Samsung retires My Knox in favor of Secure Folder

My Knox was a free security solution from Samsung that enabled users to keep their work and personal data separate on one device. The My Knox app created a container which could only be accessed by an authorized user. All files and data would be safely encrypted within the container. It was a full virtual Android environment with its own home screen, launcher, apps and widgets.

Samsung now has a more effective solution for this, one that doesn’t weigh down on the device as much as My Knox did. It’s called Secure Folder and it runs on devices with Android Nougat OS or higher only.

The company is sending termination notices to My Knox users today, informing them that My Knox is no longer going to be available on new Samsung devices in 2017. Users who require a secure space on their handset have been advised to set up Secure Folder, which is now available from Galaxy Apps.

Secure Folder relies on Samsung’s defense-grade Knox security platform and creates a private, encrypted space on the device. All apps and data moved to Secure Folder is partitioned separately on the device with an extra layer of security and privacy.

Users can transfer their private content from My Knox to Secure Folder easily. They have to back up their My Knox data by going to My Knox settings > Backup and restore and then restore it in Secure Folder by going to Secure Folder settings > Backup and restore > Restore. A Samsung account is required for this feature.

Samsung says that users can continue using My Knox until its end-of-service date which will be announced soon.