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.
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'
To encrypt a file or folder using Encrypto, simply drag and drop the item into the application window and provide a password. Once the file is encrypted, you can share it via Mail, Messages, AirDrop, etc. You can also save the encrypted copy of the file on your Mac. Password protect a folder on Mac. In order to encrypt and password protect your folders on Mac, you’ll need to open the Disk Utility and create a disk image of the folder. You can do this using Spotlight Search or opening Applications Utilities Disk Utility. Then, follow these steps. 1) Once you open Disk Utility, select File New Image. Congratulations: you’ve now set up a sharing account, and shared a folder with it! Repeat Step Three for any other folders you’d like to share. Access Your Shared Folder From Another Mac. Accessing your shared folder from another Mac isn’t hard. Open the Finder, then head to “Network.” You should see your computer listed. Change a password: Choose File Change Password (from the File menu at the top of your screen). Enter the requested information, then click Change Password. A document can have only one password, so if you change the password when you share the document, that becomes the document’s only password. Remove a password: Choose File Change.
How to Password Protect a Folder on macOS 10.15. The following are just some of the ways to protect a folder in Mac: Method 1. Turning Folders into Protected Disk Images. Follow these simple steps to use this in-built feature to protect folders in Mac: Step 1: Open the Applications folder. You can do that using 'Command + Shift + A'.
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!
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