If you have on your device Android personal items that you don't necessarily want to share with others, you will surely want to hide this data to keep it out of reach.
On a device Android, it is possible to do this without installing any application.
Here are two different ways that will allow you to hide any file (photo, video, PDF, Word file, Excel, etc.) on your device Android.
1 method
- First of all, you need to go to your file manager.
- Open the menu by tapping the three small dots located at the top right and tap “Settings”.
- Then enable the “Show hidden files” option to see hidden files in your file manager.
- Return to the main menu of the file manager then select the “my device” or “SD card” location.
- Now Press the three small dots located at the top right and select “Create Folder”.
- Indicate the name according to your choice.
- Place a period (.) Before the file name. For example, I create a folder named ".secret".
From now on, any content in the “.secret” folder will be hidden and will no longer be visible on Gallery, media players or elsewhere. Just move your photos or videos to this folder so they are hidden.
Which files are affected?
- Image – images will not be displayed on any application.
- Video – The case of video is identical to that of image.
- PDF – PDFs are not displayed anywhere.
Here are a few things to note:
- Files contained in hidden folders such as (.secret) will be visible on the computer.
- Before you give your phone to other people, make sure to turn off the “Show hidden files” option.
2 method
In this second method, you simply create an empty file named “nomedia”.
So that system-specific files Android are not indexed, a document named .nomedia is placed in directories that should not be indexed.
The .nomedia file is a blank text file (.txt). You can create the .nomedia file on a computer (with Notepad), then copy / paste it into the desired folder (s) on your smartphone or use a free application such as Free File Manager to create the file directly in the target folder.
Here are a few things to remember:
- .nomedia is a file, not a folder.
- It only works for media files (such as photos and videos).
- The folder containing the .nomedia file is still visible in the file manager. But the .nomedia file will only be visible to you if you have enabled the “Show hidden files” option.
- You can place the .nomedia file in the new or existing folder to hide its contents.
Here are the steps to follow to create a .nomedia file.
- Select a photo or video you want to hide under Android.
- Copy and paste it into the folder of your choice. For example, in the “secret” folder.
- Download the file manager such as ES File Explorer.
- Create a new file named “.nomedia” using this application. To do this, launch ES File Explorer next Click on the button + and select New text file to create a text file in the secret folder.
- Rename the file to .nomedia and press Create.
All files and folders contained in the "secret" folder will be hidden and will not be displayed in Gallery, media players, etc.
Which files are affected?
- The PDF file is not hiding in the .nomedia file and PDF readers can still detect the PDF file in the "secret" folder.
- The .nomedia file is only for media files.
In light of this presentation, you can use any of the methods according to your needs. The first method remains the simplest and most perfect for hide photo or video Android without installing anything.