Ever wanted to add an extra security layer so that you can secure your data? Your data can be sometimes accessed by anyone if your Mac computer is shared with others. You may have photos, videos, and files within folders that contain sensitive information that you don’t want others to see it. So, you can encrypt these folders and password-protect them on your Mac. Here’s how you do it.

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Password protecting your files and folders is important to ensure that no one can gain access to them without your consent and password. Fortunately, your Mac offers you a built-in encryption tool that allows you to lock the folders with a password and later access them by unlocking them with the password you kept for encryption.

Open Disk Utility When the Disk Utility opened minimize that. Click on the top menu bar on FileNew Image then select Image from Folder. Once this opened select the folder which you want to protect it with the password when selected click Choose. As stated above, you can use the same steps to password protect Keynote presentations and Numbers files. 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. May 19, 2010  Folder Lock provides is a data security application as it provides security for your data, mainly when you share your mobile phone with someone and prefer to keep personal files, pictures, videos and documents password-protected. NewSoftwares.net Web SiteFolder Lock Support What's New in Version 3.0.2 Fixed Minor Bugs.

Although you have the option to use third-party encryption tools that are available on App Store, however, you can make use of the built-in password-protected folder lock feature without spending any bucks on third-party apps.

Part 2: Top 4 Hard Drive Eraser Software for Mac Part 1: How to Erase Hard drive Solution 1: Erase Hard drive with HDDErase. This software Erases is capable of erasing everything that is on the hard drive It is known to supports only built-in drive sanitization method It come in ISO for thus you can develop a bootable flash drive from it. Dec 26, 2017  You’ll now see your list of hard drives. Click your primary drive, then click “Erase” If you’re wiping a mechanical drive, click “Security Options” in the window that pops up. (If your Mac has a solid state drive, you can skip this part: your SSD will already securely erase files thanks to TRIM. You still need to wipe the drive. CleanMyDrive is free to use and available in the Mac App Store, install it and start using it. Eraser is a free and open-source software for hard drive data cleaner. Follow some simple steps to erase hard drive completely. Open Settings Update & Security Recovery. Jun 01, 2020  The version of macOS offered by macOS Recovery might vary in some cases: If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later has never been installed on this Mac, Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. And Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available. If you erased your entire disk instead of just the startup volume on that disk, macOS Recovery might.

Encrypt And Password Protect A Folder On Mac

• Hit Command + Space to open the Spotlight Light search and type Disk Utility.

You can also open Disk Utility from the Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility.

You will require the Disk Utility tool to encrypt and password-protect your folders on Mac. The Disk Utility will create a disk image of the folder that can be further protected with a password.

• Now select File -> New Image -> Image from Folder from your menu bar.

Here, you can choose the folder that you want to encrypt. You can create a new folder and copy the files to keep everything in one folder.

Choose the location for the new folder image and give a name to it. You can add a color tag as well.

You will have the option to select two different encryption methods. One is 128-bit and another is 256-bit. The 256-bit is stronger and hard to crack, however slower whereas the 128-bit is a little less secure as compared to the 256-bit encryption but faster in processing.

• Choose your Encryption from the two options, 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption.

When prompted, set a password for the folder and verify it. You will need to make sure you remember it otherwise your data will be locked out.

Select the Image Format. Choose Read-Only if you just want your data in read-only mode and no modifications can be made. Or you can pick the Read/Write to modify your data in case you want to make changes to it by adding or deleting files.

• Click Save and let it process the encryption. Click Done when it finishes.

Navigate to the location where you saved your folder image and double-click on it. The folder image file will be a DMG format.

Enter your folder password to access your data. Don’t forget to click remember your password if you don’t want it to enter again and again, but don’t choose it if you are on a shared computer.

Your folder will be mounted and you can see it in the Finder. Once you are done, protect it again by unmounting it via right-clicking on it and select Eject.

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Mac provides a number of features that can enhance your privacy but password-protecting folders isn’t one of them. But, as it happens, there are more than one way to password protect folder on Mac.

In this guide, we have covered 5 of the best ways to password-protect folders on Mac and encrypt them as well. You can use these methods when you need additional protection for your files from co-workers or even your partners. Most of these methods involve enterprise-level encryption. So, if you want to lock a folder on Macbook pro, air even iMac, this guide will help.

Also Read: Ways To Password Protect a Folder in Windows

#1 Password Protect Folder on Mac Using Disk Utility

Disk Utility is an in-built macOS app for managing disks, drives and partitions. As it happens, it also lets you create a password-protected folder in your Mac. It is not a folder, per se. But, you can easily manage all your files. Let’s have a look at the steps now.

Step 1

First, we have to open Disk Utility app on Mac. You can simply search via Spotlight or find it in Utilities subfolder of Applications.

Go to File > New Image > Image from Folder. Alternatively, you can press Shift+Command+N

Step 2

Now, you have to select the folder that you want to password protect.

Step 3

In the upcoming window, you have to select a few things such as the name and security type.

• Give the name for the password-protected folder
• Provide some tags and select the location where you want to save it
• For encryption, choose 128-bit AES Encryption and provide the password

• For Image Format, you have some choices, such as Compressed, read/write, hybrid image and read-only. Choose one of them

Once you are done, click the Save button.

Step 4

Depending on the size of the folder, the encryption process may take some time. Once you get the confirmation message, go to the location where you saved the image.

Type the password and click Okay.

Now, you can see a virtual disk with the same name of the folder. Open it to see the files and access them.

After the use, Eject the drive to make sure that no one else can access the folder.

Note: If you had selected read/write for Image Format, you will be able to copy and paste files easily. But, it depends on what kind of protected folder you want.

You can count on this method if you need something native. As you see, we don’t need a third-party app to protect folders on Mac using Disk Utility.

#2 Password Protect Mac Folders Using Hider

If you want to password protect folder in mac without disk utility, then third-party apps are better option.

Macpaw Hider is an popular app to enable password protection for folders and files. However, it does work like having a secure space inside your Mac. Hider is a paid software (starts at $19 for single license) but you can check out the free trial for 15 days.

You can use this method to encrypt and protect folders, files and secure notes. It also has an impressive UI to make things cool. Once you are installed, you can add whatever you want to protect into the Hider 2 UI. It also offers an option to hide the document/folder.

Read: The Best Ways to Password Protect PDF File

This is the best thing we loved: once you close Hider 2, everything is secure. You have to enter the password to access contents from the Encrypted folder. Hider 2 is a premium software and it comes at $19.95 for one license.

You can try this method if you need a more accessible way to password-protect files and folders. You cannot use this method if you want to send/transfer the locked content.

#3 Encrypt Files via Terminal, using OpenSSL

Here is another built-into-Mac method to protect your folders and files. You should use this method if you want to add files to encrypted folder in Mac. We are going to do this using Terminal and it involves some code. If you would, let’s have a look at the steps.

Step 1

Open Terminal on your Mac and enter the following command.

Now, in this command,

openssl and aes-256-cbc designates the encryption type.

–in ~/Desktop/Photo.jpg designates the file you want to encrypt and its location

-out ~/Desktop/Encrypted.file designates the location where the encrypted file would be saved

Step 2

Enter the command and provide the encryption password when asked

Confirm the Password to continue

Step 3

Now, you can see the Encrypted.file document on your Desktop. Depending on your need, you can change the directory and encryption methods

Note: To decrypt the same file, enter the following command

Make sure you change the file-names and add ‘-d’ without quotes.

As we said earlier, you can use this method to encrypt and protect individual files. Since everything can be managed via Terminal, you don’t need a third-party software. Well, the limitation is, you can’t do it for folder.

#4 Use Concealer to Password Protect Files, Folders and More

Concealer is an advanced Mac app that lets you encrypt and store files and folders. In addition, you can take care of sensitive documents like Notes, Credit Card and software licenses. All of these are protected by one master password.

In addition to that, Concealer allows you to set individual password for stored files as well. Just like we said in the case of Hider 2, it also uses 256-bit encryption. Once closed, everything is clean. Without the master password, whatever you stored in Concealer will be inaccessible.

There are also some other smart features that may interest you. But the point is that you can simply drag-n-drop files and encrypt them with best security. Of course, don’t expect to share these files easily. Unlike the Terminal and Utility Disk methods, you should have Concealer app for encryption and decryption.

Concealer for Mac is available at a price tag of $19.99. However, there is a free trial version that allows you to save a limited amount of data.

#5 Password Protect Files Using Compression

Here is another method to protect files/folders via Terminal. However, we are going to compress the folder or file with a password. This way, the contents cannot be accessed without a password. But, since it’s a ZIP file, you can easily send/transfer it.

Let’s have a look at the steps.

You have to open Terminal and bring it to where you’ve stored the file. In my case, I had my files on Desktop.

Now, after the confirmation, you have to enter the following command.

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So, this means the file Photo.jpg will be converted to a ZIP file named photo.zip. You have to provide a strong password after the command. Repeat the password and you’re done.

In a second or two, you can see the zipped file on your Desktop. Now, whenever someone tries to open the ZIP they will require a password to open a folder on Mac. Do one more thing: delete the original file, since the same is safe inside one ZIP file.

As you can see, this method works like a piece of cake. You don’t have to worry about anyone accessing the files, especially if you deleted the originals. Also, this password protection would work even if you transfer the ZIP file to somewhere else.

Bonus Tip

Want to prevent some folders from showing up via Spotlight? Here’s a method.

Add ‘.noindex’ after the folder name. If the folder name was Photos, make it Photos.noindex

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The folder will not be shown in Spotlight search anymore. Keep it somewhere away and it’s a kind of safety.

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So, we have covered the 5 best ways to make a private folder on macOS. The first four methods use higher levels of encryption while the fifth one is compression. Anyway, it’s sure that others won’t have access to your files. If you ask us, Utility Disk is our favorite one. You don’t need a third-party app, but you have access to a read/write folder. Which one do you think you’d choose? Let us know in the comments.

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Read: 4 Things You Can Do If You Forget Your Wi-Fi Password