This articles explains how you can password protect your folders and files on your Mac. You can assign passwords for files and folders. Everyone must enter to open the file or folder because the contents of your locked files or folders will be hidden.
Important note: Although password protecting requires different steps for different file and folder types, it is common for most of them the that there’s no way to recover your password if you forget it.
Oct 14, 2020 How to Password Protect a Folder on Mac 2020 Updated October 14, 2020 October 5, 2020 by Ankur You may have sensitive files like documents, images, videos, voice notes, that you want to keep private from friends and family (if they ever happen to use your Mac). Sep 18, 2020 Open the Notes app on your Mac; Select the file you want to protect with a password; In the menu bar of the Notes window, click the 'lock' icon; Select 'Lock Note' Enter a password for the Note you'd like to protect; That's all it takes! If you want to protect a file that isn't in Notes, you can via Preview. One thing to keep in mind. Password Protect Folders. By following the steps below, you will create a password protected disk image (DMG) folder on a Mac. If you want to password protect files certain files like images etc, you may place them in password protected folders. In this tutorial, we are password protecting a folder called macReports. Password protect any app on Mac, be it built-in or third-party; Let you lock apps during certain hours with the Schedule feature; Provide a report of failed attempts to open locked apps with date, time and photo; Block websites on Chrome and Safari; Offer two modes to block websites: Blacklist and Whitelist; Support macOS 10.10 or later. To remove password-protection, simply follow the steps again and delete the password on the 'File Passwords' window. Using Disk Utility for Folders If you want to password-protect other files in Mac OS X, like photos, videos, and music, you can dump them in a folder and use the native Disk Utility feature to create an encrypted disk image of.
This article has two parts: (1) how to lock a folder (2) how to lock a file
See also: Slow iCloud Keychain?
1. Password Protect Folders
By following the steps below, you will create a password protected disk image (DMG) folder on a Mac. If you want to password protect files certain files like images etc, you may place them in password protected folders.
In this tutorial, we are password protecting a folder called macReports.
1. Open Disk Utility (Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility).
2. In Disk Utility, go to File > New Image > Image from Folder…
3. Now, select the folder you want to password protect. In our example, it is the macReports folder, and click Choose
4. You can save this new folder as anything you want. Select where you want to save this folder. You can name it anything you wish. Encryption, select “128-bit AES Encryption (Recommended)” and image format, select “read/write”. When you select the encryption, you will be asked to enter a password. Enter your desired password and click Choose.
5. And after that, click Save. Disk Utility will say ” Creating folder disk image “macReports.dmg”. It may take several seconds, when it is completed, click Done. Now, you may wan to delete the original folder.
2. Password Protect Files
You can also password protect individual files, if you prefer. But the process is different for different file types. here is how:
Password Protect your Notes
See also: How to create text files
Please note that the Notes app uses a one (single) password to lock all notes. Here is how:
1. Open the Notes app on your Mac
2. Create or select an existing note to lock
3. Click the padlock icon and select Lock Note
4. You will be asked to enter your password. It is also recommended that you enter a password hint. The hint will be displayed after you entered a wrong password three times. All of your other Apple devices (iOS, iPhone or iPad and macOS) will use this password if they are using the same iCloud account.
5. Click Set Password
To remove a Notes password, again click the padlock icon and and select Remove Lock.
Password Protect PDF Files in Preview
You can password protect PDF files in the Preview app (PDF won’t open?). Here is how:
1. Open the PDF file you wish to password protect in Preview
2. Go to File > Export
3. Select the “Encrypt” box, enter your password and click Save.
4. Next time you want to open this file you will need to enter its password.
Note that you can password protect other file types using this method. You can simply convert your files to PDF files in Preview by going to File > Export as PDF.
Password protect Pages documents, Keynote presentations and Numbers files
In this article, we are further showing how you can password-protect a Pages document. The steps are identical for Keynote and Numbers as well. Here is how:
1. Open the Pages, Numbers or Keynote file you wish to password protect and go to File > Set Password
2. A new window (require a password to open this document) will appear. Enter your password. You may want to enter a hint also. If you are using the Keychain app, you may want to check the “Remember this password in my keychain” box so that you can add the password to your keychain.
As stated above, you can use the same steps to password protect Keynote presentations and Numbers files.
You can also change or remove your password protected Pages, Keynote and Numbers files by going to Choose File > Change Password. And enter your password, after that you can change or remove the password.
App-specific passwords are passwords for your Apple ID that let you sign in to your account and securely access the information you store in iCloud from a third-party app. For example, use app-specific passwords with mail, contacts, and calendar services not provided by Apple. App-specific passwords maintain a high level of security and help ensure your Apple ID password won’t be collected or stored by any third-party apps you use.
If you are signed in to iCloud for Windows, you don't need an app-specific password when using your Apple ID with third-party Microsoft apps.
To generate and use app-specific passwords, your Apple ID must be protected with two-factor authentication.
You also need an app-specific password for your devices that use Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 and earlier or iOS 5 and earlier. If you don’t have devices that can be updated to iOS 9 or later or OS X El Capitan or later, you can set up two-step verification and generate app-specific passwords.
Find Password Mac
How to generate an app-specific password
- Sign in to your Apple ID account page.
- In the Security section, click Generate Password below App-Specific Passwords.
- Follow the steps on your screen.
After you generate your app-specific password, enter or paste it into the password field of the app as you would normally.
How to manage app-specific passwords
At any given time, you can have up to 25 active app-specific passwords. If you need to, you can revoke passwords individually or all at once.
- Sign in to your Apple ID account page.
- In the Security section, click Edit.
- In the App Specific Passwords section, click View History.
- Click next to a password you want to delete, or Revoke All.
After you revoke a password, the app using that password will be signed out of your account until you generate a new password and sign in again.
Password Protect Mac App
Any time you change or reset your primary Apple ID password, all of your app-specific passwords are revoked automatically to protect the security of your account. You'll need to generate new app-specific passwords for any apps that you want to continue using.