Forgot your Private Safe password? Reset it on OPPO, realme and OnePlus

On OPPO, realme and OnePlus phones, one privacy password opens Private Safe, App lock and Hide apps. Forget it, and how you get back in depends on the recovery option you set up when you created it: a security question, a recovery email or an account. Here's how to reset a forgotten privacy password, what each option needs, and what's left if you never set one up.

One password for everything private

The privacy password is separate from your screen lock. ColorOS, realme UI and OxygenOS use it for Private Safe, App lock and Hide apps, and on OPPO phones for Phone Migration too, so forgetting it locks you out of all of them at once.

How to reset a forgotten privacy password

1. Open Private Safe, or any app or setting that asks for your privacy password.
2. Enter a wrong password once, then tap Forgot password.
3. Choose one of the recovery options you set up:
   • Security questions: answer the questions you chose.
   • Recovery email: enter the full email address, then the verification code sent to it.
   • An account: your OPPO ID on OPPO phones. realme says newer versions can link a Google account or phone number to the privacy password instead.
4. Set a new privacy password.

You only see the options you set up. If Forgot password offers nothing you can use, the phone can't reset the password for you.

If none of the options work

Without a recovery option you can still use, the only way to clear the privacy password is a factory reset, and a factory reset erases everything on the phone, Private Safe included. Back up what you can first, from outside Private Safe, and if you can't reach the reset settings, OPPO, realme and OnePlus service centres can help.

There's no universal unlock code. Tools and services that promise to bypass a privacy password ask you to hand your phone, and the photos inside it, to a stranger's software, so stick to the options above. If your photos are already gone after a reset, our guide to recovering hidden photos covers what can still bring them back.

Forgot the Hide apps code instead?

The access code you dial to open hidden apps isn't your privacy password. If you still know the password, you can set a new code without the old one, as our guide to hiding apps on OPPO and realme explains.

Set up recovery now

If you still know your privacy password, add a recovery option today. Search Settings for "privacy password", open it, and add a recovery email, security questions or an account, whichever your version offers. On some phones it's under Settings → Password & biometrics → Privacy password.

Choose answers the people around you can't guess, and an email address you'll still have years from now. Our guides to Private Safe on OPPO and realme and OnePlus cover the rest of the setup.

A vault with a reset that doesn't wipe your phone

Private Safe's contents live on one phone and behind one password, and losing the password can cost you the whole phone. Hidey is a vault app that handles this differently. It has its own PIN or password, separate from your screen lock and your privacy password, and it encrypts each photo and video you hide, then deletes the original.

If you forget Hidey's PIN, you can reset it through Google after a 24-hour wait, with no factory reset and nothing lost. That also means whoever controls your Google account could reset it, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro), which swaps the Google reset for a recovery key. Hidey's backup to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive is free and encrypted before upload, and it restores on any Android phone, whatever the brand. Here's what else to try if you forget a vault PIN, and our security page explains how Hidey's recovery works.