomedia file on your PC and move it to the desired folder
The .nomedia file will hide all files from a folder whose contents you do not want to be exposed. To create it, do the following:
Place the nomedia file in the folder you wantIf you do not want to create a file from scratch every time, copy it to the previously created empty folder and then place it wherever you need it.
Installing Hide All Files
Hide All Files allows you to hide absolutely any type of file, including documents Microsoft Office, PDF, EPUB, as well as images, videos and audio recordings.
To hide files with Hide All Files:
Enter your password and click "OK"
Select the files you want to hide and click on the button with the image of the lock
To view hidden files, go to the Private tab. To restore them, check the boxes and click on the button with the image of the lock.
Select files to recover and click on the button with the image of the lock
How to hide a photo or video on Android
You can hide photos or video files in any of the ways described above: rename, place them in the nomedia folder, download an application to hide them.
If you have Root rights, then you can use Hexlock, an application that allows you to hide all types of files, not just photos and videos. It is described in more detail in the section "How to hide files on Android".
If you do not have Root rights, then install the Hide Something application. It's free, but it does a great job.
To hide photos and videos from Hide Something, do the following:
Select the files you are interested in and click on the button with the ghost image
Click "OK" to hide files
How to hide apps
If you have superuser rights, you can use Hide It Pro or the same Hexlock to hide certain applications. If there are no such rights, then only their icons can be hidden.
If you have Root rights
If you have Root rights, then you can use the Hide It Pro and Hexlock App Lock programs.
Installing Hide It Pro
To hide apps with Hide It Pro, do the following:
Click on the logo image to launch all the functions of the application
Select "Hide Applications"
Installing Hexlock App Lock
To hide apps with Hexlock App Lock:
- "Home" - a set of applications that you use while connected to your home network;
- "Work" - similar to the network at work;
- "School".
In the absence of Root rights
If you do not have Root rights, then try hiding application icons in the settings or use the Apex application.
Hide application icons in settings
If you have applications that you do not use, you cannot delete them, and the icons get in the way, then you can hide them. To do this:
Click on the "Stop" button and on "OK"
Installing Apex Launcher
A similar result can be achieved by installing a third-party launcher - an application that will automatically hide all unnecessary icons. For example, you can use Nova Launcher or Apex Launcher.
Let's consider the algorithm of actions using Apex as an example:
Video: how to use Apex Launcher
How to hide a specific folder
The folder can be hidden in exactly the same way as the file:
How to set a password on a hidden item
You can lock the entire device. For these purposes, the following is used:
You can only block a specific folder or file. For this:
You can use for this purpose both applications that require Root access and applications for which you do not need any additional rights. All of them equally allow you to set a password and protect your data from unauthorized access.
Video: how to set a password for files and folders in Applocker
How to find and open hidden items on Android
Hidden items can be found using the built-in File Manager. To do this, just open it and see which file / folder names begin with a dot.
For the same purpose, you can use "ES Explorer":
Find the item "Show hidden files" and set the switch to "Enabled"
Apart from that, you can connect your device to a laptop or PC and check for hidden files there. For this:
Video: How to Open Hidden Files with ES File Explorer
How to open hidden items without a password if they are password protected
This is feasible only in 2 cases:
To bypass the picture password:
You can only view the names and types of files in the password-protected archive, but you will not be able to extract or open them.
Enter the password to unpack the archive in the Easy Unrar, Unzip & Zip application
Unlike Windows, Android system not equipped with the function of hiding files and folders. However, do not forget that this operating system is distinguished by its openness and the ability to make various changes to its work. Therefore, when performing certain manipulations, you can still safely hide important documents from third parties. Let's take a look at how to hide files and folders on Android.
Ways to hide data on Android
Hide personal information (photos, videos, text documents etc.) placed on the external or internal memory mobile device, in several ways:
- Through the file manager installed on the device;
- Through the file ".nomedia";
- Using a computer;
- Through special software.
Using the file manager
You can reliably hide any file or entire folder from outside eyes using any conductor available on the gadget. This is the simplest method of hiding, so our review should begin with it. The procedure will be as follows:
Restart Android and check the result of your actions. Now, when displaying the contents of the repository, the specified object will be absent. If you need to return everything to its place, it is enough to activate the item "Show hidden files and folders" in the settings of the same explorer, and then remove the previously set period from the name.
Hiding folders with the ".nomedia" file
Android OS periodically scans the integrated and embedded memory of the device to look for changes in the storage structure. If during the next examination the system detects the ".nomedia" file, it will skip the folder containing this item and will not display its contents in the future.
You can use this phenomenon to hide a photo, video, or other type of information:
The folder with your data will disappear. It will only be visible on PC. To remove hidden mode, you need to delete the ".nomedia" document.
How to hide a folder on Android through a computer?
The above methods of hiding lose their effectiveness when connected. mobile device to the PC, since on the PC the objects hidden with the help of ".nomedia" or the file manager will still be displayed.
If you want to be absolutely sure that no one gets to your confidential data, you need to use combined hiding, which is as follows:
After successfully hiding the folder, it will be absent not only on the smartphone screen, but also on the computer. To access it, you need to do the following:
Now, through your computer, you can access the previously hidden information... Depending on which masking method was used, you just have to delete the ".nomedia" file or turn on the display of hidden data in the explorer.
Application of additional software
You can hide on Android not only files and folders, but also installed programs... This is done using the Hide It Pro utility. It works as follows:
The selected shortcuts will be located in the ProgramData / Android / Language / .fr folder. For their visibility, you need to enter the file manager and put a checkmark in front of the item "Show hidden files and folders".
Sometimes the user keeps quite personal or confidential information on your Android tablet or smartphone and it is highly undesirable for other people to accidentally see or read it. In this article, we will look at one of the ways how to hide files and folders of the Android system by making them invisible.
How to hide folder and files on Android
Unfortunately, there is no right mouse button in it, which gives full access to customize in the usual operating system Windows. The procedure for hiding files and folders is a little different, but first you need to have a special file manager. Complete, we described earlier, but we strongly recommend using it, because it is simple and straightforward to work with.
If you have not yet installed it, then follow this link to the official PlayMarket website and download it. It's completely free.
In order to make a file or folder invisible to others, you must:
1. Open the file manager;
2. Select the required file or folder;
3. Tap on it and wait for the settings to appear;
4. Select rename;
5. Place a period in front of the name.
And lo and behold, the folder or file is no longer shown on your screen, and now let's consider the reverse procedure.
How to display hidden files and folders in Android
From the first paragraph, we know that when the first character is a dot in the name of a file or folder, this makes it invisible in the Android system, but how can we do the opposite.
We go into the settings of the same file manager and put a tick in front of the item show hidden files and folders. Now we can see all hidden objects and rename them back to make them visible to everyone.
Some interesting team
There is one interesting feature of Android - hidden only photos and media content in a specific folder, for this:
1. Open the file manager;
2. Go to the desired folder;
3. In it, create an empty file named .nomedia;
4. We overload the device.
Outcome
As you can see this procedure is relatively simple, and will help you easily hide or display the information you need.
Many users sometimes have a question about how to hide files on Android that you want to leave inaccessible to others. By default, all folders and photographs are displayed in the gallery, and you cannot hide them using the standard features of the system. But there is a solution - this is third-party software, you can install a new gallery on your phone, such as Quick P. This is a program with good functionality and capabilities, which provides excellent possibilities for managing photographs. Quick Pic has user-friendly interface with good optimization for any display and has support for multi-touch gestures.
Hide files on Android will allow this program, in which in just a couple of taps you can hide individual or all files from the gallery. Besides the main function, it can sort photos, create new folders, rename them and much more. And with the built-in graphic editor it will be possible to edit pictures and give them various effects.
How do I hide apps on my phone using my computer?
We connect the phone to the PC, where you will need to select the "Hidden" attribute. To do this, open the folder with photos on your computer, right-click on the file of interest, and then select “Properties” and check the box next to “Hidden”.
After simple actions You will be able to make a hidden Android file that will no longer be displayed. To be able to view hidden photos, you need to uncheck the box and return the ability to view them. But in this way, you can hide files only from the computer, they will still be displayed on the phone.
Hide files using the file manager
We think this is the most convenient way to hide files on Android in the gallery. To do this, you just need to download a third-party file manager, for example, ES Explorer. It is optimal in terms of the balance of stability and capabilities. But you can use any other, if it seems more convenient to you. Thus, you can hide both individual photos and the entire folder. To hide files, follow the instructions below:
We turn on ES Explorer, where we find the folder of interest or a separate file;
Click on the name until the menu is highlighted, where you can select additional options;
Click "Rename" and put a dot in front of the name.
After that, go to the gallery and check if this folder is really no longer displayed in the gallery. To be able to view hidden apps, you need to return to the explorer, after which we open the display of hidden objects with a swipe from the left edge of the screen. It remains to remove the point and the hidden files will become available again.
Using dedicated apps
When deciding how to hide files on your Android 6.0 phone, you can download a special application, of which there are quite a few on the Internet. They work in about the same way, but within the framework of the article we will describe KeepSafe. The program will reliably hide photos and videos by setting a password to access them. After setting it, the content is moved to a separate storage, access to which only you will have. To access the files, you only need to specify a password.
Even more interesting:
Imagine that you urgently need to hide some files, such as photos, on your tablet or phone. How to do it? You can move files to a folder, and the folder, in turn, can be hidden. To do this, you need a file manager. We will be using ES File Explorer.
We launch the application. Let's say that we will create a folder on a memory card, so we select this file partition.
Once in the section, we see a list of folders.
Now we are not interested in them, so we go to the application settings.
In the settings, select "Display settings".
We put a tick next to the item "Show hidden files" and go back to the file section.
Here we can see some hidden folders. Click on the plus sign button.
We select "Create folder".
We give a name to the folder. There are important points. Firstly, the folder name must start with a dot, and secondly, the name must be in Latin, for example:
Click OK and you will see that your folder is hidden, although you can see it now. Open the folder and transfer required files, for example:
Come back - the folder is hidden.
Agree, a very convenient and simple way to hide the folder with its contents. You can make it visible through the settings or by renaming it by removing the dot at the beginning of the name.
