Software To Password Protect Folders Mac

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Aug 19, 2015  Without downloading additional software, Apple enables its Mac users to password-protect files or folders. Here's how you can do it too. Reader James McCormick desires a way to password protect multiple files at one go. He writes: Is there a way to password protect a folder that holds Word or Excel files? Mar 20, 2019  Before you can even think of password protecting your folders and files, you’ll want to decide whether or not you’ll want some help password protecting your folders. There are a wide variety of programs you can choose from that will help you password protect your files and folders.

Sometimes you might be working on sensitive documents and other files that you don’t want viewed by wandering eyes. The best way to prevent your files from being accessed by other users on your computer is to password-protect them.

Many people aren’t aware of this, but it is possible to password-protect individual documents and larger groups of files on your Mac (as well as on other platforms.) Individual documents can be password-protected using a hidden feature in Pages, while a bunch of files can live in a password-protected drive stored right on your Mac. That’s right, these features are available without any software or purchases.

Protect Individual Documents with Pages

If you don’t care to password-protect large groups of files or anything outside of standard documents, you can use Apple’s Pages app to get the job done for individual files. Pages is Apple’s word processor that comes with every Mac, so there’s no need to spend money on software like Microsoft Word.

In Pages, just start a new document or open an existing one. Before you’re about to close or save it, click File in the menu bar. Then move your mouse down to Set Password… and click it.

This will prompt you to create a password for this document. Enter the same password in the VerifySoftware update on mac not responding. field. While it’s only optional, it’s also recommended to come up with a password hint in case you forget the password. Once you are done, there’s no getting back into this document without knowing the password.

When you’re ready, click Set Password. You’ll notice after saving the document and locating it in Finder, the icon now has a lock on it to indicate that it is password-protected. When you try to open it in the future, you’ll be prompted to enter the password you set.

Note: Without the document password, no one can view or make changes to your document with one exception. You can rename the document in Finder without the password. The contents of the document continue to remain unaccessible even after renaming, but note that the document title itself can always be altered.

Create a Password-Protected Disk Image

To password-protect large groups of files, multiple different file types or multiple folders, you’re better off just creating one big password-protected disk image to store everything in. This is basically like creating a virtual hard drive that lives on your actual hard drive. There’s no need to plug in any external devices.

Note: Make sure you have some free space left to dedicate to the disk image before creating it. The amount you’ll need depends on the amount of files you want to store. If you just need to store documents, think megabytes. Generally around 100 MB should do the trick. If you need to password-protect groups of images or videos, maybe consider 1 GB or 2 GB storage instead.

To create the password-protected image, you’ll need to use the Disk Utility application on your Mac. Open it from the Applications folder in Finder or just search for it using Spotlight. From here, click File in the menu bar, New Image and then Blank Image… This will create a blank image from scratch.

Give your disk image a name and choose the location to store it. Then below the main fields, you have options for customizing it. Enter the size in the appropriate field. (If you’re unsure about the size, try 100 MB for now and see how that suits you.) Keep the format to the default OS X Extended (Journaled).

Software To Password Protect Folders Mac

For the encryption type, select the 128-bit AES encryption (recommended) option. You’re prompted to set your password here, so choose something secure, but easy enough to remember.

After that, leave everything else unchanged: “Single partition – GUID Partition Map” for Partitions and “read/write disk image” for Image Format.

Now you’ll want to open your disk image by double-clicking it Finder and entering in your password. Move every file or folder you want protected into the disk image. Click the Eject button in the Finder sidebar when you’re done to exit.

Secured Enough?

Next time you want to access these files, the disk image will require you to enter the password beforehand. Join us in the forums if you have questions.


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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.

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

Software To Password Protect Folders Mac

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

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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

Software To Password Protect Folders Mac Os

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.

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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:

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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.

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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.