Lock your gallery, private photos, videos on Android

Don’t want others to access your private photos or videos when you need to share the phone with them? In this article, we will guide you on how to lock your gallery with password or hide them on the phone with or without third-party apps. Try out the apps and security features to choose the solution serves your purpose the best on the phone.

Lock photos, videos using built-in security features

Nowadays, smartphones usually come up with content or app lock features so users can protect their private information on Android phone without any extra apps. For example, we found the App Lock feature on Huawei phones, Content lock on LG phones and App lock on Xiaomi phone, just to name a few. Follow these steps to lock apps on Xiaomi phone.

lock and unlock apps on xiaomi, redmi phones
lock and unlock apps on xiaomi, redmi phones

Try also access your Gallery or photos from other apps to ensure they are securely locked and you are the only user to have access to them. For example, you can try to compose a new email, then insert photos from Gallery to the email. If you managed to do so, then your photos or videos are not actually safely protected.

In case your phone does not offer app lock feature, double check other system apps, notably the Notes app, see if you can use them to lock private photos. If you can create secret notes on the phone, you may also be able to insert sensitive files, private photos into them.

Lock the whole galley using third-party app lock

There are some security apps available in the app stores that can help us achieve that, such as Norton app lock, the app lock by Domobile, etc.

lock settings, services, apps android phone using applock
lock settings, services, apps android phone using applock

Unfortunately, many of these apps can’t help us really lock down our private pictures, recorded videos. We can’t launch the Gallery app without unlock it first once being locked using these security apps. However we can still use some third-party apps to access the photos and videos saved in the Gallery.

Lock photos, videos using third-party file lockers

Instead of locking the whole gallery, a more secure way to protect your privacy is to use a professional file locker program such as this file locker app to hide and protect the photos and ensure privacy. We have demonstrated how to use this file locker to password protect photos and videos on Android phone here.

folder lock android phone to import and lock photos
folder lock android phone to import and lock photos

Make sure to set recovery email so you can recover the PIN, password or pattern if you forgot. Also don’t forget to export or unlock the protected files before you delete the apps from your phone.

Summary

We have discussed briefly how to lock photos, videos and protect your privacy on Android phone using different apps above. Each method or app has its own merits and demerits. Try out to find the one suits your needs. Found better ways to encrypt secret pictures and videos? Share with us in the comments section below.

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