Exactly how to use my secure folder?

[jbcamel]

There is only one app on my phone that has anything personal.  I'd like to remove the lock screen from my phone but put a lock on the email app.

I tried doing it with a Secure Folder.  The email app was in the folder.  Am I supposed to remove the email app icon that is NOT in the folder?  I was afraid if I removed it my email app would be gone from the phone.

Secondly, even if I get this to work, what's to stop anyone who can get into my phone from removing the secure folder and getting into my email without a code?

Thanks

[realaud]

I don't know what mail reader app you are using, but I use BlueMail and it has the facility to put a password on the app in order to open it to read mail.  Yours may as well.  As far as what's stopping anyone from reading your email, since most email is web based these days, if someone knows your email address and password, they can just go to a web browser and read it (unless you turn on 2 factor authentication), they would not need your phone.  As far as reading it from your phone is concerned, you want to choose not to be inconvenienced by a lock screen, but why would anyone have access to your phone, secured or not?  My advice to you would be to enable the mail reader app lock, if your app has one, or switch to an app that does.  If you are using your mail provider's app, then all you need to do is require it to not keep you signed in so you have to enter your password each time and turn on 2FA, although this would not prevent someone who is holding your phone in their hand and knows your mail password from intercepting the authentication code to open your mail.  You can also hide your mail app from the home and app screens rather than put it in the secure folder, but you will have to search for it every time you want to read or send mail.  You would have to disable notifications for it as well, as someone accessing your phone (whether the email app is in your secure folder or not), can easily read the notification, tap it and enter your email folders.  

If all this seems like a lot of trouble, it is much, much easier just to keep your lock screen on. Or, as I said, just use a mail reader app that allows you to password it.

[jbcamel]

Should have mentioned that I'm using Gmail

[realaud]

Well, as long as your phone is logged into your Gmail account your mail is always logged in.  If you log out of your Google account on the phone, you will no longer have auto sync/backup with Google, and you will have to log into the apps each time you want to use your email or the Play store.  Also, even with your email app in the secure folder, as long as you are logged into Google, if someone was to open a web browser and go to www.gmail.com, they would have access to your email. In this instance, if you truly do not want to use a lock screen, I would suggest not using Gmail at all, choosing another email provider and another mail reader app.  It's really just plain easier to keep the lock screen.  You can activate extend unlock so you don't have to keep putting your pin in every time the screen locks, but you will still have to do it occasionally.  Now you have me extremely curious as to what nefarious doings are going on in your email conversations that you are willing to go through all that.

[jbcamel]

First of all thank you very much for your thorough responses.

Secondly, nothing nefarious going on here. It's just that if I have any personal info I don't want someone to see it would be in my email account someplace. Everything else on my phone is benign. I have tried the extended unlock and I have tried trusted places. Trusted places Works about 50% of the time and leaving my phone unlocked too long uses the battery up. Ah well, I'll just have to keep the screen lock on

[realaud]

Extend unlock should not use extra battery resources, unless you were also keeping the screen on. It's the screen on that's the battery sucker.  Also, trusted places is not entirely accurate.  I have instead created a routine to remain unlocked when connected to my home wi-fi (and other trusted wi-fi networks).  I also have it set for when it's connected to my watch via Bluetooth (trusted device), in case I am not on a trusted wi-fi network.  You still have to unlock it every 4 hours (biometrically, pin or password), or after a missed call or notification and need to enter your pin or password every 72 hours or after a reboot, but it significantly cuts down on the inconvenience of putting in your pin every time the screen goes dark.

[jbcamel]

Trusted places and trusted devices don't work for me. At least they work less than 50% of the time. I wanted to create a routine for connecting to my Wi-Fi but couldn't quite get it. When I have some time I'll try again.

Again, thanks for the help

[realaud · Accepted solution]

This is my routine. It's very simple.  The reason it ends the routine with keeping my phone unlocked, is because the trusted device works perfectly for me.  I was using that prior to creating my routine.

[jbcamel]

I tried creating the routine but it won't let me. The If part worked fine. I chose my Wi-Fi network. But the keep my phone unlocked was not available. It was on the screen but dimmed out. When I try to select it I got an error.

[realaud]

Did you choose the network to be on to keep it unlocked? You have to choose a network. Some people don't realize that