How To Encrypt and Hide Photos, Videos and Files on Android

Would you be willing to let another person browse your photo or video gallery? As digital data becomes more accessible and easy to carry, there’s an increasing demand for privacy. Sure, there are certain smartphone apps that allow you to lock and hide your personal data. But are they truly secure?

When you search the Google Play Store, you’ll find several “vault” apps that offer to keep photos, videos and other media files protected with a passcode (or pattern lock, fingerprint, etc.). We explored several of these apps, to find out whether they really secure the data with encryption or not.

In our tests, we imported photos and videos into different vault apps, and tried to recover them externally without unlocking them. Turns out, many of these apps do not actually encrypt the file, leaving them vulnerable, and easily recoverable without the passcode.

For instance, AppLock from DoMobile is one of the most popular app lockers on Google Play, but its app-lock screen can be bypassed in several ways, based on its on-device implementation.

Additionally, the Vault feature of the app is intended to hide your private photos and videos on your Android device. But as it doesn’t implement encryption, these hidden files could be recovered quite easily, by browsing the device storage using a regular file manager app.

On the other hand, a few security apps, such as Vault from NQ Mobile Security, claim to encrypt your data with passcode. But studies have shown that the popular vault app is quite easily crackable as it doesn’t implement a standard encryption algorithm.

So, if you really want to protect your private data, you should instead look for apps that use industry grade encryption algorithms (such as AES 256) to encrypt data on your Android device. Here, we’ve picked a few such apps that fulfil this requirement.

Additional write permissions required: Due to Android’s restrictions, certain third party apps don’t provide the option to delete files from external storage (SD Card). So, if you import files from the SD card into the vault apps, you may have to manually delete them from their original locations on your device.

To open a particular vault folder, you need to provide its specific password. Each of the files within the vault can be opened from within the app. It will first decrypt your file, and then provides a suitable app (from your installed ones) to open the file in.

If you want to transfer your Secrecy vaults to a different Android device, just copy the SecrecyFiles directory from the Internal Storage of your previous device and paste it in the same location on your new device. The vaults will still contain the same password.

Additional security options include the Stealth Mode, which allow you to completely hide the app icon from the App Drawer, enabling you to access Secrecy app by dialing a specific number from the Phone app. You can even change the default location of the vault to a custom one.

Being an open source app, Secrecy is available as a free download on the Google Play Store, but the developer is open to donations. And the Stealth Mode feature of the app is exclusively available only to those who donate.

SecureSafe – Highly Secure Online Storage Vault

SecureSafe is an award winning Android app for secure online file storage and password management. It provides strong AES 256 driven double encryption, triple data storage, and zero knowledge architecture, ensuring one of the highest levels of security & privacy in the cloud.

With SecureSafe, you can store Passwords, PIN, Credit/Debit Cards, Banking Information, Images, Videos, Contacts and more, organized in different dedicated folders. All the data that is imported into the app is encrypted and uploaded to the SecureSafe servers, in such a way that no one except the user has any access to it. Being zero knowledge, the files are encrypted locally with your unique private key, and then uploaded to the server.

Even if an unauthorized person gets access to your encrypted data in the cloud, they can’t retrieve the original data from it, without knowing your associated private key. Additionally, your files are uploaded to the cloud via HTTPS, and are stored in high security Swiss data centres, one of which is located in a former military bunker!

Besides storing all sorts of data, SecureSafe features Data Inheritance, which ensures that business partners or family members can access the secure data on emergency. This needs to be activated via a web app. Refer this webpage for more information about setting up and using this feature.

The app lets you open PDF files in an encapsulated environment within the app, so that there’s no trace left of it on the device. It also lets you capture and encrypt photos and videos directly within the app. And with the SecureSend feature, you can encrypt and send files up to 2 GB in size to any recipient of your choice. The recipient doesn’t require the SecureSafe app to download and access the file.

One of the only downsides of this app, is that it majorly works online. Even though the app does have an Offline Login mode, it’s only meant to view the files that are encrypted on your current device. Any new password, file or other data that you need to encrypt, requires an Internet connection.

Your SecureSafe files are accessible across multiple devices, using the SecureSafe apps, which are available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Web platforms.

In the free mode, SecureSafe allows you to safely store up to 50 unique passwords, along with up to 100 MB of personal file storage. The PRO user can avail an unlimited number of password storage, and unlock up to 1 GB of personal data storage. The Silver and Gold plans can further increase the personal storage limit to 20 GB and 100 GB respectively. Check out the various available plans for SecureSafe, in this webpage. Also, there are separate plans for Business users.

Andrognito – Hide & Encrypt Private Files Easily in Android

Andrognito is a vault app that secures your private photos, videos and files using military-grade AES 256 encryption, and supports quick data encryption/decryption techniques. Thus, it strikes a good balance between security and convenience of use. The app can be protected by a PIN, passcode, pattern, or even fingerprint lock on supported Android devices. The access lock has to be configured during the initial set up.

During the initial setup, the app will ask you to sign up with your email address. You have to configure a security option to authenticate yourself. Within the app, users have the option to import photos, videos and other files into the Vault.

Once imported, the files can be accessed only from within the app. They are stored on your device using AES 256, which means intruders cannot retrieve data from encrypted files unless they have access to your private keys.

The app looks impressive in the way it looks (with Material Design and all that). But we noticed a particularly strange thing about the app. Whenever you reinstall the app on a different device, and use the same email to sign in to the app, it retrieves all the file names (along with empty placeholders) of all the files that you previously stored during your previous installation.

This means that the app does keep some sort of record of the files you import and encrypt in Andrognito. Although, the app developer doesn’t mention this anywhere. This poses a potential security risk as to what personal data is actually stored in Andrognito servers. And that’s why we are mentioning it at the end, even though initially it was one of our top picks in terms of security, usability and experience.

Top 5 Things to Know About the iOS 11.2 Update

The arrival of iOS 11.2 beta 6 means an official release is extremely close for iPhone, iPaIf you want to try the iOS 11.2 update out ahead of its release you’ll want to prepare. Early iOS software is usually riddled with bugs and iOS 11.2 beta testers have already discovered some issues with iOS 11.2 beta 1, iOS 11.2 beta 2, iOS 11.2 beta 3, and iOS 11.2 beta.

Apple’s also outlined several known issues in the latest iOS 11.2 beta release notes.

We’ve put together a pre-installation guide to the iOS 11.2 beta and it should help you avoid major headaches. If this will be your first time trying a beta, you’ll want to look that over.

If start noticing performance issues or iOS 11.2 bugs, you’ll want to report those issues to Apple so its engineers can improve the final release.

You’ll also want to take a look at our guide to fixing iOS 11 beta problems. You might be tempted to downgrade, but you should be able to fix some issues on your own.

Apple’s confirmed yet another iOS 11 update for its mobile devices. iOS 11.2 comes with a x.x designation which means it will bring a mix of security patches, bug fixes for lingering iOS 11 problems including an annoying calculator bug, and new features including Apple Pay Cash.

With an official iOS 11.2 release probably a few weeks away, the iOS 11.2 change log could change as Apple refines the software ahead of the official release. That said, it should be much bigger than iOS 11.1.2.

This guide will take you through the most important things to know, right now, about the iOS 11.2 release date, iOS 11.2 beta, iOS 11.2 release time, and the changes on board Apple’s iOS 11.2 update.

iOS 11.2 Beta

If you want to try the iOS 11.2 update ahead of the official release you can do so via Apple’s iOS 11.2 beta.

Apple’s released a pre-release version of iOS 11.2 for developers. The beta is currently available to developers and those enrolled in Apple’s Beta Software Program. The company’s Beta Software Program is available to anyone with a working Apple ID. It’s also free.

You Can Downgrade from iOS 11.2 Beta

Speaking of the downgrade, if you install the iOS 11.2 beta on your phone or tablet you aren’t stuck. You can downgrade to an official version of iOS 11 if it starts giving you problems.

As of right now, iOS 11.2 beta users can downgrade to six official versions of iOS 11: iOS 11.0.1, iOS 11.0.2, iOS 11.0.3, iOS 11.1, iOS 11.1.1, or iOS 11.1.2. There’s no way to downgrade to anything older than iOS 11.0.1.

So, if you make the move to iOS 11.2 beta from iOS 11.0 or iOS 10, you won’t be able to go back.

We expect Apple to close up at least some of these downgrade options in the near future so you’ll need to make your move rather quickly.

The downgrade process is rather straightforward and our guide will walk you through the steps beta users need to take in order to get off beta software.

iOS 11.2 Release Date & Time

We initially thought the iOS 11.2 release date could land in December alongside the HomePod because iOS 11.2 is bringing SiriKit for HomePod. A release in December is still possible, but the HomePod delay reduces the odds. The HomePod launch has been pushed into early 2018.

That said, now that we’re on the sixth iOS 11.2 beta, we’d expect the official release to be a few days away. We’d be surprised if it missed December.

The iOS 11.2 release date is difficult to pinpoint right now, but the iOS 11.2 release times, for both the official update and beta releases, aren’t.

Apple’s iOS 11.2 update will arrive around 10AM Pacific on release day. The company’s iOS 11.2 betas for developers and public beta testers will also arrive around 10AM Pacific.

Apple typically releases new beta updates every 1-2 weeks though the releases typically come faster once the company gets close to the final release date.

Here’s what the iOS 11.2 release time looks like for other regions in the United States and countries around the world including Australia, India, and Japan:

• Eastern – 1 PM
• Central – 12 PM
• Mountain – 11AM
• London – 6 PM
• Moscow – 9 PM
• New Delhi – 10:30 PM
• Shanghai – 1 AM
• Tokyo – 2 AM
• Melbourne – 3 AM
• Auckland – 5 AM

Remember, Apple never releases iOS updates, or betas, on the weekend and it typically avoids releasing new iOS software on Fridays.

Update : IOS 11.2 is now here and you can install the update to make your ios device faster and on the latest version.

How To Upload photos, videos older than 24 hours to your Instagram Stories

Upload photos, videos older than 24 hours to your Instagram Stories

Ever since Snapchat introduced Stories, the popular feature has been adapted by Facebook in its various apps, including Instagram, WhatsApp (known as “Status”) and even Facebook itself. “Stories” lets you share a stream of photos and videos that have a lifespan of 24 hours, and automatically expire beyond that duration.

To upload a story, you need to tap on the “You” bubble from the Stories section on top of the screen, and then either snap new photos/videos that you want to include in your story, or pick photos/videos from Camera Roll (iOS) or Photo Library (Android), by swiping up from the bottom.

Now, here’s the catch. Instagram only lets you pick photos and videos from Camera Roll/Photo Library that have been shot in the last 24 hours. Anything older than that are discarded by the picker. So, if you want to create an Instagram Story using your older photos and videos, the app will not allow you to do that.

In this article, we’ll explore a certain workaround to let you use older photos and videos in your Instagram Stories.

Adding Old Photos, Videos to Instagram Stories – How it works

The workaround, we’re going to use, basically changes the timestamp of a particular photo or video, so as to trick Instagram into thinking that it was shot within the last 24 hours. Thus, Instagram lets you access the particular file from the media picker on the “New Story” screen.

This can be achieved on both Android and iOS. And the process is a bit simpler on Android compared to that on iOS. Here, we’ll demonstrate both.

Add old videos, photos to Instagram Story from iOS Camera Roll

In order to alter the timestamp of a photo or video to the current date, so that they are usable on Instagram Stories, either we need to edit its metadata, or save it again as a new file. Manually, this process might be somewhat inconvenient as it’s not so straightforward. So, we have created readymade workflows that help you to do the same easily.

You need to have the Workflow app installed on your iPhone or iPad, which is available for free on the App Store. Next, you’d need to install the two workflows, ReSave Photo and ReSave Video to your device by tapping on the “Get Workflow” button from your iPhone or iPad. The selected workflows will be added to the “My Workflows” section of the app.

Once this is done, the below steps will guide you to change the timestamp of photos and videos on iPhone and iPad, and make them available in the media picker for Instagram Stories.

1. Open the Photos app and select the particular photo or video that you want to use in your Instagram Story.
2. Tap on the Share button from the bottom and select “Run Workflow” option from the Action Extensions section of the Share menu. If the option is not available, tap on the More icon and turn on the Run Workflow extension from the list and tap on Done.
3. Choose ReSave Photo or ReSave Video workflow, depending on the type of media you selected in Step 1.

The selected workflow will now execute and automatically modify the timestamp to the current date and time. Now, you can open Instagram, go into the New Story screen and pull up the picker from the bottom. The desired photo or video that you just processed should be available to pick. Repeat the same steps for all the photos and videos that you want to add to your Instagram Story, and they will appear in the story picker within Instagram.

Note: Both the ReSave workflows mentioned here, create copies of the original photos or videos. Hence, there will be duplicate files created in Camera Roll. If you want, you could delete the newly created duplicates soon after the files have been successfully uploaded to your Instagram Story.

You can achieve the same results using any app that allows you to re-save photos or videos with the current timestamp, or lets you modify the timestamp of the files.

Add old photos, videos to Instagram Story on Android

On Android, file timestamps can be changed to the current date and time simply by a file transfer operation. Thus, you can use an old photo or video on your Instagram Story, just by transferring the file to another random location.

1. Copy or move desired photo or video that you want to add to your Instagram Story, from its original location to any other directory, using a suitable file manager app.
2. After the file operation is completed, the timestamp of the file in the destination directory is automatically changed to the current date and time.

Thus, after the photo or video is transferred (copied or moved) from one directory to another, the picker available in Instagram Stories will allow you to select the particular photo or video for your new story. You can repeat the same process for all the photos and videos that you want to add to your story, and the same will be available for you to upload from the new story screen.