There are likely a few files or folders on your Mac you'd rather nobody have access to. Sensitive financial information, personal documents, and work products are all great examples of files others shouldn't see.
The simplest way to protect your digital documents is to use passwords for them. Here, we'll show you how to password protect a folder, how to add a password to a folder, and discuss some methods for both protecting your digital documents and reducing how much storage space those documents take up on your Mac.
How to add a password to a folder
You can password protect folder contents using macOS and Disk Utility, a built-in utility on your Mac. First, make sure everything you want to password protect is in a folder on your Mac. This is a good time to consider how you want to save files; don't just dump everything into one large folder, use individual folders or sub-folders for better organization.
Folder Protect is a new concept in Data Security. It lets you password protect and set different access rights to your files, folders, drives, installed programs and popular extensions. Protected Folder optimized engine to let it keep locking files even if the PC is suffering malicious attack. New and Important Changes in Protected Folder As a powerful files protection tool, Protected Folder can protect your important files and data from theft, loss or leaks. Creating a Folder: Open ('Finder2' icon) Finder. Click the Finder app icon, which resembles a blue. Keeping the original unprotected folder at hand isn’t such a hot idea as it’s accessible to anyone who uses your Mac when it’s logged into your account, so trash it or archive it somewhere safe.
Once you've settled on how you want your files stored, follow these steps to protect folders with a password on your Mac:
- Open Disk Utility on your Mac
- With Disk Utility open, select 'File' from the menu bar
- Hover over 'New Image'
- In the ensuing menu, select 'Image from Folder'
Select the folder you want to protect with a password
Choose your encryption level: 128-bit, or 256-bit
Enter and verify the password for your folder
Name the folder if desired
Under 'Image Format' select 'read/write' from the menu
- Select 'Save'
Password protecting individual files
Password-protecting folders in Disk Utility is the most secure method Apple has, but you can still use passwords to prevent prying eyes from seeing just about any document on a Mac. Here are two core methods for password protecting files on your Mac.
Notes
Apple's Notes app for macOS can password protect individual files with a few clicks. You can create a notes file from scratch, or scan in a document on your iPhone, which is saved as its own unique document. Whichever method you choose, follow these steps to password protect Notes files:
- 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.
Preview
One thing to keep in mind about Preview is it can only password protect PDF files. If you want to protect a different filetype, you'll first have to export it as a PDF – then export it and password protect the file. Here's how to use a password for PDF files using Preview:
- Open Preview on your Mac
- Select the PDF file you want to password protect
Note: You can also right-click a PDF in Finder and choose 'Open With', then 'Preview' - In the menu bar, select 'File'
- Select 'Export'
- In the ensuing menu, check the 'Encrypt' box
- Add and verify your password
- Select 'Save'
You can also password protect files in Pages, Keynote, or Numbers. To do so, open a file in one of those apps, select 'File' from the menu bar, then 'Set Password.'
Are there any other alternatives?
BetterZip for Mac is an excellent alternative to installed apps on your Mac. It can compress and password protect any filetype, and works for files and folders alike.
By default, BetterZip is a compression tool, shrinking the size of files to enhance the available storage space on your Mac. You can also use the app to modify zip files, preview zipped files, and manage them directly. No more unzipping, viewing, and re-zippinng!
When you compress a file, you can protect them with AES-256 encryption, which is done by default in BetterZip. It also supports over 30 unique archive formats like RAR, ZIP, 7-ZIP, and ISO. BetterZip even has a password generator and manager to enhance the level of protection across all of your files and folders. It chooses secure passwords for you so would-be data snoops don't guess them!
Why password protect folders?
Protecting files or folders with passwords is a practice more of us should have, especially with sensitive documents. It's especially critical for those of us who use cloud storage; if your container is hacked, all of your sensitive data could be exposed.
That's one reason we really like BetterZip; it compresses and protects files with ease, and allows you to continue syncing those folders to your cloud storage containers. It's additive to your existing workflow, and even supports AppleScript for power users with complex needs.
BetterZip is also available for free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp, the world's most robust suite of productivity apps and services for your Mac. In addition to BetterZip, you'll have immediate and unlimited access to over 190 other amazing apps. When the trial ends, retaining access to the full Setapp suite is only $9.99 per month – an incredible deal we know you'll love, so what wait? Give Setapp a try today!
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Password Protect Folders Microsoft
Best Apps to Password Protect File and Folder on Mac
If you are concerned about your security, you might need various apps in different situations. For example, you can password protect files, store password in a secure location using different apps, and so on. In case you want to encrypt your confidential files and folders on Mac, here are some simple apps to password protect file and folder on Mac OS X.
Why do you need to password protect file or folder?
In the present time, we must have distinctive gadgets to achieve the everyday works. For example, if you need to talk to someone, you need a mobile phone. However, when you need to do some office work, you should use a laptop, where you can do more jobs in less time. At this moment, no computer comes with an inbuilt tool to secure confidential files and folders. Therefore, you need an app to do so.
It doesn’t matter, whether you do business work, or you are a student, Mac OS X is a great operating system that can let you perform various tasks at the same time. Therefore, if you are a Mac user, these following apps would be helpful for you.
Best Apps to Password Protect File and Folder on Mac
There are several apps for the same purpose; however, these following apps are more trusted than anything else. Therefore, you can choose one app among these apps.
Disk Utility
Disk Utility of Mac is a free and inbuilt tool that can be used in different situations like this one. You can password protect any number of files and folders on OS X with the help of this tool. The best part is you do not need to install another third-party tool, and you can set any password to lock or unlock files included in the password protected folder. Talking about the security, you can use 128-bit encryption as well as 256-bit encryption, and this is one of the essential things out there. The basic part of this tool is you need to create an encrypted image, and you can keep all the confidential files inside that image. To get started, do follow the following steps.
- Open Disk Utility. You can use Command + Space bar to open the search window and write down the app name to open it.
- Click on File > New Image > Image from Folder.
- Choose a folder that you want to convert into the image and lock that down.
- Choose 128-bit AES encryption from the Encryption drop-down menu and enter a password that you want to use.
- Click the Save button.
- After successfully creating the image, whenever you would go to open that, it will ask for a password. This is the same password that you have entered while creating the image.
That’s all! The drawback of this technique is anybody can delete the password protected image, and you would lose all the data within minutes. However, the advantage is you can password protect any number of files or folder by making use of this trick.
Concealer
Concealer is popular because it offers online security alongside file and folder encryption. From essential files to the credit card, you can store everything inside the vault. The best thing is it used AES 256-bit encryption, which is top notch but quite slower than 128-bit AES encryption. However, when it comes to security, you should opt for more secure layer than speed. As per the official website, you just need to drag and drop the file or folder to make it password protected. Another useful thing is you can password protect notes as well. Third important thing is you can set two different passwords. One password would work as master password, and another one would work to password protect each file or folder.
Password Protect Folder Mac
Data Guardian
Data Guardian is another excellent tool to password protect file and folder on Mac. Apart from the essential features, you can get password generator, browser, attachment backuper, database backup functionality, and more others. As this is available for Mac and Windows, you can synchronize your password by using one account. According to the official website, it used 446-bit Blowfish encryption, which can provide a top-level encryption for your files. You can encrypt image with the help of this tool. As Import-Export option is available with this software for Mac, you can import passwords into this app or export all of them to a flat-text file from this app.
Hider 2
Hider 2 is one of the best tools out there in this category. Because of having such awesome functionalities, it has gained so much popularity in a small period. As the official statement, it has AES-256 bit encryption. This is meaningless to mention that it is top notch security encryption to password protect any number of file or folder. It has a master password, and without that master password, nobody can open the vault and access your files. Talking about the highlight, it can password protect your external hard disk as well, which is not supported by many folder protectors out there.
MacFort
When you need a better tool than Disk Utility for Mac, you can opt for MacFort since it password protects all the folders faster than the inbuilt tool. As usual, it can protect all the inbuilt files and folders on your Mac. Apart from that, it comes with military-grade encryption, and it also offers physical data theft protection. This is so simple to use that you only have to go through two steps to password protect any file or folder. According to the statement, you can password protect iPhoto album, Mail, Dropbox, etc. Those are the most important things on your computer.
Cisdem AppCrypt
Cisdem Appcrypt is quite different than other since it can protect websites and installed apps as well apart from standard files. You can set a time limit for any website. This is important when you have an addiction to a particular site like YouTube or Facebook or so forth. As per the website, it increases the productivity of any person. As this is a business class app, you can apply the same filter to a team or business environment. Another important thing is it can exclude inactive apps from the vault. Before using this app, you should know that this tool cannot password protect folders. But it can encrypt files like Microsoft Office documents, text files, etc.
Espionage
Espionage is another awesome tool for protecting any file or folder. The highlight of this tool is you can set different conditions to lock or unlock any app or folder. For example, you can lock down a folder or app when you close the app or window of that folder. It can also be integrated into Apple FileVault to provide maximum security. On the other hand, you can find Spotlight integration to find out various files, folders, apps, etc. Talking about the encryption, you can get AES-256 bit encryption. The user interface is quite an old school, but that doesn’t matter when you are getting top-notch security vault. The best thing is you can use this tool right from the top navigation bar.
MacKeeper
MacKeeper is popular because nobody can find the password protected file or folder unless you open them through MacKeeper. As a standard security tool for Mac, it used AES-256 bit encryption for protecting your files. On the other hand, it provides another security. That implies, if someone tries to enter the wrong password multiple times, there would be a system-wide lockdown. Apart from that, it lets you remove very old files permanently. Talking about the encryption speed, it is quite slow since it may take almost 15 seconds to encrypt only 100 MB of files. Apart from these features, you can get automatic backup option so that you can add an extra layer of security to existing files.
Protect Files
Just like the simple name, the user interface of Protect Files is also simple. Apart from the UI, you can find some basic options to password protect files, folders, etc. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Word document or PowerPoint presentation, you can certainly lock that down with the help of this simple tool. Protect Files uses AES-256-bit encryption so that users can get maximum security out of this tool. Although it is quite old looking, you can find all the features those are required for being a standard security software Mac.
There are many other tools to password protect file and folder on Mac OS X. However, this list contains some tools those well-established, feature-rich, and very much affordable.