How to recover hidden photos on Android (vaults, Private Safe and Secure Folder)

Hidden photos go missing in a handful of ways: you can't remember where you hid them, the vault app was uninstalled, you forgot the password, you deleted them, or the phone was lost or reset. Whether they come back depends on two things, where the files lived and whether there's a backup, and the steps are different for each case. Here's how to work out which one you're in, and what to do.

Before you do anything

Don't factory reset, uninstall the vault app or clear its data. Those are the steps that turn a recoverable problem into a lost cause.
Don't install a different vault app to try to read another app's files. Each app keeps its own format, and only it can read it.
Don't pay for a "hidden photo recovery" or "vault unlocker" tool. A vault that encrypts your photos can't be opened without its key, and photos that were only hidden can be found with the steps below for free.

They may only be hidden

Before treating your photos as lost, check they aren't somewhere you can't see: a hidden album, a folder with a .nomedia file, Google Photos' Locked Folder, Secure Folder or Private Safe. Our guide to finding hidden photos on Android goes through every place, brand by brand.

You deleted them

Most places that hold photos have a bin, and photos usually stay there for 30 days:

Google Photos: its Trash keeps deleted items for 30 days.
Private Safe on OPPO, realme and OnePlus has its own Recently deleted folder, which also keeps files for 30 days.
Your gallery app has a bin too, under a different name on each brand. Our guide to deleting photos permanently lists where each one is.

Some locked spaces have no bin at all. Google says items in Google Photos' Locked Folder can't go to the Trash, so deleting them there is final.

The vault app was uninstalled

What survives an uninstall depends on where the app kept its files. Android deletes an app's own storage along with the app, so a vault that kept your photos there takes them with it. Vaults that keep their files in a folder on your phone's storage leave them behind. Calculator Vault- Gallery Lock's FAQ says its files are gone after an uninstall, for example, while Vaulty keeps its files in a Documents/Vaulty folder.

If the files survived, reinstall the same app from the same developer and see whether it finds them. Our guide to what an uninstall really does covers the details.

You forgot the password

The way back depends on what you set up when you started, so look for the option that matches:

A vault app: a reset code, a security question or an email reset. Our guides to a forgotten vault PIN, calculator vault passwords and Gallery Vault, Keepsafe, LockMyPix and Vaulty cover the common ones.
Samsung Secure Folder: a reset with your Samsung account, if Reset with Samsung account was on. Otherwise Samsung says the folder can only be removed and set up again, as our guide to a forgotten Secure Folder password explains.
Private Safe on OPPO, realme and OnePlus: Forgot password, then the recovery email or security question you set. Without one, the only way out is a factory reset, as our guide to a forgotten Private Safe password explains.
File Safe on vivo: your security questions. vivo says that forgetting the answers too means erasing the phone, along with File Safe.
Files by Google's Safe folder: Google says a forgotten PIN or pattern means you can't get to the files, and resetting the Safe folder deletes them.

The phone was lost, broken or reset

Now only a backup can help, so check whether you had one:

Google Photos' Locked Folder has its own backup, if you turned it on. If items are missing after a reset, our guide to a Locked Folder that's missing or empty shows where to look.
Samsung Secure Folder no longer makes backups. Here's what still works.
Vault apps back up to wherever they say: some to your Google Drive, some nowhere. Sign in to the same app on the new phone with the same account to restore.

If there was no backup, the photos left with the phone. The next time, use our guide to moving hidden photos to a new phone before the old phone goes.

Recovering photos hidden with Hidey

Hidey is a vault app with a way back for each of these cases, free unless marked Pro:

Deleted by mistake: Hidey's recycle bin keeps deleted items for 30 days.
After a reinstall: Hidey keeps its encrypted vault in a folder on your phone's storage, not in the app's own storage. Reinstall it, and it finds the vault you had before and brings your items back once you allow All files access and enter your old PIN or password.
Items that won't open: Check and repair, in Settings, makes sure every hidden item can still be opened, and brings back encrypted files in the vault folder that dropped off the list, for example after an interrupted hide.
A new or reset phone: restore from your Google Drive backup, which is encrypted before upload, or from an encrypted backup file you exported, which opens with its own backup code.
A forgotten PIN: with Google sign-in, you can reset it through Google after a 24-hour wait. That means whoever controls your Google account could reset it too, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro), which swaps the Google reset for a recovery key. Without either, nobody can reset it, not even us.

And if your worry is the opposite, that copies of hidden photos are still out in the open, Find leftover copies looks through Android's media library for files with the same name and size as items in your vault, so you can delete them. The security page explains how the keys and recovery work.