How to move hidden photos to a new phone without losing them

Switching phones is when hidden photos get lost. The transfer tools that copy everything else across often skip locked spaces and vault apps, and by the time you notice, the old phone has been reset. Here's how to move hidden photos to a new phone for each common hiding place, and the one rule that applies to all of them: don't reset the old phone until you've opened your photos on the new one.

Ordinary photos: the easy part

Your regular photos have three easy routes: the transfer offered when you set up the new phone (by cable or wirelessly), Google Photos backup, or Quick Share between the two phones. None of them reliably moves photos you've hidden, so handle those separately, before or right after the transfer.

Google Photos Locked Folder

Locked Folder only moves to a new phone through Google Photos backup:

• If Locked Folder backup is on, sign in to Google Photos on the new phone with the same account, and your Locked Folder is there, opened with the new phone's screen lock.
• If it's off, the photos exist only on the old phone. Google says items saved only on the device aren't moved by its phone-to-phone transfer. Either turn on Locked Folder's backup before you switch, or move the photos out, transfer them and move them back in on the new phone.

Our Locked Folder comparison covers what that backup protects, and if it's empty on the new phone, see Locked Folder missing or empty?

Samsung Secure Folder

Samsung no longer offers a backup for Secure Folder. Its answer is Smart Switch, which works only between Galaxy phones:

1. Open Smart Switch on both phones. On the new one tap Receive on this phone, and on the old one Send from this phone.
2. Connect them wirelessly or with a cable.
3. On the new phone, select Secure Folder and tap Transfer.
4. Open Secure Folder on the new phone and check your photos are there.

If Secure Folder arrives empty, see what to do when Secure Folder doesn't transfer. Moving to a phone that isn't a Samsung? Move the photos out of Secure Folder first, then transfer them like ordinary photos. Our Samsung guide covers Secure Folder and the newer Private album.

Private Safe, File Safe and other brand vaults

Brand transfer apps don't promise to move locked spaces. OPPO's Clone Phone, for example, says it doesn't clone security data such as lock screen passwords, and it doesn't say whether Private Safe comes across. The safest route for Private Safe, vivo's File Safe and Xiaomi's Private album is the same:

1. Make the photos public again on the old phone.
2. Transfer them like ordinary photos.
3. Hide them again on the new phone, then check, and only then delete them from the old one.

Android's Private space works the same way: Google says it isn't restored from a device backup, so move its contents out before you switch.

Vault apps

A vault app's photos move only through the vault's own backup, which works differently in each app. Some keep files only on the phone, some back up to their own cloud, and some can export a backup file. Before you switch:

1. Find the vault's backup or export option and make a fresh backup.
2. On the new phone, install the vault and restore before you hide anything new.
3. Check that your photos open, then reset the old phone.

If the vault has no backup at all, unhide everything first and hide it again on the new phone. Uninstalling or resetting before that can take the photos with it, and a vault you can't get into won't move anywhere, so make sure your PIN and any recovery options work before you start (recovery in popular vault apps).

Moving a Hidey vault to a new phone

Hidey has two free ways to move your vault, and neither needs the old phone to be the same brand.

From Google Drive backup. If your vault backs up to Google Drive:

1. Install Hidey on the new phone and tap restore.
2. Sign in with the Google account your backup is in.
3. Give Hidey All files access, then enter the PIN or password you used.

Your vault opens as soon as the PIN is right, with your notes and settings, and the files follow in the background, newest first. If the download stops, say because the phone is offline or full, it carries on later without fetching anything twice. On the free plan one phone backs up at a time, so the new phone takes over and the old one stops backing up. Hidden vaults (Pro) don't come back on their own: in Settings → Security → Hidden vaults, choose Bring back a hidden vault and enter its PIN.

From a backup file. In Settings → Backup & sync, Export a backup file saves your whole vault as one encrypted file in Download, protected by a code Hidey shows you only once. Copy the file to the new phone, install Hidey, choose restore from a backup file, pick the file and type the code, then choose a PIN for the new phone. This works without a Google account, so it's also the way to move a vault that never backed up to Drive.

The Drive backup is encrypted on your phone before upload. The trade-off to know: it also lets you reset a forgotten PIN through Google after a 24-hour wait, so whoever controls your Google account could reset it too, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro).