Just because you have important files residing in a folder on Mac doesn’t mean no one can access them. Mac users indeed require setting up a password for those folders that contain the essential information. With password protection, you are adding up security to the Folder, and thus no one except you can access those folders. It is a helpful thing if you are sharing your Mac with different people. So learning how to Password Protect a Folder Mac will save your essential information from being stolen. Unfortunately, you will not find the password protection option upon right-clicking a folder because Mac doesn’t have a built-in option to add a password to the Folder. But, you can Password Protect a Folder on Mac by putting the Folder into a password-protected container. It gives you the same protection, just like adding a password to the Folder.
How to Password Protect a Folder Mac with Disk Utility
This process will create a password-protected disk image, aka DMG folder on Mac.
(1). Use the Spotlight to find Disk Utilities or go to Applications and choose Utilities to agree on Disk Utility.
(2). Click on File on the Disk Utility menu bar to choose New Image and select Image from Folder.
Tip! Press Shift + Command + N to open the image from the Folder.
(3). Click on a folder that you want to encrypt with a password and tap on the select button.
(4). On the following screen, please provide a password and verify it on the respective field. Click Choose.
Add Additional information
(5). Please provide a name on Save As a field, enter tags, choose a location to save it, and choose 128-bit AES encryption. The Image Format field selects between compressed, read/write, hybrid image, and read-only. Tap on the Save button.
Add Additional information
(6). Wait for the encryption method to end. After receiving the confirmation message, you shall go to the Location where you saved the picture.
(7). You should provide the password to access the DMG folder. Agree OK to see the virtual disk with the same folder name.
Enter Password to Access Folder
Note: The password-protected Folder will be available on the Finder window as a dmg file. You shall double-click to open it and, when prompted, enter the password. Under Location, you will find the disk picture of your Folder. Click on the Folder to access it or even save new files. To close the Folder, right-click it and choose Eject.
Encrypt Files using OpenSSL (Without Third-party App)
[1] Open Terminal on your Mac using Siri/Spotlight/Launchpad.
[2] Enter or paste the following lines of code in the Terminal.
openssl aes-256-cbc -in ~/Desktop/Garden.jpg -out ~/Desktop/Encrypted.file
where
- OpenSSL and aes-256-cbc – the type of encryption.
- –in ~/Desktop/Garden.jpg – Location of the File you need to encrypt.
- -out ~/Desktop/Encrypted. File – Location of your encrypted File.
Note: You can alter the code according to the File and the Location on your Mac.
[3] Agree on entering, and you will be asked to enter the password for encryption.
[4] Hit enter and now verify the password.
[5] Again, hit enter to proceed.
[6] Presently, you can see the File has been protected.
To decrypt
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 Protect Folder Without Disk Utility
To protect or encrypt a File or Folder on your Mac PC with-out disk use, you need some third-party applications.
MacPaw Hider is one of the most famous tools used for protecting folders without disk use. It is a paid application, and the pricing starts at $19.
[1] Download and install MacPaw Hider on your Mac PC.
[2] Add the file/folder that you need to protect or encrypt into it.
[3] Enter the password to encrypt the File.
[4] That’s it. The File has been encrypted on Mac without using disk use.
Password Protect Files, Documents and Folders on Mac Using Compression
[1] Open free Terminal on your Mac device.
[2] Enter the Location of the File and hit enter.
cd Desktop
[3] After the Location is set, enter the command for compression and hit enter.
zip -e garden.zip garden.jpg
Where
- Zip – Compression format
- garden.jpg – The file name that is needed to be compressed
- garden.zip – compressed file name
[4] Hit enter to type the password for the compression file.
[5] Confirm the password and hit enter to compress the file/folder.
[6] To Unzip/decompress that Data, you need to enter the password to proceed.
Password Protect Files, Folders, and Documents using Third-Party application
[1] Download and install Encrypto from the mac app store.
[2] Launch Encrypto on your Mac PC.
[3] Drag and drop the File that you need to password protect.
[4] Enter the password for the File to encrypt and add a hint if required.
[5] Once done, agree on Encrypt to encrypt the Folder in an Encrypto archive.
[6] Once the encryption is done, drag and drop or share a file to a different safe location.
[7] To open the encrypted File, double click on it and enter the password given to Decrypt.
Apart from Encrypto, there are several different applications possible. Here are some of them that you can use.
- Concealer
- Data Guardian
- Hider 2
- MacFort
- Cisdem AppCrypt
- Espionage
- MacKeeper
- Protect Files, etc.
Bonus
To temporarily hide or protect files on your Mac, there is an easy way that you can follow. It prevents the File from listed on the Spotlight or any search on your Mac unless you navigate to the file location.
You need to add .noindex located next to the name of the folder that you want to protect.
For instance, if you have a folder named touchdowns, then change the folder name to touchdowns. noindex and place the Folder in some safe location. To find it quickly, you can change the colour of that Folder.
To Conclude
There are several tools possible to password protect a folder on Mac. But, we recommend you to use the built-in Disk Use tool to password protect a folder. It considerably saves your device storage, and you don’t have to run out of space.
Believe this section has provided the info you were looking for. Drop us your comments if you have got any queries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more useful object updates.
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