What is Secure Folder on a Samsung phone?

A separate, locked space on the phone with its own passcode, holding its own apps and files. Apps added to it run as independent copies, and photos moved into it leave the regular Gallery. It only exists on the device: there is no web or computer access.

Where is Secure Folder in Samsung settings?

Settings, then Security and privacy, then More security settings, then Secure Folder. Setup requires a Samsung account and its own PIN, password, or pattern.

Can you hide Secure Folder completely?

Yes. The Quick Settings panel has a Secure Folder toggle that removes it from the Apps screen, or you can flip Add Secure Folder to Apps screen off in its settings. You can also disguise it instead by renaming it and changing its icon.

What happens if you forget your Secure Folder passcode?

If Reset with Samsung account was turned on during setup, you can reset the passcode by signing in to your Samsung account. If it was not, Samsung documents that access cannot be recovered: the only option is removing the Secure Folder, contents included, and starting over.

Does Secure Folder back up to the cloud?

Not anymore. Samsung documents that backing up Secure Folder data is no longer supported. You can restore old backups made before support ended, and move to a new phone with Smart Switch, but there is no ongoing cloud backup.

Does iPhone have a Secure Folder?

Not by that name. The closest built-in equivalent is the Photos Hidden album, which locks with Face ID, plus locking the entire Photos app on iOS 18 or later. It covers photos rather than apps and files.

Samsung Secure Folder: setup, hiding it, and the fine print

What Secure Folder actually is

Think of it as a second, smaller phone living inside your phone. Secure Folder has its own lock, separate from your lock screen: a PIN, password, or pattern, with fingerprint unlock on supported devices. Inside it are its own apps and its own files; a photo moved in disappears from your regular Gallery, and an app added to it runs as an independent copy. And per Samsung's documentation, it exists only on the device: there is no website, computer, or cloud view into a Secure Folder.

Set it up

Find it in Settings
Open Settings, tap Security and privacy, tap More security settings, then tap Secure Folder. If it is not there, your device does not support it.
Walk the prompts
Tap Continue, allow the permissions, and sign in to your Samsung account when asked. The account is required.
Pick the lock
Choose a PIN, password, or pattern for the folder. Make it different from your phone's unlock code; a shared code defeats the point of a second lock.
Turn on Reset with Samsung account
You will be asked about Reset with Samsung account. This one matters more than the flow suggests, and the next section explains why. Turn it on unless you have thought hard about not doing so.

The one-way door: Samsung's documentation is blunt about this. If you skip Reset with Samsung account and later forget the folder's passcode, access cannot be recovered. Not by Samsung, not in a store. Your only option is removing the Secure Folder, with everything in it, and starting over.

Move photos and files in (and out)

You can move things in without even opening the folder:

Select in Gallery
Open Gallery and touch and hold the photos or videos you want to move.
Move them
Tap More, then tap Move to Secure Folder. The files leave your regular Gallery and appear only inside the folder.

Two catches from Samsung's fine print: files must live in internal storage or on the SD card, so anything that only exists in a cloud account cannot be moved in directly. And getting things out later happens from inside: open Secure Folder, open My Files, touch and hold the file, tap More, then Move out of Secure Folder.

How apps behave inside

Adding an app to Secure Folder does not move it; it creates a copy. The copy is a separate installation with its own data and its own logins, which is the feature: a second messaging app signed in to a different account, a banking app that does not appear on your Apps screen. Notifications from apps inside the folder are off while it is locked unless you allow them in the folder's settings, which is worth knowing in both directions: on for not missing things, off for not having a locked app announce itself on your lock screen.

Hide the folder itself

A visible Secure Folder icon tells anyone scrolling your phone that a locked folder exists. Samsung gives you three moves:

The quick toggle. Swipe down with two fingers for Quick Settings and tap Secure Folder to hide or unhide it from the Apps screen.
The settings switch. In the folder's settings, flip Add Secure Folder to Apps screen off. Same effect, more deliberate.
The disguise. Open Secure Folder, tap More options, tap Customize, and change its name, color, and icon. A folder named "Calculator Pro" in plain sight is its own kind of hidden.

Same honest note as every hide toggle: hiding the icon is cosmetic. The passcode is the actual protection, and the folder reappears in two taps for anyone who can unlock your phone and knows where Quick Settings is.

The fine print

Backups are gone. Samsung documents that backing up Secure Folder data is no longer supported. You can restore backups made before support ended, and Smart Switch can carry the folder to a new Galaxy, but nothing inside the folder is being continuously backed up anywhere. If the only copy of a photo lives in Secure Folder and the phone dies, that was the only copy.
No passcode recovery without the reset option. The one-way door from setup, worth repeating once.
Uninstalling deletes the contents. Removing Secure Folder removes what is in it. The uninstall flow offers to move media files out first; take it up on that.
Device only. No web access, no desktop app, no way to reach the folder from anything but the phone it lives on.
It is a Samsung feature. Move to a Pixel or an iPhone and there is no Secure Folder waiting; plan the exit before you need it.

The iPhone equivalent

There is no Secure Folder on iPhone, but the photo half of the job exists under another name: the Photos Hidden album, which locks with Face ID by default, plus the option on iOS 18 and later to lock the entire Photos app. Apps and files have no real iPhone counterpart. If you are the family's mixed-platform tech support, that article covers the iPhone side the way this one covers the Galaxy side.

The photos you share are the other half

Secure Folder protects what is on your phone from people who pick it up. It cannot follow the photos you send: the group chat's copies, the shared album's copies, the feed's copies all live outside the folder, on other people's screens and someone else's servers. Locking down your own device while sharing into feeds built for strangers is securing the front door and leaving the packages on the porch.

boopr covers that half. It is a free private app with no ads and no algorithm, where the only people who ever see what you share are friends you added yourself, and if one of them screenshots it, you find out. It is on the App Store and Google Play, so a Galaxy owner is a first-class citizen. Lock the photos that are only for you in the folder; give the ones that are for your friends a feed that treats them that way.

Want in? boopr is free. Get it on iOS and Android and see what a feed with no strangers feels like.

Common questions

What is Secure Folder? A locked, separate space on a Samsung Galaxy with its own passcode, apps, and files. Device only; no web or computer access.

Where is it in Settings? Settings, Security and privacy, More security settings, Secure Folder. Requires a Samsung account.

Can you hide it completely? Yes: the Quick Settings toggle or the Add Secure Folder to Apps screen switch removes the icon, or Customize disguises it. The passcode remains the real protection.

Forgot the passcode? With Reset with Samsung account on, sign in and reset. Without it, Samsung documents that access cannot be recovered; you remove the folder and its contents and start over.

Does it back up? No. Backup support ended; old backups can still be restored and Smart Switch moves the folder to a new Galaxy. Keep a second copy of anything irreplaceable.

Does iPhone have one? Not as such. The Hidden album plus app locking covers the photo half; there is no iPhone equivalent for apps and files.

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