If you have personal items on your Android device that you don't necessarily want to share with others, you might want to hide this data to keep it out of reach.
On an Android device, it is possible to do this without installing any app.
Here are two different ways that will allow you to hide any file (photo, video, PDF, Word file, Excel ...) on your android device.
1 method
- First of all, you need to go to your file manager.
- Open the menu by pressing the three small dots located at the top right and press "Settings".
- Then activate the option "Show hidden files" to see the hidden files in your file manager.
- Return to the main menu of the file manager then select the location "my device" or "SD card".
- 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, all content in the “.secret” folder will be hidden and it will no longer be visible on Gallery, media players or elsewhere. Just move your photos or videos to this folder to be hidden.
Which files are affected?
- Image - images will not be displayed on any application.
- Video - The case of video is the same as that of picture.
- 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, it is simply a matter of creating an empty file named "nomedia".
So that files specific to the Android system 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 any photo or video you want to hide in Android.
- Copy it and paste it in 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 then 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 as per your requirement. The first method remains the simplest and the most perfect for hide Android photo or video without installing anything.