How to Rescue Your Photos From the My Secret Folder and Other iPhone Apps

Has the Hidden Photos app stopped working after an update?

The My Secret Folder app stopped working after the iOS version 11 update a few years ago and no longer allows you to access your files through the app. This article will show you how to recover these files by other means.

Red Knight Interactive, the makers of the app, made the following statement

“This is a frustrating and heartbreaking ending for the My Secret Folder app as the company no longer has the time, money, or resources to develop an update for the app to support Apple’s new 64-bit iOS 11 becomes.”

I made this article to show an alternative solution for “My Secret Folder”, but it works for other hidden photo apps as well. Most recently, the “Calculator+” app stopped working after updating to iOS 14.6. Follow these instructions to recover pictures and videos from this and other apps.

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How to recover your files for free

Don’t be desperate. There is a way to recover your files from hidden image apps for free. The methods shown below are intended for PCs, but will also work on Macs with some modifications that Mac users will probably be aware of.

What you need:

• A PC or Mac with iTunes installed
• Your iPhone or iPad with the hidden photos app containing your files
• iExplorer software for PC or Mac (free download)

To get started: Connect your device to your computer

In the following, I refer to iPhones, but these instructions are identical for iPads.

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer using the USB cable.
2. Start iTunes.
3. Click on the device icon as circled in the screenshot below.

Make a backup of your iPhone

Make sure “This computer” is selected and “Encrypt iPhone backup” is NOT selected.

Click the “Back Up Now” button and wait for the completion. This may take a few minutes depending on the size of the backup and the speed of your computer.

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Extract hidden folders from backup

If you don’t already have iExplorer installed on your computer, do so before proceeding

1. Launch iExplorer on your computer.
2. Click on “Continue in demo mode”.
3. Find your device name in the list on the left.
4. Expand the choices by clicking the arrow to the left of the device name.
5. Click “Backup” to see if this is the last backup.

Locate the My Secret Folder app

When you find the most recent backup

1. Expand Backup.
2. Expand Backup Explorer.
3. Click App.
4. Scroll down to find “com. red. MSF”.
5. Double-click com.red.msf.

Annotation:

If you have the “Lite” version of My Secret Folder, search for “com.red.msflite”.

If you have an older version, try searching for “com. brighten.SecretFolder”.

One reader (KylaWitch) reported that she was able to find her notes in “App/mycom.pragmatic.my/library/application support” and then in a folder called “SecretApps.sqlite”. She was able to view the contents in Windows Notepad.

If you are using the Calculator+ application, you can find the content in XYZ. hyper tornado. calculator/Library/Data.

If you use Photo Safe, try ‘com. galaxy studio. privatediskfree’.

For other applications that aren’t listed, you’ll probably have to examine each and every folder in the backup to find what you’re looking for.

Depending on the application, you may have to look in “Documents” “Library/Data” or other subfolders to find the content.

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Your files have been saved

I’ve noticed that video files are saved with the correct file extensions, but my PC saves photos without an extension. Renaming and adding “.png” worked for me. If that doesn’t work, try “.jpg”.

Some applications open an image file even if it has the wrong extension, some don’t. If you still cannot see the images and you have a Windows-based PC, try downloading the freeware program Irfanview, which can work with many types of image files. It opens the file and renames it to the correct extension.

I installed Mo Wellin’s Lock Photos Secret Photo Vault app from the App Store to replace My Secret Folder. The free version works fine, but an advert is played every time you open it. After a few times, I decided to buy the $2.99 upgrade which has no ads. I chose this app based on the reviews, but there are other similar apps out there.