How to Hide a File in an Image File

This wikiHow teaches you how to hide one or more files inside of an image file on a computer. You can do this on both Windows and Mac computers. Copy the the file(s) and the image to your desktop. Select the files you want to hide, press ,...
Method 1 of 2:

On Windows

  1. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 1How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 1
    Copy the the file(s) and the image to your desktop. Select the files you want to hide, press Ctrl+C, go to your desktop, and press Ctrl+V, then do the same with the image you want to use.
  2. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 2How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 2
    Select the file(s) you want to hide. Click and drag your mouse cursor across the list of files you want to hide.
    1. If you're just hiding one file, click once the file to select it.
  3. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 3How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 3
    Right-click a selected file. Doing so will prompt a drop-down menu.
    1. If your mouse doesn't have a right-click button, click the right side of the mouse, or use two fingers to click the mouse.
    2. If your computer uses a trackpad instead of a mouse, use two fingers to tap the trackpad or press the bottom-right side of the trackpad.
  4. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 4How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 4
    Select Send to. It's near the middle of the drop-down menu. A pop-out menu will appear.
  5. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 5How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 5
    Click Compressed (zipped) folder. This option is near the top of the pop-out menu. Doing this creates a new ZIP folder with your files inside.
  6. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 6How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 6
    Enter a name for the ZIP folder. After the ZIP folder appears, type in whatever you want to name the ZIP folder and press Enter.
    1. It's best if you choose a one-word name for the ZIP folder.
  7. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 7How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 7
    Right-click the image. A drop-down menu will appear.
  8. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 8How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 8
    Click Properties. It's at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
  9. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 9How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 9
    Check the image's extension. In the parentheses next to the "Type of file" heading, you'll see the type of file your image is (this will usually be either ".jpg" or ".png").
  10. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 10How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 10
    Copy the image's location. Click and drag your mouse cursor across the address to the right of the "Location" heading, then press Ctrl+C. This will ensure that you enter the path to your files correctly.
    1. You can close the Properties window after doing this.
  11. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 11How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 11
    Open Command Prompt. Open Start
    How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 12How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 12
    , type in command prompt, and click
    How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 13How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 13
    Command Prompt at the top of the Start menu.
  12. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 14How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 14
    Change the directory to your desktop. Type in cd and press the spacebar, then press Ctrl+V to paste in the copied address and press Enter. This will change Command Prompt's focus to use the desktop.
  13. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 15How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 15
    Type in the "Copy" command. The command to place the file(s) in your image is as follows: copy /b image.extension+folder.zip image.extension where "image.extension" is replaced by the image's name and its extension (e.g., "hello.jpg") and "folder.zip" is replaced by the ZIP folder's name and extension (e.g., "hi.zip").
    1. For example, if your ZIP folder is named "Secret" and your image is a JPG named "Hide", you would type in copy /b Hide.jpg+Secret.zip Hide.jpg here.
  14. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 16How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 16
    Press Enter. Doing so runs the command and places the ZIP folder inside of the image.
  15. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 17How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 17
    View your hidden files. Once your image contains the ZIP folder, you can double-click the image file to open the image as-is; however, if you want to view the image's hidden files, do the following:
    1. Install WinRAR if you don't have it.
    2. Open File Explorer
      How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 18How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 18
      .
    3. Click the View tab.
    4. Check the "File extensions" box in the "Show/hide" section.
    5. Go to the image file you used, right-click it, and click Rename.
    6. Replace the image file's extension with "rar" (e.g., "Hide.jpg" would become "Hide.rar").
    7. Press Enter, then click Yes when prompted.
    8. Double-click the image file to open it in WinRAR.
Method 2 of 2:

On Mac

  1. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 19How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 19
    Copy the the file(s) and the image to your desktop. Select the files you want to hide, press Command+C, go to your desktop, and press Command+V, then do the same with the image you want to use.
  2. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 20How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 20
    Select the file(s) you want to hide. Click and drag your mouse cursor across the list of files you want to hide.
    1. If you're just hiding one file, click once the file to select it.
  3. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 21How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 21
    Control-click one of the selected files. Doing so will prompt a drop-down menu to appear.
    1. You can also use two fingers to press the mouse button.
  4. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 22How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 22
    Click Compress Items. It's in the drop-down menu; you should see the number of items you've selected there as well (e.g., Compress 4 Items). Doing so creates a ZIP folder named "Archive".[1]
    1. If you're only compressing on file, you'll click Compress [file name] here.
  5. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 23How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 23
    Check your image's extension. Before you can hide your ZIP folder in the image, you'll need to know your image's extension:
    1. Click once the image to select it.
    2. Click File.
    3. Click Get Info.
    4. Look at the tag after the period in the file's name at the top of the Get Info window.
  6. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 24How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 24
    Open Terminal. Click Spotlight
    How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 25How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 25
    , type in terminal, and double-click the
    How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 26How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 26
    Terminal app icon.
  7. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 27How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 27
    Change to the desktop directory. Type in cd Desktop and press Return to do so.
  8. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 28How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 28
    Enter the "Hide" command. The command for hiding a ZIP folder inside of an image is as follows: cat image.extension Archive.zip > image2.extension where "image.extension" is your image's name and extension (e.g., "Hide.jpg"), "Archive.zip" is your ZIP folder's name and extension (in most cases, it literally will be "Archive.zip), and "image2.extension" is whatever you want your output image's name and extension to be.
    1. For example, if your image file is a JPG named "Secret" and your ZIP folder is named "Archive.zip", you would create a hidden file image named "Normal" by typing cat Secret.jpg Archive.zip > Normal.jpg here.
  9. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 29How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 29
    Press Return. Doing so runs the command and places the ZIP folder inside of the output image.
  10. How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 30How to Hide a File in an Image File Picture 30
    View the hidden files. While double-clicking the output image will open the image like usual, you can view the image's hidden files by doing the following:[2]
    1. Place the image on your desktop if it isn't already there.
    2. Open Terminal and type in cd Desktop.
    3. Type in unzip image.extension where "image.extension" is your output image's name and extension.
    4. Press Return.
    5. Follow any in-Terminal prompts.
    6. Open the folder that appears on your Mac's Desktop to view the files.
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