Have confidential data in your Mac that needs to be locked with a passwords to prevent unwanted access? If you’re using a Windows computer, you need to use some third-party software such as Protect My Folders to achieve this. But things get much more easier with a Mac computer. Apple has provided a way to password protect certain files and folders no matter what your situation might be. Here’s how it’s done.
How to Password Protect A Folder in Mac OS X?
- Click “Applications”, then “Utilities”, and then open up “Disk Utilities”.
- Once disk utility has launched, click on ‘new image’ on the top. Depending on your Macintosh’s security settings, you may be prompted to enter your administrator password to do this.
- Name you image file, and choose your preferred location.
- Select a disk size depending on the size of the files or folder you want to place inside.
- Make sure you select ‘128-bit encryption’ under the ‘Encryption’ drop down.
- Under ‘image format’, select ‘sparse disk image’ and click on create.
- A window should appear where you need to set your password. Uncheck the “add password to keychain” box.
- Once you’ve done that, the image will mount automatically.
- Copy-paste all the files you need to protect to this image, and unmount the image once it’s done.
- The next time you mount the image again, it will ask you to enter your password!
