How to open a personal album on Xiaomi: all ways to access hidden photos and videos

Have you ever seen a situation where important photos or videos of Suddenly disappear from the main gallery on a Xiaomi smartphone? Most often they are not deleted, but simply hidden in a personal album - a secure storage that the manufacturer has integrated into the MIUI firmware for user privacy. This feature is available on all modern models - from the budget Redmi Note 12 to the flagship Xiaomi 14 Ultra, but not everyone knows how to use it.

The problem is that the hidden file access interface changed with the release of new versions of MIUI. If MIUI 12 was a personal album part of the standard gallery, MIUI 14 moved it to a separate application MIUI Hidden Folder. In some regional firmware, this option may be disabled by default. In this article, we will discuss all the current login methods, from standard to alternative, including bypassing the password if you forget it.

1. Standard method: through the Gallery appendix

The most obvious way is to use the built-in Xiaomi Gallery, which works on most devices with MIUI 12-14, but may vary depending on the firmware version. If you have an older model (like the Redmi 9 or Poco X3), the interface may look different.

To open a personal album:

• 📱 Open the Gallery app (icon with multi-colored squares).
• 🔍 In the upper right corner, tap the icon "Three dots» (⋮) or "Albums" (depending on version).
• 🔒 In the drop-down menu, select Personal Album or Private Safe (in English firmware).
• 🔐 Enter a password, fingerprint or pattern lock if they have been set.

If there is no personal album on the menu, it means:

• 📵 The function is disabled in the settings (see Section 2).
• 🔄 You have an outdated version. MIUI (Update the firmware through Settings → The phone. → Updating the system).
• 🌍 Firmware for another region (e.g. global instead of Chinese).

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If you don’t see the Gallery icon on your desktop, check the MIUI folder in the app menu or use a system search (swipe down on the home screen).

2.Alternative entrance: via MIUI Hidden Folder

Starting with MIUI 13, Xiaomi introduced the personal album feature into a separate app, the MIUI Hidden Folder, which is pre-installed on all new devices, but can be hidden from the user.

Method 1: Searching through the system

1. Swipe down on the home screen to open the search bar.
2. Enter Hidden Folder or Personal Album.
3. Slip on the found application and enter the password.

Method 2: Through Security Settings

• 🔧 Go to Settings. → Passwords and security → Confidentiality.
• 🔍 Find a Personal Album or Hidden Folder and activate it.
• 📲 After activation, the application will appear in the menu or on the desktop.

If the MIUI Hidden Folder application is not available, it can be installed manually:

1. Download. APK-file from the official Xiaomi forum (for example, here).
2. Allow installation from unknown sources in Settings → Appendices → Special Rights.
3. Install the APK and restart the phone.

3. Access through File Manager (File Manager)

If the standard methods don’t work, you can try to find hidden files through Xiaomi Explorer, which is suitable for advanced users, since it requires knowledge of the MIUI folder structure.

Instructions:

1. Open the Explorer app (icon with folder).
2. Go to Categories → Images or Internal Memory.
3. Enable the display of hidden files: Tap on ⋮ → Settings → Show hidden files. Or type a path in the address bar: /storage/emulated/0/MIUI/PrivateAlbum/.

Enter the password when you request it.

Note that the files in this folder may have.nomedia extensions or be encrypted. enc_12345.dat, This means that they are protected by hardware encryption. MIUI And they won't open without a password.

Enable the display of hidden folders in the Explorer

Check the path /MIUI/PrivateAlbum/

Make sure your phone is not connected to your PC (to avoid blocking)

Have a password or backup on hand PIN-code-->

* Without a password, you can only see the file names, but not their contents.

** Password is not required if USB debugging is enabled and the phone is unlocked.

4 How to log into a personal album without a password

Forgot the password for your personal album? It's a bad situation, but it's not a bad one. Xiaomi has a few ways to restore access, but they require you to set up a backup email or something. PIN-code, chances of recovery are minimal.

Method 1: Recovery through MI-account

• 📧 Open up. MIUI Hidden Folder and press Forgot Password?.
• 🔑 Enter the phone-bound MI-account (email or phone number).
• 📩 Confirm the recovery through SMS email.

Method 2: Reset via security settings (not working on all models)

1. Go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Privacy → Personal Album.
2. Choose Reset password.
3. Confirm the action through a fingerprint or PIN-lock-code.

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If you didn't tie it. MI-phone account and did not set up a backup PIN, The only way to get back access is to reset the phone to factory settings, which will delete all the data, including hidden files!

⚠️ Attention: On devices with MIUI 14 and later, if you repeatedly misenter a password, your personal album is blocked for 24 hours. 4uKey) This can lead to complete loss of data.

Method 3: Bypass ADB (for advanced users)

If you have USB debugging enabled, you can try accessing files via your computer:

adb shell


su




ls /data/system/privatealbum/

This command will show you a list of files, but you'll need root permissions to extract them, and without them, you'll only see encrypted data.

Frequent problems and their solutions

Even after successfully logging into a personal album, users encounter errors, and here are the most common ones and ways to fix them:

Problem 1: The personal album does not open, and it gives an error: "Can not download the data."

• 🔄 Reboot the phone.
• 📥 Update the Gallery's applications and MIUI Hidden Folder via Play Market.
• 🧹 Clear the cache: Settings → Annexes → Application management → gallery → Warehouse → Clear the cache.

Problem 2: The photos on the album are shown as black thumbnails.

• 🔐 Make sure you enter the correct password (sometimes you need to restart the application).
• 📸 Try opening a file through another application (e.g. Google Photos).
• 🔧 Check the encryption settings in Settings → Additionally. → Confidentiality.

Problem 3: After the MIUI update, the personal album disappeared.

• 🔍 Check the folder. /MIUI/PrivateAlbum/ through the conductor.
• 📥 Install. MIUI Hidden Folder from APK, if he's not in the system.
• 📧 Contact Xiaomi with the phone model and firmware version.

⚠️ Note: If you have transferred files to a personal album MIUI 12 and then upgraded to MIUI 14, they could have been automatically encrypted by the new algorithm, in which case, without a password, they cannot be restored.

6 How to transfer files from a personal album to another phone

Transferring hidden files from one Xiaomi device to another requires caution, as they can be linked to a specific phone through hardware encryption.

Method 1: Through Backup

• 📱 Open up. MIUI Hidden Folder and select files for export.
• 🔄 Click Export and save them to a regular folder (e.g., Export, DCIM/Camera).
• 📤 Transfer files to your new phone via Xiaomi Cloud, Google Drive or cable USB-OTG.

Method 2: Use of the MI-account

• 🌐 Log in under one. MI-phone-account.
• 🔗 Enable synchronization in Settings → Accounts. → Mi Cloud → gallery.
• 📥 Download files from the cloud and transfer them to your personal album.

Method 3: Through PC (for unencrypted files)

1. Connect your phone to your computer in File Transfer (MTP) mode.
2. Go to the Internal Memory folder → MIUI → PrivateAlbum.
3. Copy the files to your PC and then to your new phone.

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If files become unreadable when you transfer them, try changing their extension from.dat to.jpg or.mp4 manually.

7.Security of personal album: how to protect your data

A personal album at Xiaomi is not only a handy tool, but also a potential vulnerability if it is misused.

What to do:

• 🔐 Use a complex password (at least 8 characters with numbers and letters).
• 📧 Tie it up. MI-Account and backup email for recovery.
• 🔄 Regularly update the firmware (in new versions) MIUI fix vulnerabilities).
• 📱 Enable two-factor authentication in Settings → Accounts. → Mi Account → Security.

What to avoid:

• 🚫 Do not keep a password from a personal album in notes or SMS.
• 🔌 Do not connect your phone to public charging (risk of data interception).
• 📲 Do not install third-party password crackers – they may contain viruses.
• 🔄 Do not disable device encryption in the developer settings.

MIUI 14 adds the automatic deletion feature after 10 failed password attempts, which protects the data from being retrieved, but also means that if you lose your password, you will lose access forever.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions