Android guide
How to hide photos in Google Photos
Google Photos has two features that people describe as "hiding photos", and they do almost opposite things:
- Archive removes a photo from your main view — but the photo stays in your Google account, synced to every device.
- Locked Folder keeps photos on one device, requires your screen lock — and is not backed up at all.
Picking the wrong one is how people end up either with photos in the cloud they thought were private, or with photos gone after a phone reset. Here's the difference in detail.
Archive: hiding from yourself, not from Google
What it does: removes the item from the Photos tab (your main library). It remains in your account, searchable, and visible on every device signed into that account.
How to use it:
- Open Google Photos, select photos.
- Tap the three-dot menu → Move to Archive.
- Find them later: Library → Archive.
Good for: screenshots, receipts, memes you want out of the camera roll but still want to keep. Not good for: anything you actually need to keep private. Archived photos are still in your Google account, still part of any account-level access, still in a takeout export. If you want it out of the account entirely, that's a different tool — see how to hide photos on Android.
Locked Folder: local, unbacked, and unforgiving
What it does: moves items into a folder that requires your device screen lock to open. The contents are stored on the device and are excluded from backup and sync — Google's own documentation is explicit about this.
How to use it:
- Google Photos → Library → Utilities → Locked Folder → set it up.
- Select photos → three-dot menu → Move to Locked Folder.
Good for: ID documents, private photos you want off the cloud entirely. Not good for: anything you can't afford to lose. Uninstall Google Photos, reset the phone, or lose it — the photos are gone. There is no recovery path, by design — the same trade every honest vault makes (see vault recovery).
You also can't see Locked Folder contents on photos.google.com. It doesn't exist there.
The comparison that matters
| Archive | Locked Folder | Encrypted vault app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hides from main library | Yes | Yes | Yes (removed from gallery) |
| Still in your cloud account | Yes | No | Never leaves the phone |
| Encrypted at rest | No (standard Google storage) | Device storage, OS-level | Yes — file-level, key from your PIN |
| Survives phone reset | Yes (it's in the cloud) | No | Only via an export you made |
| Recoverable if you forget the lock | Yes (account password) | No | Only with the recovery code |
| Works on the web | Yes | No | No (by design) |
Read that third row carefully. Archive protects nothing; Locked Folder protects well but dies with the device; an encrypted vault protects the file itself and survives if you exported it.
When "hide in Google Photos" is the right answer
- You want the clutter out of your main tab → Archive. Done.
- You're on a phone you'll keep, and the photos are sensitive but not irreplaceable → Locked Folder is genuinely good.
- You're handing the phone to someone frequently → Locked Folder plus a locked screen is enough.
When it isn't
- The photo is the only copy of something important. Locked Folder is explicitly not a backup.
- You don't want the file in your Google account at all. Archive fails this by definition.
- You're moving to a new phone. Locked Folder doesn't migrate. You have to unlock it and move items out manually before switching — and most people remember this too late.
The gap Google doesn't fill
Google's options are: in the cloud and visible (Archive), or on the device and unprotected by real encryption (Locked Folder — it relies on the OS lock, not on a key derived from something only you know). That second case is what Keep Photo: Photo Vault exists for.
What neither does is encrypt the file itself, so that a copy of your storage, a repair shop's backup, or a synchronized folder yields nothing readable. That's the specific thing a vault app does: the file becomes ciphertext before it's written, and the key comes from your PIN.
That's the trade we built Keep Photo: Photo Vault around — and the reason our product page says plainly that losing the PIN and the recovery code means losing the files. An app that promises both encryption and "we can get it back" has to be storing your key somewhere.
FAQ
Does archiving a photo in Google Photos delete it from my phone?
No. Archive only affects the Google Photos interface. If the photo exists locally, it's still on the phone; if it came from backup, the local copy is unaffected.
Can I see my Locked Folder on a new phone?
No. Locked Folder contents aren't synced or backed up. Before switching phones, open it and move the items out to normal storage (or export), then set it up again on the new device.
Is Locked Folder encrypted?
Google hasn't published details, but it's presented as device-local storage protected by your screen lock — that's OS-level protection. It's not the same as file-level encryption with a user-derived key, and the contents are not recoverable if the device is lost.
What happens if I uninstall Google Photos with a Locked Folder?
The contents go with it. Google's documentation says clearly that Locked Folder items are removed if you uninstall the app or clear its data. Move them out first.