Just because important files are in a folder on your Mac doesn’t mean no one can access them. Mac users must set a password for the folders that contain the most important data. Password protection adds security to a folder, so no one but you can access it. This is useful if you share your Mac with more than one person. So when you learn how to password-protect a folder, Mac will protect your important information from theft. Unfortunately, if you right-click on a folder, you won’t find a password protection option because the Mac doesn’t have a built-in option to add a password to the folder. However, you can protect the folder on your Mac by placing it in a password-protected container. This offers the same protection as adding a password to a folder.
To protect a Mac with a password-protected folder using theDisk Utility
This method creates a password-protected disk image, also known as a DMG folder on the Mac.
(1). Use Spotlight to find Disk Help, or go to Applications and select Utilities to click Disk Help.
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(2). On the Disk Utility menu bar, click File and select New Backup and Backup from the folder.
Council. Just press Shift + Command + N to open the folder image.
(3). Click on the folder you want to encrypt with a password and then click the Select button.
(4). In the following screen, enter the password and confirm it in the corresponding field. Click on Select.
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(5). Then, in the Save as a name field, enter the tags, choose a location, and select 128-bit AES encryption. In the Image Format field, you can choose between compressed, read/write, hybrid, and read-only. Click the Save button.
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(6). Wait until the encryption process is complete. After receiving a confirmation message, you will be redirected to the image location.
(7). You must enter a password to access the DMG folder. Click OK to display the virtual hard drive with the same folder name.
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Pay attention: The password-protected folder will be available in the Finder window as a dmg file. You must double-click to open it and enter the password when prompted. In the Location section you will find a disk image of your folder. Click on a folder to open it or even to save new files. To close a folder, right-click the folder and select Eject.
File encryption with OpenSSL (not a third party application)
1] Open the terminal on your Mac via Siri/Spotlight/Launchpad.
2] Type or paste the following code lines into the terminal.
openssl aes-256-cbc -out ~/Desktop/Garden.jpg -out ~/Desktop/Encrypted.file
where
- openssl and aes-256-cbc encryption type.
- -in ~/Desktop/Garden.jpg is the location of the file to be encrypted.
- -out ~/Desktop/Encrypted.file – Location of the encrypted file.
Pay attention: You can change the code depending on the file and location on your Mac.
3] Press the Enter key and you will be prompted to enter the encryption password.
4] Enter the password and check it.
5] Press the Enter key again to continue.
6] You can now see that the file is secured.
To transcribe
Use the following code and enter the password to decrypt the file.
openssl aes-256-cbc – in -d ~/Desktop/Encrypted.file -out ~/Desktop/Garden.jpg
Password protected folder without disk utility
To protect or encrypt a file or folder on a Mac computer without using Disk Utility, third-party applications are required.
MacPaw Hider is one of the most popular tools for protecting folders without a disk utility. This is a paid application and the price starts at $19.
1] Download and install MacPaw Hider on your Mac PC.
2] Add the file or folder to be protected or encrypted.
3] Enter the password to encrypt the file.
Here’s how. The file is encrypted on a Mac without using Disk Utility.
Password protection for files, documents, and folders on a Mac with compression
1] Open the terminal on your Mac.
2] Enter the file location and press the Enter key.
desktop CD
3] After specifying the location, type the compression command and press the Enter key.
zip -e garden.zip garden.jpg
Where
- Zip – compression format
- garden.jpg is the name of the file to be compressed.
- garden.zip – compressed filename
4] Press the Enter key to enter the password for the compression file.
5] Confirm the password and press the Enter key to compress the file/folder.
6] A password is required to unzip/extract this file.
Password protection of files, folders and documents via third party application
1] Download and install Encrypto from the Mac App Store.
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2] Run Encrypto on your Mac.
3] Drag and drop the file you want to password protect.
4] Enter the password to encrypt the file and add a note if necessary.
5] Then click Encrypt to encrypt the folder in the encryption archive.
6] When encryption is complete, drag and drop the file to another secure location.
7] To open an encrypted file, double-click it and enter the password assigned by Decrypt.
Besides Encrypto there are several other applications. Here are some you can use.
- Concealer
- Data Custodian
- Wardrobe 2
- MacFort
- Cisdem AppCrypt
- Spying
- MacKeeper
- File protection, etc.
Bonus
There’s an easy way to temporarily hide or protect files on your Mac. This prevents the file from ending up in Spotlight or any other type of search on your Mac unless you navigate to the location of the file.
Just add a .noindex next to the name of the folder you want to protect.
If you z. For example, if you have a folder named techowns, change the folder name to techowns.noindex and put the folder in a safe place. To make the search easier, you can change the color of this folder.
Close
There are several tools available to password-protect a folder on your Mac. However, we recommend using the built-in utility for the drive to protect the folder with a password. This way you save a lot of space on your device and don’t waste any time.
I hope this section gave you the information you were looking for. Leave us your comments if you have any questions. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates to more useful articles.