Hide Files on Your Android With PIN-Protected Secure Folder
Files by Google is a handy app that helps you manage your Android phone’s storage space and transfer data securely to the cloud and other devices. It can now also lock your personal files in a PIN protected encrypted folder thanks to the new Safe Folder feature.
Files moved to a safe folder are only accessible through Files by Google and will not appear in other applications. For example, photos moved to a safe folder are hidden from your camera roll and Google Photos. You can’t even take a screenshot of the contents of the folder.
There are several obvious use cases here; Having a PIN protected and encrypted folder stored locally on your phone is a smart way to store sensitive documents that you don’t want to open on your device or in the cloud. This can be personal identification, financial and tax materials, or important information about family members.
Safe Folder is easy to use, but you need to download the Files by Google beta to experiment with it now. Otherwise, you will have to wait a bit until it appears in the stable version.
How to set up a safe folder in Google files
- Open files from google.
- Click the Browse tab in the bottom menu.
- Click Safe Folder to create a PIN for the folder if this is your first time using it. Make sure the PIN is unique but memorable as you won’t be able to recover files moved to a safe folder if you forget them.
- Click Got it to confirm the new PIN.
- After setting up your PIN, return to the Overview tab again. From here, you can view or search for specific files that you want to add to the safe folder.
It’s time to remove all those files that you want to hide. Moving content to a safe folder is slightly different between the “list” and “grid” view layouts of the application (tap the layout icon in the upper right corner to quickly switch between both modes):
- As a list: Click the triangle icon to the right of the file name to open the drop-down menu and select Move to Safe Folder.
- Grid view: Tap and hold on a file, then tap the three-dot “more” icon in the upper-right corner and select “Move to Safe Folder.”
- Move multiple files: You can also press and hold a file to enable multi-select mode in any layout, then select each additional file you want to move. Tap the three-dot menu and select Move to Safe Folder.
Enter the Secure Folder PIN when prompted, then click Next to move the files.
To move files from a safe folder
- Open Safe Folder from Google’s Browse Files tab.
- Enter your PIN and click Next.
- Select the file (s) following the steps above and click Move from Safe Folder from the menu. The files will return to the folders they originated from.
Update Secure Folder PIN
Google files allow you to change your PIN at any time, although you need to know your current PIN to do this.
- Tap the three-line menu icon in the upper left corner of the app to open the sidebar.
- Go to Settings> Secure Folder> Change PIN.
- Enter your current PIN and click Next.
- Create a new PIN, click Next, then enter the new PIN again to confirm.
- Click Next one last time to save your changes.