Secure Folder vs Locked Folder vs Private Space: who can open each?

Between Google and Samsung, Android phones now have four built-in places to hide photos, and they sound interchangeable. Google Photos’ Locked Folder, Android’s Private Space, Samsung’s Secure Folder and the Safe folder in Files by Google all lock things away. Where they differ is the moment that matters most: someone who already knows your phone PIN picks up your phone.

That’s the test this comparison is built on, along with what each one hides, what survives a reset or a new phone, and which phones get it. We make Calculator Locker, a vault app, so it’s in the comparison too, with its limits next to its strengths.

The test: who can open it with your phone PIN?

Most people hiding photos aren’t worried about a forensics lab. They’re worried about the people the phone gets handed to: a partner, a parent, a kid, a friend scrolling through holiday pictures. Those are often exactly the people who know your PIN, or have watched you type it often enough.

So the useful question isn’t “is it encrypted?” Every option here uses encryption of some kind. The useful question is “does it have its own lock?” If it opens with the phone’s screen lock, it protects you from strangers and thieves, not from anyone you’ve shared that PIN with.

One more thing the PIN gets someone: the ability to destroy what they can’t open. Google’s own help page says Private Space can be deleted from Settings › System › Reset options with just the device PIN, and any vault app can be uninstalled by whoever holds the unlocked phone. A separate lock keeps your photos private; only a backup keeps them safe.

Google Photos Locked Folder

Locked Folder is a locked area inside Google Photos, on any phone running Android 6 or later, Samsung included. To set it up, open Photos and go to Collections › Locked › Set up Locked Folder, then unlock with your screen lock. To move something in, select it, tap Add to › Move to Locked Folder › Move. On a Pixel 4 or later you can also save straight from the camera: touch and hold the thumbnail of your last shot next to the shutter, then tap Locked Folder.

Google is unusually direct about the lock. It says there is no separate PIN for Locked Folder on Android, the password is your device screen lock, and anyone with access to your screen lock can open it. It passes the stranger test and fails the PIN test.

What it does well is hiding. Locked items drop out of the Photos grid, memories, search, albums and shared items, and other apps on the phone can’t see them. While they’re locked you can’t edit or share them, so nothing leaks out through a share sheet by accident.

Is Google Photos Locked Folder encrypted?

Google’s help page says Locked Folder is protected by Google Photos’ standard encryption practices. It doesn’t describe it as end-to-end encrypted. In practice that means a backed-up Locked Folder is protected the way the rest of your Google Photos library is, and Google’s 2023 announcement notes you can open it on another device signed in to your Google account, using that device’s lock. Your Google account password becomes part of the lock.

Is Google Photos Locked Folder backed up?

Only if you switch it on. Since August 2023 you can go to Photos settings › Backup › Back up Locked Folder; it needs regular photo backup turned on first. You can also back up individual items from inside the folder. Backed-up items count toward your Google storage.

With backup off, Locked Folder lives only on that phone. Google’s Locked Folder help page says those items are deleted if you uninstall Photos, clear its app data, factory reset, or lose or damage the phone, and they aren’t carried over by cable or cloud transfers to a new phone.

Android Private Space

Private Space arrived in Android 15. It isn’t a folder at all: it’s a second, walled-off area of the phone with its own apps, optionally its own Google account, and its own lock. Set it up under Settings › Security & privacy › Private space. When it asks about the lock, choose Choose new lock rather than Use device screen lock, or it fails the PIN test like Locked Folder does.

You can’t move an existing app and its data in. You install fresh copies (touch and hold an app and tap Install app in Private space, or use + Install inside the space). Photos go in through + Add › Add files, where Move deletes the original from your main profile and Copy leaves it in place. Either way the files land in the space’s own Downloads folder, and you view them with a gallery app installed inside.

When it’s locked, its apps are fully stopped: no notifications, nothing in the launcher, Recents, the share sheet or photo picker, Settings, or search. Turn on Hide private space when it’s locked and even its entry disappears from the app list; you reopen it by searching for “Private space.” It auto-locks every time the phone locks, five minutes after the screen times out, or only after a restart, your choice.

The limits, all from Google’s Private Space page: it isn’t included in device backup, a forgotten Private Space lock can’t be recovered, apps inside bypass your VPN, and Google says the space can still be uncovered through developer tools or other apps. If you sign in inside the space with the same Google account you use outside, synced photos can show up outside it, so Google recommends a separate account. Private Space needs Android 15 or later and a phone maker that hasn’t switched it off. Pixels have it; Samsung Galaxy phones use Secure Folder instead.

Samsung Secure Folder and Private album

Secure Folder is Samsung’s encrypted space, protected by its Knox security platform. Set it up at Settings › Security and privacy › More security settings › Secure Folder. It needs a Samsung account, and you pick its own pattern, PIN or password, with biometrics as an optional extra. Inside you get a separate Gallery, My Files and copies of any apps you add. From the normal Gallery, select photos, tap More options (⋮) › Move to Secure Folder.

You can hide its icon by turning off Add Secure Folder to Apps screen, or with the Secure Folder tile in Quick Settings, and you can rename it and change its icon under More options › Customize. Forgetting its PIN isn’t fatal: Forgot PIN lets you reset it with your Samsung account password. That’s also the weak point. Anyone with your Samsung account password can do the same.

Three recent changes matter. With One UI 8, SamMobile reported, Secure Folder moved onto the same private-profile system as Private Space. One UI 8 also removed the “Each time I leave an app” auto-lock (the default is now “When screen turns off”) and added a Lock and exit button. And backups are gone: Samsung’s support page says Secure Folder data backup is no longer available and restoring old backups doesn’t work on One UI 8 or later. To move it to a new Galaxy, you use Smart Switch.

Secure Folder vs Private album

One UI 8.5 added a Private album to Samsung Gallery (Menu › Private album, then More › Move to private album on any photo). It’s quicker than Secure Folder because you never leave Gallery. But Samsung says it unlocks with your fingerprint or your phone’s screen lock, so it fails the PIN test. Samsung also doesn’t say whether it’s backed up or moves with Smart Switch. Our guide to hiding pictures on Samsung has the step-by-step for every Galaxy option.

Files by Google Safe folder

Safe folder lives in Files by Google, which comes on Pixels and is free on Google Play for other phones running Android 8 or later. Open Files, scroll to Collections › Safe folder and choose a PIN or pattern of its own. To move something in, touch and hold it and pick Move to Safe folder.

Inside, files don’t appear in Files search or categories, other apps can’t open them, there’s no Share button, and screenshots are blocked. It passes the PIN test. It’s also the most fragile option here. Google warns that a forgotten PIN means you can’t get the files back, that resetting Safe folder deletes them, and that Back up to Google Drive isn’t available inside it. It’s a locker for a handful of files, not a photo library.

A separate vault app

A vault app keeps your photos behind its own code, unrelated to your phone PIN, your Google account or your Samsung account. Quality varies a lot between apps, from real encryption to simply moving files into a hidden folder, so it’s worth running a few checks on any vault app before trusting it with anything.

Calculator Locker is our example because it’s ours. It looks and works like a calculator; typing your 4 to 8 digit code and pressing = opens the vault. You can add a second decoy code that opens a separate, harmless vault if you’re ever pressed to open it. Files are encrypted with AES-256 on the phone, with the key tied to the phone’s secure hardware, so the code can’t be guessed on another device. There’s no account and no cloud, it’s free with no ads, three wrong codes trigger a front-camera photo once you allow camera access, and screenshots are blocked inside the vault on Android.

The trade-off is the mirror image of Locked Folder. The vault lives only on the phone. The app opts out of Google’s phone backup and device-to-device transfer, so Smart Switch and Pixel’s transfer tool won’t carry it, and uninstalling the app deletes it. The only way to move or protect it is the app’s optional encrypted backup export, a passphrase-protected file you keep somewhere else. Skip that, lose the phone, and the photos are gone. Our guide on whether deleting a vault app deletes your photos covers the export step.

What survives a reset or a new phone

Hiding and backing up pull in opposite directions. Everything that keeps photos off the cloud also makes you responsible for not losing them.

Moving a photo into any of these doesn’t clean up copies elsewhere. Google says edited and shared copies stay where they were when you move something into Locked Folder, and Samsung’s Knox documentation warns that photos synced to Samsung’s cloud may reappear in Gallery after you move them into Secure Folder unless you delete them from the cloud too. Check your cloud photo library and chat apps after you hide something. If you’re switching phones, our guide to moving hidden photos to a new phone goes through each route.

Which one should you use?

The built-in options are good, free and already on your phone. For a lot of people one of them is the right answer.

A shared family tablet

Everyone knows the PIN, so Locked Folder and Private album do nothing here. On a tablet running Android 15 or later that isn’t a Samsung, use Private Space with its own lock and turn on Hide private space when it’s locked. On a Samsung tablet, use Secure Folder with its own PIN and hide its icon. If the tablet supports separate user profiles, those are cleaner still.

Your partner knows your PIN

Pick anything with its own lock: Secure Folder, Private Space with a new lock, Safe folder or a vault app. Then check the enrolled fingerprints. If you’re ever pressed to open it, a decoy code is the one option that gives you something to show.

You have a Pixel

Locked Folder is the easy everyday choice, especially with backup on. For photos you’d rather a PIN-holder never saw, use Private Space with a separate lock.

You have a Samsung

Secure Folder is the strongest built-in option, and Private Space isn’t available. Private album is convenient for photos you just want out of the grid. Google Photos’ Locked Folder works on a Galaxy too, and it’s the one to use if you want a cloud backup.

You want a cloud backup

Locked Folder with backup on is the only built-in option with its own cloud backup. Accept the trade: your Google account is now another way in, so give it a strong password and two-step verification. Private Space can get there another way, if you sign in to a separate Google account inside it and back up from the Photos app there.

You never want it in the cloud

Secure Folder, Safe folder, Private Space (signed out of cloud apps), Locked Folder with backup off, or a vault app with no cloud at all. All of them leave you in charge of backups: Smart Switch for Secure Folder, an encrypted export for a vault app, and a habit of moving things out before you reset or sell the phone.