How to Hide Photos, Apps, and Files Using Galaxy S25 Secure Folder

The Galaxy S25’s Secure Folder is Samsung’s built-in privacy vault — a Knox-encrypted space on your phone where photos, apps, and files are completely isolated from the rest of your device. Nobody who picks up your phone can access what’s inside without your specific lock credential, and the folder itself can be hidden so it doesn’t even appear in your app drawer.

This guide covers the exact steps to set up Secure Folder on the Galaxy S25 running One UI 7, add content to it, and troubleshoot the most common issues — including known bugs introduced in One UI 8.

Quick Overview: What Secure Folder Can Do

Feature	Details
Lock types	Pattern, PIN, Password, Fingerprint, Face recognition
Can hide the app icon	Yes — removes it from app drawer; access via Quick Settings
Separate app instances	Run two copies of the same app (e.g., two Instagram accounts)
Separate Samsung account	Add a different account inside Secure Folder
Knox encryption	Hardware-backed, separate from main device storage
Auto-lock	Configurable — immediately, 1 min, 5 min, or after screen off

1. Set Up the Secure Folder on Galaxy S25

Before you can hide anything, you need to initialize Secure Folder. It requires a Samsung account and an active screen lock on your device.

Steps (One UI 7):

Open Settings on your Galaxy S25.
Scroll down and tap Security & Privacy.
Tap More security settings.
Tap Secure Folder.
Sign in with your Samsung account if prompted.
Tap Continue and choose your lock type: Pattern, PIN, Password, Fingerprint, or Face.
Set up your chosen lock method and tap Done. The Secure Folder app appears in your app drawer.

Note: If you don’t have a screen lock set on your main device, Samsung requires one before Secure Folder will activate. Go to Settings → Lock screen & AOD → Screen lock type to set one first.

2. How to Hide the Secure Folder Icon

You can completely remove the Secure Folder icon from your app drawer. When hidden, the only way to open it is through the Quick Settings panel — a meaningful security improvement that prevents anyone browsing your phone from even knowing it exists.

Steps to hide the icon:

Open the Secure Folder app and unlock it.
Tap the three-dot menu (top right corner).
Tap Settings.
Tap Add Secure Folder to Apps screen.
Toggle it off and tap Hide to confirm.

The icon disappears from your app drawer immediately.

To access Secure Folder when the icon is hidden:

Pull down the notification shade to open Quick Settings.
Tap the Secure Folder tile.
If the tile isn’t visible, tap the Edit (pencil) icon in Quick Settings and drag the Secure Folder tile to your active tiles row.

3. Move Photos and Videos into Secure Folder

Photos moved into Secure Folder are removed from your main Gallery and only accessible from inside the vault. There are two ways to do this.

Method 1: From the Gallery App (Easiest)

Open the Gallery app.
Long-press the first photo to enter selection mode, then tap additional photos.
Tap the three-dot menu (top right).
Tap Move to Secure Folder.
Unlock Secure Folder when prompted.

The photos are immediately removed from the main Gallery and appear inside Secure Folder’s private Gallery.

Method 2: From Inside Secure Folder

Open Secure Folder and unlock it.
Tap Gallery inside Secure Folder.
Tap the three-dot menu → Add from device storage.
Navigate to and select the photos you want.
Choose Move (removes original) or Copy (keeps original in main Gallery).

Important: “Move” is the more secure option. “Copy” leaves a duplicate in your standard Gallery that is still visible to anyone with access to your main phone.

4. Add Apps to Secure Folder

Secure Folder lets you install a completely separate instance of any app — separate login, separate data, separate notifications. This is the cleanest way to run two WhatsApp accounts or a private Instagram on a single Galaxy S25 as of 2026.

Steps to add an existing app:

Open Secure Folder and unlock it.
Tap Add apps (the “+” icon).
Check the boxes next to the apps you want to clone into Secure Folder.
Tap Add.

The cloned apps run entirely independently inside Secure Folder — logging into Instagram inside won’t affect your main Instagram outside.

To install a new app only inside Secure Folder:

Inside Secure Folder, tap Add apps.
Tap Download from Play Store or Download from Galaxy Store.
Install the app — it will only exist inside Secure Folder, not your main app drawer.

Note: Some apps with device-administrator restrictions — certain banking apps and MDM-managed work apps — cannot be added to Secure Folder. If you see “Can’t add this app,” this is a Knox restriction, not a bug.

5. Move Files and Documents into Secure Folder

For PDFs, Word documents, and other files, use My Files to move them into the vault.

From My Files:

Open the My Files app.
Long-press the file you want to secure (tap others to add to the selection).
Tap the three-dot menu → Move to Secure Folder.
Confirm the action.

From inside Secure Folder:

Open Secure Folder → My Files.
Tap the three-dot menu → Add files from device storage.
Browse to the file and choose Move or Copy.

6. Customize Secure Folder Settings

Change your lock type

Secure Folder → three-dot menu → Settings → Lock type. You can switch to a stronger method at any time without losing your data.

Set auto-lock behavior

Secure Folder → three-dot menu → Settings → Auto lock Secure Folder. Options: Immediately, 1 minute, 5 minutes, or Never. “Immediately” is the most secure choice — it locks the folder as soon as you leave it.

Back up your Secure Folder data

Secure Folder → three-dot menu → Settings → Backup and restore. Back up to your Samsung account. This step is critical — Secure Folder contents are not included in a standard Samsung Smart Switch or Google backup. If you reset your phone without a Secure Folder backup, everything inside is permanently gone. Samsung cannot recover it due to Knox encryption.

Change the name and icon

Secure Folder → three-dot menu → Customize icon. Rename it something innocuous like “Work Tools” and change the icon — this adds an extra layer of obscurity if someone else briefly has your unlocked phone.

7. How to Lock Secure Folder Quickly

When you’re done using Secure Folder, lock it right away rather than just navigating away from it. Two fast methods:

From the notification bar: Pull down the notification shade → tap the Secure Folder notification → Lock and exit.
From inside the app: Tap the three-dot menu → Lock and exit.

Troubleshooting: Common Secure Folder Problems on Galaxy S25

Secure Folder is missing from Settings

This typically happens after a factory reset or if Secure Folder was previously disabled. Go to Settings → Security & Privacy → More security settings → Secure Folder. If it doesn’t appear there, check that your Samsung account is signed in: Settings → Samsung account. Signing in will restore access to the Secure Folder option.

Can’t access Secure Folder after hiding the icon

Go to Settings → Security & Privacy → More security settings → Secure Folder and re-enable “Add Secure Folder to Apps screen.” The icon will reappear in your app drawer so you can find it again, and you can then hide it properly via Quick Settings tile.

File picker broken inside Secure Folder (One UI 8 bug)

After updating to One UI 8, many Galaxy S25 users reported that apps inside Secure Folder (WhatsApp, Discord, KeePass, etc.) could no longer access files stored inside the folder. The file picker only shows main-storage files. As of April 2026, Samsung has acknowledged this as a known issue. The workaround: use the Share function from within Secure Folder’s My Files app to push the file to the app, rather than relying on the app’s file picker to find it.

Lost data after a factory reset or phone transfer

Secure Folder data is only recoverable if you backed it up via Settings → Security & Privacy → Secure Folder → Backup and restore before the reset. Smart Switch does not include Secure Folder contents. If you did not back up, the data cannot be recovered — this is a deliberate feature of Knox encryption, and Samsung support cannot assist with recovery.

Secure Folder keeps crashing after an update

First try: Settings → Apps → See all apps → Secure Folder → Storage → Clear cache. This resolves most post-update crashes without losing any data. If crashing continues, try clearing the app’s data (back up first — clearing data removes Secure Folder contents). As a last resort, uninstall and reinstall via Settings → Security & Privacy → More security settings → Secure Folder → three-dot menu → Settings → More settings → Uninstall.

Getting the Most Out of Secure Folder

A few habits that make Secure Folder substantially more useful in day-to-day use:

Always use Move, not Copy, for sensitive photos. If you copy photos into Secure Folder rather than moving them, the originals remain in your standard Gallery. Anyone who opens your Gallery app can still see them.

Use a PIN or password instead of a pattern. Pattern locks are vulnerable to smudge attacks — the trace of your finger on the screen can reveal the pattern to someone looking closely. A 6-digit PIN or longer password is harder to reconstruct.

Back up before any major update. One UI 8 introduced bugs that caused data loss for some users. Before installing any major Samsung software update, do a Secure Folder backup: three-dot menu → Settings → Backup and restore.

Dual-account use case. If you need two WhatsApp accounts — one personal, one work — Secure Folder is the cleanest solution on Galaxy S25. Add WhatsApp to Secure Folder, log into your second number, and both instances run simultaneously with separate notifications.

Verified April 2026 on Samsung Galaxy S25 running One UI 7. Menu paths may vary slightly on One UI 8.