In this article, I will explain how you can safeguard your private pictures or videos by adding them directly from your Android smartphone to a securely Locked Folder provided by Google. Google has rolled out this functionality recently to the users of its Android OS as part of its Photos app.
Using Google Drive Locked folder
To start using the Google Photos Locked folder you first must set it up. Follow the following step-by-step procedure for setting up the locked folder and adding a private picture to it in one go. Step 1: Launch the Google Photos app. Step 2: Tap on the “Library” option towards the lower left. Step3: Now tap on the “Utilities” option towards the upper right. Step 4: Tap on the “Set up Locked Folder” option on the top of the screen. If you don’t see this option then scroll down and tap on “Locked Folder”.
Step 5: You will be asked to authenticate yourself by the same method that you use to unlock your phone with, such as password, screen unlock pattern, or fingerprint (you must have one of these set up). Step 6: Upon successful authentication, the Photos App will ask you to grant it some permissions to which you have to agree to move forward. Step 7: Now select one or more private photos or even videos by tapping on them and when done tap on the blue “Move” button in the upper right of the screen.
Step 8: Next Google will ask for your confirmation to move the selected files. Tap on the blue “Move Items” button and then again on the “Move” button on the next screen. Step 9: Finally tap on the “Continue” button.
Step 10: At the end, you will see that your selected pictures and videos have been successfully moved to the locked folder. Now whenever you need to access the data inside the Locked folder, you’ll have to authenticate it first using the same authentication method you use to open your phone.
Wrapping up
The provision of Google’s new Locked Folder option as part of the Photos app is a much-needed feature as you no longer need to trust third-party software for your data protection. Its setup and daily usage are fairly simple and data protection can be achieved with a few taps. However, Google has pushed out this feature very recently and might not be available on all Android users at the time of writing. Moreover, this feature is only available on Android 6 and later versions.
