How to hide photos in Google Photos: Archive vs Locked Folder
Archive or Locked Folder? How to hide photos in Google Photos with each, see hidden photos again, keep them out of Memories, and what neither one protects.
· 7 min read
Google Photos has two ways to hide a photo, and they do very different jobs. Archive tidies a photo out of your main view, and Locked Folder puts it behind your screen lock. Here's how to use each one, how to see hidden photos in Google Photos again, how to keep photos out of Memories, and whether you can lock Google Photos itself.
Archive vs Locked Folder
| Archive | Locked Folder | |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden from your Photos view | Yes | Yes |
| Hidden from albums and search | No | Yes |
| Hidden from other apps on your phone | No | Yes |
| Lock | None | Your screen lock |
| Backup | Like your other photos | Optional, and off unless you turn it on |
| Where to find it | Collections → Archive | Collections → Locked |
In short, Archive tidies away clutter, like screenshots and receipts, while Locked Folder puts photos behind your screen lock.
How to archive photos in Google Photos
- Open Google Photos and select the photo.
- At the top, tap More, then Archive.
Google says archived photos leave your Photos view but stay in any albums they were in, in search results and in the folders on your phone, so any other app can still show them. They're left out of highlight videos and animations, and they still count towards your storage.
How to see archived photos and unarchive them
- In Google Photos, tap Collections, then Archive.
- To bring one back, select it, tap More, then Unarchive.
How to lock photos in Google Photos
For photos that need a lock, use Locked Folder:
- Select the photos or videos.
- At the bottom, tap Add to, then Move to Locked Folder, then Move.
The first time, Google Photos asks you to set Locked Folder up with your phone's screen lock. Locked Folder items leave your albums and search, and other apps on your phone can't see them. One warning from Google: if Locked Folder's backup is off, moving a photo in deletes its Google Photos backup. Our Locked Folder guide covers its backup and moving it to a new phone.
How to see hidden photos in Google Photos
Look in both places. Tap Collections, then Archive for archived photos, and Collections, then Locked for Locked Folder, which opens with your screen lock. If a photo is in neither, our guide to finding hidden photos on Android covers every other place it can be.
Keep photos out of Memories
Memories can bring back photos at the wrong moment. You can hide people, pets and whole dates from them: open a memory, tap More, then Hide, and choose to hide that date or those people from all memories. You'll find the same options in Photos settings, under Memories, which recent versions keep inside Preferences.
Can you lock Google Photos itself?
Not from inside the app: Google Photos has no lock of its own, apart from Locked Folder. To put a lock on the whole app, use your phone's built-in app lock, if it has one, as our guide to locking apps on Android shows. Locking the app doesn't lock the photos, though, since your gallery and file manager can still show them, as our guide to locking your gallery explains.
Hiding doesn't remove copies
Archiving or locking a photo on your phone doesn't touch copies elsewhere: an edited version, a copy a chat app saved, or a photo someone shared with you. Our guide to copies left in Google Photos shows where to look, and if you'd rather your private photos never reached Google's cloud at all, here's how to stop Google Photos backup.
When a vault fits better
Locked Folder's lock is your screen lock, which the people closest to you may know, and its backup is only as private as your Google account. Our Locked Folder comparison goes through what that means for your photos.
Hidey is a vault app with a lock of its own: a PIN or password separate from your screen lock, or your fingerprint. It encrypts each photo and video you hide on your phone, checks the encrypted copy, then deletes the original, so no other app on your phone can show it. A copy Google Photos had already backed up stays in its cloud until you delete it there. Its backup to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive is free and encrypted before upload, so Google only ever receives encrypted files. If you forget your PIN, you can reset it through Google after a 24-hour wait, so whoever controls your Google account could too, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro).