How to hide videos on iPhone and Android
Hide videos with the iPhone Hidden album, Google Photos Locked Folder or Samsung Secure Folder, and avoid the places videos still appear.
Short answer: you hide a video exactly the way you hide a photo. The tools are the same. What is different is that videos leave more copies behind.
How
- iPhone. In Photos, tap Select, choose the videos, tap the More button, then Hide. They move to the Hidden album, which asks for Face ID or your passcode on recent iOS versions.
- Android with Google Photos. Select the videos, tap More, then Move to Locked Folder.
- Samsung. In Gallery, select the videos, tap More, then Move to Secure Folder.
Menu names vary by version. Our guides for iPhone and Android cover setup and the limits of each lock.
Where videos still turn up
- Messaging apps. Received videos are often saved in the app's own media folder or to your gallery.
- Edited versions. Trimming or exporting a clip in another app usually saves a new file.
- Cloud storage. Hiding does not remove a video already backed up. Large files may also still be uploading when you hide them, so check the backed-up copy.
- Recently Deleted or Trash. Deleted copies sit there for weeks unless you empty it.
- Files or Downloads. Videos saved from the web or email often land here, outside the gallery.
Screen recordings deserve a second look. They often catch notifications that popped up while recording, and they save to your library like any other video.
Mind the size
Videos fill storage quickly, in a hidden album or in a vault. If you keep them in a vault app such as VaultWell, which plays videos in its viewer and keeps its encrypted backups as files you store yourself, plan where those large backup files will live before you need them.