Two possibilities: the image was never made by Tuxia, or it got compressed/transcoded in transit (most common when sending pictures directly in WeChat/QQ). Ask the sender to resend the original as a "file", or via cloud drive / ZIP.
PNG has the best quality — ideal for sending as a file. GIF survives re-compression better on forums, good for direct posting. JPG works too, but some platforms force-re-encode JPGs, which is riskier.
No hard limit in theory, but bigger files mean bigger images and slower processing. We suggest staying under 50MB per session.
No. All hiding/extraction happens locally in your browser — files never leave this device. Try it offline: everything still works. (See Privacy Policy.)
No. The password only participates in key derivation on your device — we store nothing and keep no backdoor. Remember it, or share it with the recipient through another channel.
What they see is just an ordinary image. They need to open Tuxia (a web page, nothing to install), upload the image and enter the password to extract the files.
Yes — open this site in a mobile browser, same as on desktop. Note that WeChat/QQ in-app browsers may restrict file downloads; use the system browser instead.
A ZIP screams "there's something inside"; a Tuxia image looks like just a picture — one extra layer of concealment. Add a password and you get "invisible + unopenable". Cloud drives suit large files; Tuxia suits discreet sharing of small-to-medium files.
With a password set, Tuxia derives a key via PBKDF2 (200k iterations, random salt) and encrypts with AES-256-GCM — a bank-grade combination. Without the password it's gibberish. The weak link isn't the algorithm but the password itself: short passwords can still be guessed, so use a long one.
PNG is the safest bet with lossless quality — best for file-style sending. GIF resists re-compression on forums, good for direct posting. JPG works but some platforms force-re-encode it. When in doubt, hit "Random cover".
Yes. The file format is backward compatible — older versions can generally read images made by newer ones (except brand-new encryption options). Still, both sides using the latest version avoids edge-case bugs.
Recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari — JavaScript and file downloads must be allowed. IE and very old browsers are not supported. On phones, use the system browser; in-app browsers (WeChat/QQ) may restrict downloads.
Yes. Tuxia is a free public-welfare tool site: no memberships, no packages, every feature open to everyone, sustained in the future by a small amount of advertising. If you'd like, you can donate to buy us a coffee — purely voluntary, everything works the same either way.
Normal. Everything is computed locally in your browser with no server, so files above ~50MB get noticeably slower and use more memory. Stick to 50MB per session; for huge files a cloud drive is the better tool.
Both individuals and businesses may use it for free. What's not allowed: repackaging or reselling Tuxia under another name. See Terms of Service.
Honestly: possibly. Append-style steganography visibly inflates file size, which a knowledgeable person or a detection tool can spot. Tuxia solves "invisible to passersby", not "resistant to professional analysis" — don't use it where you need to defeat censorship. For legitimate uses this is rarely an issue.
Report it via our contact page — mark the subject with [Abuse Report] and include relevant details. We'll act promptly. Reminder: this site is for lawful use only (Terms); violators bear full responsibility.
Depends on settings. JPG/WebP are lossy — above quality 80 the difference is nearly invisible; PNG is lossless, only resized. Our defaults (1280px longest side, quality 82) balance size and quality well for everyday sharing.
Yes. Compression only changes the image itself; Tuxia appends data after the file end. Suggested flow: compress to a sensible size first, then use the compressed image as the cover — one pass.
No. Wiping only removes header metadata segments (time, GPS, etc.); pixel data is untouched — strictly lossless. Before and after are pixel-identical.
Any outing photo with location: travel check-ins, your kid's school gate, a new home — GPS is accurate to meters. And any original sent "as a file" (cloud drive links, email attachments) carries EXIF along. Check with our EXIF viewer first.
Yes. Both use PBKDF2 + AES-256-GCM with the same ciphertext format (starting with $TX1$). Text encrypted here can be pasted into the Base64 tool and decoded with the password, and vice versa.
Yes — it's just a normal (noisy-looking) image. The recipient de-obfuscates it in Tuxia. Note: if WeChat compresses it, the recovered image loses some quality; for important images, send the original as a file.