How to hide a video in the Xiaomi gallery: everything from built-in features to secret folders

Xiaomi’s MIUI-based smartphones offer several built-in ways to hide videos from the gallery, but not everyone knows they exist. If you’re storing personal videos on your phone that you don’t want to show to others — when viewing photos through the standard Gallery app or third-party file managers — this guide will help you securely hide them from prying eyes.

Many people mistakenly believe that it is enough to rename the file extension or move the video to a folder with a dot at the beginning (for example,.hidden). However, such methods do not work in MIUI 14/15: the system automatically scans media files and displays them in the gallery, regardless of the name of the folder. In this article, we will discuss 7 proven methods, including hidden MIUI functions, third-party applications with encryption and even methods for technically savvy users (via ADB).

We'll focus on security, because some methods, like password archiving, protect video better than others, but require additional actions. If you need to not just hide access, but block access with a password, read the section on MIUI Hidden Folder and applications like Vaulty or KeepSafe.

All instructions are tested on Xiaomi 13 Pro, Redmi Note 12 and POCO F5 smartphones with MIUI 14.0.5 and 15.0.2 firmware. If your model is older (for example, Redmi 9A on MIUI 12), some menu items may be slightly different - in this case, use alternative methods from the last sections of the article.

1 Built-in MIUI: Hiding Through Album

The easiest way to hide videos is to use the built-in Hidden Albums feature in the standard Gallery app, which requires no third-party installation and works on all Xiaomi devices with MIUI 11 and later.

To hide the video:

1. Open the Gallery app (a flower icon with petals).
2. Find the video you want to hide and hold your finger in thumb for 1-2 seconds until the selection box appears.
3. Click on the three dots in the top right corner → select Hide.
4. Confirm the action by clicking Hide in the pop-up window.

After that, the video will disappear from the main list, but will remain available in a special section:

1. In the Gallery, go to the Albums (bottom of the screen).
2. Scroll down and click Hidden Albums.
3. To view hidden files, you will need to enter a password or fingerprint (if the screen lock is configured).

⚠️ Warning: Videos hidden through the Gallery remain available in the Explorer file manager on the path /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/.hidden. For complete privacy, use the methods in the following sections.

If you want to return the video back, repeat steps 1-2, but select Show from the menu, which is convenient for temporary hiding, but does not protect against experienced users who know where to look for hidden files in the system.

2.MIUI Hidden Folder: Secret folder with password

Starting with MIUI 12.5, Xiaomi’s firmware feature Hidden Folder, a secure storage that is locked with a password or biometrics, doesn’t show files in either a gallery or an unauthorised conductor.

How to set up Hidden Folder:

• 📁 Open Settings → Privacy → Hidden folder.
• 🔒 Press Set up a password and come up with a PIN- code (minimum 4 digits) or use a fingerprint.
• 📤 Go back to Explorer, find the video you want to hide, and hold your finger on the file.
• 🔄 In the menu, select Move to a hidden folder.

To access hidden files:

1. Open the Conductor.
2. In the top menu, click on three dots → Hidden folder.
3. Enter your password or confirm with a fingerprint.

⚠️ Warning: If you reset your phone to factory settings, all files in Hidden Folder will be deleted without recovery.Be sure to transfer them back to your regular folder before resetting.

Important: Hidden Folder was renamed "Private Safe" in MIUI 15, but the way it works is the same: If you don't find it in the settings, update your firmware or search the menu.

3. Archiving video in ZIP with password

If you need to securely protect your video from viewing even when you connect your phone to your computer, the best way to do this is to pack it into a password archive, and any archive application, such as RAR or ZArchiver, will do this.

Step-by-step:

• 📥 Install ZArchiver from Google Play.
• 📂 Open the app, find the video in the folder (usually DCIM/Camera or Movies).
• 🔐 Hold your finger on the file → click Add to archive.
• 🔄 Select the format ZIP or 7z, tick Encrypt and enter the password (minimum 8 characters).
• ✅ Press OK, the archive will be created in the same folder.

To watch the video:

1. Open the archives at ZArchiver.
2. Enter the password.
3. Remove the file to a temporary folder (such as Download) and open through any player.

Advantages of the method:

• 🔒 Videos cannot be viewed without a password, even through a PC.
• 📱 The archive is not displayed in the gallery (unless extracted).
• 🌐 Works on any device, not just Xiaomi.

⚠️ Warning: If you forget your archive password, you can't restore access to the video. Store your passwords in a manager like Bitwarden or KeePass.

Make sure that the video is not open in other apps

Remember or save password

Choose a reliable format (7z more reliable than ZIP)

Check the available space on the phone-->

4. Third-party applications for video hiding

If you don't like the built-in MIUI, you can use specialized applications, which offer additional features: encryption, fake passwords, calculator masking, and even remote data erasure.

Top.-3 Proven applications for Xiaomi:

• 🔐 Vaulty -- hides video behind a password, backs up to the cloud, and there's Break-in Alert.
• 📱 KeepSafe supports fingerprint locking and encryption AES-256. You can create fake folders with false data.
• 🎭 Calculator Vault — masquerades as a conventional calculator. To open hidden files, you need to enter a special code (for example, 123456+10%).

How to hide video via Vaulty:

1. Install the app from Google Play.
2. At the first launch, ask PIN-code.
3. Click + → Import from the gallery and select the video.
4. The files will be automatically removed from the gallery and will only be available in Vaulty.

Warnings when using third-party applications:

• ⚠️ Some programs (e.g. GalleryVault) show ads that may interfere with the program.
• ⚠️ Applications with cloud redundancy (like KeepSafe) can collect metadata about your files.
• ⚠️ After deleting the application, hidden files may disappear if you do not make a backup.

💡

Before installing a third-party app, check reviews from the past 2-3 months. Some programs (such as Hide It Pro) previously contained password-bypassing vulnerabilities.

5. Hiding by renaming extensions (for experienced)

This method is not recommended for beginners, but it can be useful if you want to quickly hide the video without additional programs, the point is to change the file extension so that the gallery does not recognize it.

How it works:

1. Open Explorer and find the video (usually in DCIM/Camera or Movies).
2. Keep your finger on the file → Rename.
3. Change the extension from.mp4 to.mp4.bak or.dat.
4. Confirm the change.

To return the video, rename the file to.mp4, but this method has serious drawbacks:

• 🔍 The video will still be visible in the Explorer.
• 📱 Some players (e.g., VLC) can open files even with a modified extension.
• 🔄 When transmitted to a PC, the video will not be played without manual renaming.

⚠️ Warning: If you use Google Photos to back up, the renamed files may be duplicated in the cloud with the original extension.

For reliability, combine this method with moving the file to a dot folder (e.g.,.private).

/storage/emulated/0/.private/video.mp4.bak

6. Advanced method: Hiding through ADB (no root)

If you're willing to use a computer, you can hide video with ADB (Android Debug Bridge), which doesn't require root rights, but is only suitable for power users.

What you need:

• 🖥️ Computer with Windows/macOS/Linux.
• 🔌 USB-cable (preferably original).
• 🛠️ The ADB utility (download Platform Tools from the Android site).

Instructions:

1. On your phone, turn on Developer Mode: Go to Settings → About Phone. Press 7 times on the MIUI Version until you become a developer.

Settings → Additional → For Developers

USB debugging

Connect your phone to your PC and confirm your trust in your computer.

ADB

/path/to/video.mp4

adb shell "mv /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/video.mp4 /storage/emulated/0/.hiddenvideo/. && chmod 600 /storage/emulated/0/.hiddenvideo/video.mp4"

This command moves the file to a hidden folder and forbids reading for other users.

To return the video back, use:

adb shell "mv /storage/emulated/0/.hiddenvideo/video.mp4 /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/"

⚠️ Warning: Misuse of ADB may cause data loss or phone malfunction. Do not change the chmod for system files.

7.Alternative methods: cloud storage and physical removal

If you need to not just hide, but completely remove the video from your phone, consider the following options:

Privately Accessed Cloud Storage

• 🌥️ Google Drive: Upload the video to a restricted folder (click on file → Access Management → Restricted).
• 🔒 Mega.nz: Offers end-to-end encryption (files are encrypted before they are uploaded to the server).
• 📁 Proton Drive: Swiss storage with a strict privacy policy.

Physical Deletion with Backup

1. Copy the video to an external drive (flash drive, SD- card) or PC.
2. Remove the original from your phone through Explorer.
3. For reliability, use a program for irrevocable removal (for example, Shreddit on PC).

Creating "fake" videos

If you need to hide the very existence of the file, you can go for a trick:

• 🎬 Shoot a short video with a black screen (e.g. via CapCut).
• 🔄 Rename it to the original video (e.g. vacation.mp4).
• 🗑️ The original video is moved to Hidden Folder or archive.

Now, when you look at the gallery surface, it will seem that the phone only has harmless files.

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The most reliable ways to hide video on Xiaomi are MIUI Hidden Folder (for everyday use) and password archiving (for long-term storage).

FAQ: Frequent questions about video hiding on Xiaomi