5 Best Ways to Password Protect Folder on Mac.
Mac provides a number of features that can enhance your privacy, but folder password protection is not one of them. But as it turns out, there are several ways to password protect a folder on a Mac.
In this guide, we’ve covered the 5 best ways to password protect folders on Mac and also encrypt them. You can use these methods when you need extra protection for your files from colleagues or even your partners. Most of these methods involve enterprise-level encryption. So, if you want to lock a folder on a Macbook pro, even an iMac, this guide will help.
Also Read: Ways to Password Protect a Folder in Windows
# 1 Password Protect Folder on Mac with Disk Utility
Disk Utility is a built-in macOS application for managing disks, disks, and partitions. As is often the case, it also allows you to create a password protected folder on your Mac. It is not, in fact, a folder. But you can easily manage all your files. Let’s now look at the steps.
Step 1
First, we need to open the Disk Utility app on the Mac. You can simply search through Spotlight or find it in the Utilities subfolder in Applications.
Go to File New Image Image from Folder. Alternatively, you can press Shift + Command + N
Step 2
Now you need to select the folder that you want to password protect.
Step 3
In the window that opens, you need to select a few things, for example, name and security type.
- Give a name to the password protected folder.
- Specify some tags and choose where you want to save them.
- For encryption, select 128-bit AES Encryption and provide a password
- For the image format, you have several options, such as compressed, read / write, hybrid, and read-only. Choose one of them.
When you’re done, click the Save button.
Step 4
The encryption process may take some time depending on the size of the folder. After receiving the confirmation message, go to the location where you saved the image.
Enter your password and click OK.
Now you can see the virtual disk with the same name as the folder. Open it to view and access files.
After use, eject the disc to make sure no one else can access the folder.
Note. If you chose read / write for the image format, you should be able to copy and paste files easily. But that depends on what kind of protected folder you want.
You can count on this method if you need something native. As you can see, we don’t need a third party app to protect folders on Mac with Disk Utility.
# 2 Password protect Mac folders with Hider
If you want to password protect a folder on Mac without Disk Utility, third-party applications are better suited.
Macpaw Hider is a popular password protection application for folders and files. However, it works like a safe space inside your Mac. Hider is paid software (starting at $ 19 for a single license), but you can enjoy a free trial for 15 days.
You can use this method to encrypt and protect folders, files, and protected notes. It also has an impressive user interface to keep things cool. Once installed, you can add whatever you want to protect to Hider 2’s user interface. It also offers the option to hide document / folder.
Read: Best Ways to Password Protect a PDF File
This is the best thing we liked: once you close Hider 2, everything is safe. You must enter a password to access the content from the encrypted folder. Hider 2 is premium software that costs $ 19.95 per license.
You can try this method if you want a more affordable way to password protect files and folders. You cannot use this method if you want to send / transfer blocked content.
# 3 File encryption via Terminal using OpenSSL
Here’s another method built into Mac to protect your folders and files. You should use this method if you want to add files to an encrypted folder on Mac. We’re going to do this with Terminal, and it includes some code. If you like, let’s take a look at the steps.
Step 1
Open Terminal on your Mac and enter the following command. openssl aes-256-cbc -in ~ / Desktop / Photo.jpg -out ~ / Desktop / Encrypted.file
Now in this team
openssl and aes-256-cbc denote encryption type.
–In ~ / Desktop / Photo.jpg indicates the file you want to encrypt and its location.
-out ~ / Desktop / Encrypted.file specifies the location where the encrypted file will be saved
Step 2
Enter the command and provide the encryption password when asked.
Confirm password to continue
Step 3
You can now see the Encrypted.file document on your desktop. Depending on your needs, you can change the directory and encryption methods.
Note. To decrypt the same file, enter the following command openssl aes-256-cbc –in -d ~ / Desktop / Encrypted.file -out ~ / Desktop / Photo.jpg
Make sure you change the filenames and add “-d” without quotes.
As we said earlier, you can use this method to encrypt and protect individual files. Since everything can be controlled through the Terminal, you don’t need any third party software. Well, the limitation is that you cannot do this for a folder.
# 4 Use hidden to protect files, folders, and more with a password
Concealer is an advanced Mac app that lets you encrypt and store files and folders. Plus, you can take care of confidential documents such as Notes, Credit Card and software licenses. All of them are protected by one master password.
In addition to this, Concealer also allows you to set a personalized password for your saved files. As we said in the case of Hider 2, it also uses 256-bit encryption. After closing, everything is clean. Without a master password, anything you saved in Concealer will be inaccessible.
There are also some other smart features that might interest you. But the point is, you can simply drag and drop the files and encrypt them with maximum security. Of course, don’t expect these files to be easy to share. Unlike terminal and service disk methods, you must have Concealer app for encryption and decryption.
Concealer for Mac is available for $ 19.99. However, there is a free trial that allows you to save a limited amount of data.
# 5 Password protect files using compression
Here’s another method to protect files / folders through Terminal. However, we are going to compress the password folder or file. Thus, access to content without a password is not possible. But since it is a ZIP file, you can send / transfer it easily.
Let’s take a look at the steps.
You need to open Terminal and move it to where you saved the file. In my case, my files were on the desktop. cd Desktop
Now, after confirming, you need to enter the following command. zip -e photo.zip photo.jpg
So this means the Photo.jpg file will be converted to a ZIP file named photo.zip. After the command, you must provide a strong password. Repeat your password and you’re done.
In a second or two, you will see the zipped file on your desktop. Now, when someone tries to open the ZIP archive, they need a password to open the folder on Mac. Do one more thing: delete the original file, as it is safe inside a single ZIP file.
As you can see, this method works like a piece of cake. You don’t need to worry about someone gaining access to your files, especially if you’ve deleted the originals. Plus, this password protection will work even if you move the ZIP file to a different location.
Additional tip
Want to prevent some folders from showing up through Spotlight? Here’s the way.
Add “.noindex” after the folder name. If the folder name was Photos then do it Photos.noindex
The folder will no longer appear in Spotlight search. Keep it somewhere out of the way and it’s kind of safe.
Password Protect Folder on Mac
So, we’ve covered the 5 best ways to create a personal folder on macOS. The first four methods use a higher level of encryption, and the fifth one uses compression. In any case, it is certain that others will not have access to your files. If you ask us, Utility Disk is our favorite. You don’t need a third party app, but you have read / write access to the folder. Which one do you think you would choose? Let us know in the comments.
Read: 4 Things You Can Do When You Forgot Your Wi-Fi Password