Hidden folders: The secret hoarders of your phone

May 7, 2025

By Kim Komando

You deleted that weird photo of your ex’s mom from your vacation three summers ago … or did you? Hidden folders on your phone are holding your “deleted” pictures and videos hostage, quietly clogging your storage and embarrassing you long past their expiration date. 

Time to go folder spelunking and clear out these digital cobwebs. 

📷 Android: The archive and trash trap

If you use Google Photos (and most Android users do, plus a lot of iPhone folks, too), you have two sneaky folders: Archive and Trash.

• Archive is where you stash photos you don’t want cluttering your main feed but still want to keep.
• Trash is where deleted photos go to hang out for 30 to 60 days before they’re permanently erased.

How to check them:

• Open Google Photos. Tap Collections at the bottom.
• Tap Archive to see hidden photos. Tap Trash to see what’s waiting to disappear (or secretly stick around).

👉 Pro tip: If you accidentally deleted something important, you can still recover it from Trash, but only if you catch it before the auto-delete timer runs out.

📱 iPhone: Recently deleted isn’t deleted

Think you’ve cleared that shameful live photo of you fake laughing at brunch? Nope. Apple’s got it chilling in the Recently Deleted album, sipping a mimosa while taking up your storage for 30 days before vanishing for good.

How to check it:

• Open your Photos app.
• Scroll down to Utilities and tap Recently Deleted.

👉 Pro tip: Clearing out Recently Deleted can free up serious storage, especially if you have videos hanging around. Those things are storage hogs.

Don’t forget about your hidden folders. They’re like your junk drawer full of stuff you thought you threw out but didn’t.

☄️ My friend showed me a photo of a famous meteor crater in Arizona. It’s amazing how close it landed to the Visitor Center. (Oh that was so bad it was so good!)