What Does Encrypt SD Card Mean and How to Encrypt SD Card/USB Flash Drive

"How do I encrypt my SD card? I want to lock my SD on Android phone to keep some files away from others, can I directly encrypt micro SD card on my phone? Is it easy to decrypt SD card? Any help?"

"I notice that there is a device encryption option on my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone to encrypt SD card. What does encrypt SD card mean? It claims that it can protect files and folders from unauthorized access in case the device is lost or stolen. Could I set password here to lock my SD card? What about the SD card decryption? Anyone know about this?"

With small size and large storage, SD card is widely used in digital products to carry all types of files like photos, videos, songs, documents and more. USB flash drives and SD cards provide a convenient way to back up and transfer data. However, with the convenience and portability, it also brings some data leaking and breach risks.

Then SD card encryption comes to tackle these issues.

You can encrypt SD card to set a password or visual pattern lock to stop others from accessing any file on your card. Actually, many Android devices offer the encryption option, and many SD card locker tools can help you encrypt SD card.

But do you have a clear understanding of the storage device encryption? Do you know what exactly encrypt SD card mean?

• Part 1. What does encrypt SD card mean
• Part 2. How to encrypt SD card (or a USB drive/flash drive)
• Part 3. How to access encrypted data on SD card

Part 1. What does encrypt SD card mean

Encrypt SD card is to set a key or password to lock others out of everything on this card. You can encrypt SD card to better protect your personal data and stop others from accessing this storage device.

When the SD card is encrypted, only authorized ones can access its content. To read an encrypted file, you need a secret key or password that enables you to decrypt it. In this way, your private data will be totally safe with you, even your device is lost by accident. You can also decrypt SD card. Decryption is the process of taking encoded or encrypted data and give user the authority to access files again.

Part 2. How to encrypt SD card (or a USB drive/flash drive)

When it comes to encrypt SD card, it more refers to encrypt SD card on Android device, and for the micro SD card encryption. Also, many users want to encrypt SD card on Windows computer. If you are an iOS user, you don't have such demand. In this part, we will show you how to encrypt a SD card on Android.

Step 1 Unlock your Android phone and open Settings app. When you get the Settings Menu, swipe down to locate the Lock screen and security. Tap on it.

Step 2 When you enter Lock screen and security interface, tap on Encrypt SD Card option.

Step 3 Tap on Encrypt SD Card again and then draw the current pattern as your SD card encryption lock. You can encrypt your SD card when lock screen security is created.

How to decrypt SD card

With the three steps above, you can handily encrypt your SD card on Android. Then how to decrypt it when you want to access various data? This part will show you how.

Step 1 Turn on your Android phone and enter the Lock screen and security interface again.

Step 2 This time, you need to tap on Decrypt SD card option.

Step 3 Tap "Decrypt SD card" option again and decrypt SD card by entering Lock screen security you set before.

Part 3. How to access encrypted data on SD card

Due to many reasons, you may lost some important files on your SD card. Is there any simple way to get them back? If you are facing the same situation, you can rely on the professional SD Data Recovery to get the job done. It has the capability to recover deleted/lost files like images, documents, songs, videos, etc. from SD card. Just free download it and have a try.

Step 1 Run SD Data Recovery

Click the download button above to get this SD card data recovering software installed on your computer. Even you have an encrypted SD card, you can use it to restore various data from it.

Step 2 Select data type and SD card

You can see many frequently-used data types are listed in the interface for you to choose from. Choose the file type you want to restore. Here you also need to choose the data restoring location. Click the fresh icon on Removable Devices part and tick your SD card.

Step 3 Scan data on SD card

Click Scan button to start scanning selected data on your SD card. It will first takes Quick Scan mode to look for your lost data by default. It is also designed with a Deep Scan function.

Step 4 Restore encrypted SD card data

Select the files you want to retrieve and the click on Recover button to get the back. After a while, when the process is finished, you can easily manage these files on your computer.

Besides encrypted SD card, this SD Data Recovery enables you to recover data from computer, hard drive, digital camera, and more. To better protect your valuable data, ensure you have installed this tool on your computer.

We mainly talked about encrypt SD card in this post. First, we give you a basic introduction about what does encrypt SD card mean. Then we show you how to encrypt SD card on Android device. At last part, we introduce you with a powerful data recovery tool to guarantee your data is totally safe. Feel free to leave us a message if you have any question.