How to hide photos on Xiaomi in the gallery: all the ways from standard to hidden

Why Standard Removal Is Not the Solution, and What MIUI Offers

Have you ever faced a situation where you need to urgently hide personal photos from prying eyes? Simply removing files from the Xiaomi gallery will not help - they stay in the basket for up to 30 days, and when connected to a computer or cloud storage can come up at the most unexpected moment. Moreover, even after cleaning the basket, files are often restored by special utilities like DiskDigger or Recuva.

The manufacturer Xiaomi has provided several built-in mechanisms for hiding content right in the shell MIUI. However, not all users are aware that in addition to the obvious Hidden Albums feature, there are less noticeable tools – from archiving with a password to creating a new one. In this article, we will discuss all the current ways to hide photos on Xiaomi, including those that are not documented in the official certificate. We will pay special attention to the nuances for the Redmi Note 12 models, POCO X5 Xiaomi 13TThe interface of the gallery is different from the classical one.

It's important to understand that no method is 100% guaranteed privacy. If your goal is to protect against professional hacker attacks or judicial seizure of a device, consider physically deleting memory-recorded files (as discussed in the last section). For household tasks, hiding photos from friends, colleagues or children, built-in MIUI tools are enough.

The 1 Method: Hidden Albums in the Standard Gallery MIUI

The most obvious and quickest method is to use the Hidden Albums feature available in the Gallery's standard app, which works on all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices with MIUI 12 and later, the main plus is that it does not require installing third-party apps and is integrated into the system.

To hide the photos:

• 📂 Open the Gallery app and select the photos you want (click your finger for multiple selection).
• 🔒 Click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Hide (or Add to Hidden Album in new versions).
• 🔐 When you first use the system will prompt you to specify a PIN- code or pattern lock to access hidden files.

To view the hidden photos:

1. In the gallery, go to the Albums section.
2. Scroll down and click Hidden Albums (may be called Private Safe on global firmware).
3. Enter. PIN-code.

⚠️ Warning: Hidden albums do not encrypt files at the system level. When connecting your phone to your computer via MTP (file transfer mode), hidden photos can be found in the /storage/emulated/0/MIUI/Gallery/cloud/private/ folder. Use additional encryption for full protection (see Method 4).

Method 2: Archiving photos with a password (Zip encryption)

If you need to not just hide photos, but protect them from accidental detection, use the built-in archiver MIUI. This method is suitable for models Xiaomi 11T, Redmi K50 and later, where there is support for ZIP- encryption with AES-256.

Instructions:

• 📁 Open the File Manager app and go to the photo folder (usually DCIM/Camera).
• 🔐 Select the files you want, press More → Archive.
• 🔑 In the archive window, select Encrypt and set a password (minimum 8 characters, with numbers and letters).
• 🗑️ Once you have created the archive, delete the original photos (they will only remain in encrypted ZIP).

To open the archive:

1. Find a file with the.zip extension in the Archives folder.
2. Click on it and enter the password.
3. Remove the photo to a temporary folder (they will only be available before the phone restarts).

💡 Useful tip: If you're afraid of forgetting your password, write it down in a password manager (like Bitwarden or KeePassDX) or on paper stored separately from your phone. Don't use simple combinations like "123456" or date of birth -- they're easy to pick up.

Method 3: Transfer the photo to the protected folder "Second Space"

The MIUI’s Second Space feature allows you to create a completely isolated work environment with separate apps, gallery and settings, ideal if you want to not just hide photos, but make them inaccessible without special login.

How to set up:

1. Go to Settings → Special Options → Second Space.
2. Follow the setup wizard: set a password, PIN, or fingerprint to log in.
3. After creating a second profile, restart your phone.
4. Log in to Second Space (the icon will appear on the lock screen).
5. Copy the photo to the second profile gallery (they will not be visible in the main space).

⚠️ Warning: Second Space has critical limitations:

• 📵 Photos from the second profile cannot be moved back to the main one without re-entering.
• 🔄 When you reset your phone to factory settings, both profiles are deleted.
• 📱 On some models (POCO F4, Redmi Note 11), the function is disabled in global firmware.

🔍 Where to look for hidden photos in Second Space?

The files are physically stored in the /data/user_de/0/ folder, but you can only access them through the ADB root file. You can't find them without special knowledge.

Method 4: Encrypt folders through Private Mode (MIUI 14+)

The latest versions of MIUI 14 (for Xiaomi 13, Redmi Note 12 Pro+ and later) have introduced Private Mode, an improved version of hidden albums with hardware encryption. Unlike the standard method, here files are protected at the kernel level, which makes it difficult to recover them even when physically accessing the phone.

Activation of the Private Regime:

• 🔐 Go to Settings → Privacy → Private Mode.
• 📱 Enable the function and set the unlock method (Fingerprint + PIN is recommended).
• 🖼️ Return to the Gallery, select a photo and select Move to Private Mode.

Features of the work:

• 🔒 Photos disappear completely from the main gallery and file manager.
• 🔍 To view, you need to go to Private Mode via the notification panel or settings.
• 📴 If you lose access (for example, after resetting a password), files are permanently deleted.

⚠️ Warning: On Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset models (e.g. Xiaomi 13 Ultra), Private mode uses hardware acceleration of encryption, which can cause the gallery to slow down when processing large files (e.g. RAW-photos).

💡

Private mode in MIUI 14 is the only method that protects photos from recovery through ADB or custom recovery (TWRP).

Method 5: Hiding through third-party applications (with reservations)

If you don't like the built-in MIUI methods, you can use third-party apps like KeepSafe, GalleryVault or 1Gallery, but there are a few critical nuances:

The advantages of third-party applications:

• 🌐 Cross-platform (can be synced with iOS or Windows).
• 🔐 Additional layers of protection (e.g., false PIN for "covering").
• 📊 Advanced functions (geolocation concealment, automatic deletion).

Cons and risks:

• 🛑 Many applications (such as Vaulty) collect photo metadata and transmit it to servers.
• 🔓 Some applocks only block access to the gallery, but do not encrypt files.
• 📱 On MIUI, third-party applications may conflict with system services (e.g., miui.gallery).

🔧 How to Choose a Secure Application:

1. Check the permissions on Google Play (no contact or SMS access).
2. Use open alternatives like Aegis or Cryptomator (on-device encryption).
3. Discard the “Chinese” applications with closed code (the risk of data leakage).

💡 Useful tip: Before installing a third-party storage, check it for Exodus Privacy — the service analyzes applications for trackers. For example, GalleryVault has 5 trackers, and 1Gallery none.

Method 6: Physical removal (for paranoid)

If you need to permanently delete photos so that they can not be restored even by specialized programs, use the method of overwriting memory. This is true for selling a phone or in cases where the risk of data leakage is extremely high.

Instructions for complete removal:

1. 📱 Connect your phone to your computer in MTP mode and copy all important files.
2. 🔄 Perform a factory reset: Settings → About phone → Reset settings.
3. 💾 After reset, fill your phone’s memory with junk data (for example, download a big movie and delete it immediately).
4. 🔐 Use it as a guarantee. ADB (Included debugging is required by USB):

adb shell


su




dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=1M

⚠️ Warning: The latest command completely erases all data on the device, including system files. Use it only if you're ready to reflash the phone!

🔍 How do you check if the photo is deleted?

Use PhotoRec (Linux/Windows) to scan your phone's memory, and if the program doesn't find deleted files, the data is erased.

Comparison of methods: which one to choose?

📌 Key takeaway: For most Xiaomi users, the best solution would be a combination of Private Mode (for new devices) or ZIP- Archiving (for older models), Hidden albums would be suitable for a temporary solution, and physical removal would be only in exceptional cases.

FAQ: Frequent questions about hiding photos on Xiaomi