How to lock a folder on Android with a password
Every way to put a password on files and folders on Android, compared: Files by Google’s Safe folder, your phone’s own safe, password-protected zips and vault apps.
· 9 min read
Android has no "lock this folder" button. You can't put a password on an ordinary folder the way you can on a computer, but you can move its files into a place that has one. Here are the ways to lock files and folders on Android with a password, with and without installing an app, and what each one really protects.
The options side by side
| Files by Google's Safe folder | Your phone's own safe | Password-protected zip | Hidey | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locks with | A PIN or pattern | A password of its own | The zip's password | A PIN, password or fingerprint |
| Encryption | Android's storage encryption, Google says | Depends on the brand | Only if you choose AES | Each file, on your phone |
| Backup | None | Don't count on one | Wherever you copy the zip | Your own Google Drive, encrypted |
| Other brands of phone | Yes | No | Yes, with an archiver app | Yes |
| Forgotten password | The files can't be opened | Often a wipe, unless you set up recovery | The zip can't be opened | With backup on, reset through Google after 24 hours |
One thing none of them do is lock a folder where it is. Each one moves the files somewhere else. Hiding a folder with a .nomedia file or a dot at the start of its name doesn't lock anything either: any file manager can still open it.
Lock a folder without installing anything
Files by Google's Safe folder. If Files by Google is on your phone, as it is on many Android phones, its Safe folder locks any file behind a PIN or pattern. Open Files, scroll to Collections, tap Safe folder and choose a PIN or pattern, then move files in with More → Move to Safe folder. Our guide to hiding files and folders has the step by step.
Know its limits before you rely on it. Google says that if you forget the PIN or pattern, you can't get to your files, and resetting Safe folder deletes them for good. There's no Back up to Google Drive or Share inside it, and Google warns against copying its encrypted files to a new phone, so they live on this phone only. Google also warns that clearing storage or cache with other apps, such as cleaners, can leave the files unreadable.
Your phone's own safe. Most phone makers build in a locked space with its own password: Secure Folder on Samsung, Private Safe on OPPO, realme and OnePlus, File Safe on vivo and iQOO, and Moto Secure's Secure folder on Motorola. Each takes documents as well as photos. Each also lives on one brand's phones, and what happens when you forget the password depends on what you set up: Motorola can't reset a forgotten Secure folder PIN at all, and vivo says forgetting both the privacy password and the security answers means erasing the phone.
Lock a folder with a password-protected zip
An archiver app, or a computer, can pack a folder into a zip with a password. It's handy for sending files or keeping them in the cloud, with a few catches:
- Choose AES-256 encryption if the app offers it. The older zip encryption is weak.
- The original folder is still there until you delete it.
- Unzipping makes ordinary copies. To open a file, you extract it, and the extracted copy has no password, so delete it when you're done.
Files by Google can make zip files, but Google doesn't describe a way to give them a password.
What to check in a folder lock app
Search Google Play for "folder lock" and you'll find dozens of apps. Before you trust one with your files, check three things:
- Does it encrypt, or just hide? Some apps only move or rename files, which a file manager or a computer can undo. Our guide to checking whether a vault encrypts shows how to tell.
- What happens if you uninstall it? With some apps, your files go with them.
- How do you get back in? Look for a backup, and a way to reset a forgotten password that doesn't mean losing everything.
How to lock PDFs and documents
A PDF locks the same way as any other file: move it into a Safe folder, your phone's safe or a vault. The difference is how you open it afterwards, because opening a file in another app can leave a copy behind. Hidey opens PDFs and text files in its own viewer, decrypting them in memory, so they never leave the vault.
Lock a folder with Hidey
Hidey is a vault app that locks files of any type for free: documents, PDFs, audio and anything else you pick from the file picker, as well as photos and videos. It encrypts each file on your phone, checks the encrypted copy, then deletes the original, so it's gone from the folder and from every app that could see it. The vault opens with its own PIN or password, or your fingerprint, and our security page explains how the encryption works. For file types Hidey can't show itself, open with hands another app a temporary unencrypted copy and deletes it as soon as you're back in Hidey, and Hidey warns you first that the other app may keep its own copy.
The nearest thing to a locked folder is auto-hide (Pro). Choose a folder, such as Download or the folder a scanner app saves to, and files saved in it move into the vault on their own, even while Hidey is locked. Hidey checks about every 15 minutes, and whenever you open it. When you add a folder, it asks whether to move the files already there too, or only new ones, and folders inside the one you chose are left alone.
Hidey's backup to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive is free and encrypted before upload, so your files survive a lost or broken phone and move to your next one, whatever the brand. 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).