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Hidden folders

Local only. A hidden folder is a normal album that's invisible everywhere in the app — the album list, the tree, search — until you unlock it with its own password for the current session. It's one of AIPPics' key privacy features: keep sensitive photos on-device, password-locked, and move them only to places you control — your own Desktop server or SMB share — never a third-party cloud.

Creating one​

Open the + menu (Edit mode) in any album and tap Create hidden folder, under "Albums". Unlike a regular new album, there's no name field — you're only asked for a Password and to repeat it (at least 4 characters, both must match). Tap Create, and the folder appears immediately, already unlocked for you — you don't need to enter the password again right away.

Without AIPPics Plus, you can have up to 2 hidden folders, each holding up to 3 photos — trying to go past either limit opens the same free-tier upgrade screen described in Settings: Demo, Free and Plus. With Plus, that cap is effectively gone — up to 100 hidden folders, far more than anyone is likely to actually need.

Once created, a hidden folder works exactly like any other album — add photos to it, browse it, drag things in and out — the only difference is what happens when it's locked, and that it can't be renamed.

Locking and unlocking​

Settings → Hidden folders opens a screen with:

  • Auto-lock — when hidden folders should automatically lock again:
    • On background (the default) — the instant you leave the app.
    • On app close — only when AIPPics is actually terminated, not just backgrounded.
    • Manual only — never automatically; only the actions below lock anything.
  • Show hidden… — prompts for a hidden folder's password and, if it matches, unlocks that one folder for the rest of the session. You can't tell from the prompt whether a password you type is right, wrong, or matches a different hidden folder than the one you had in mind — it just unlocks whichever one it belongs to.
  • Hide all — immediately re-locks every hidden folder for this session, regardless of the Auto-lock setting. Asks you to confirm first.

While locked, a hidden folder doesn't appear anywhere — not as a greyed-out or placeholder entry, it's simply not in the list. Once unlocked, it shows up as an ordinary album named Hidden, Hidden-1, Hidden-2, and so on — the number just reflects the order you unlocked folders in during this session, not a permanent name, so it can look different the next time you unlock more than one.