Home Forums Mac Software Mac Applications Lock/protect folder?

This is probably a stupid question, but is it possible to lock only one folder so that no-one else can look at the contents? I'm not even sure if I mean "lock" - I might mean "password protect".

I don't think anyone else will use my Mac when I go away in a couple of weeks, but there is one folder which I'd prefer to keep private. It's only two levels down. Maybe I should just hide it further down, somewhere.

I had a quick look at Mac Help but as usual the scenarios presented don't quit fit my circumstances.

FWIW, this Mac has never been logged out since the day I bought and configured it over a year ago. It's been so long that now I'm nervous to do that. I only mention this in case someone says that's the answer.

Many thanks

This question has been asked and answered many times at MacFixit, but to my knowledge this is the first time it has been raised here at FTM. The easiest way is to create an encrypted disk image (.dmg) using Disk Utility and move the folder there. Be sure to use a password you can remember because there is no back door. After that you can always access the files by mounting the disk image using the password.

Thank you Joe, I will look into that when I have a moment before I go away.

Your solution would never have occurred to me. I thought I was going to go down a trail about key-chains and permissions combined with logging out of my Admin account.

Thank you! (bearing in mind that I might be enthusiastically thanking you before I try it )

was just thinking, filevault stores two copies of the key in the dictionary on the disk image, one encoded with your password and one with the master password certificate... I wonder if there's a way to do that with a regular encrypted disk image? (probably no)

To add to joemikeb's answer (which is probably the best and simplest way to achieve what you want), you will be asked if you want to save the password, i.e. into your keychain. Obviously you must decline so that anyone trying to open the image has to type the password.

Bensheim,

While this Macworld article is from 2006, the information might be a useful reference for using Disk Utility to create a disk image: Encrypt files for safety.

That applies if Bensheim's keychain password is the same as hir login password; if it is different, keychain storage will be safe (and maybe save hir from having to remember a new password).

On second thought, while glib, that was incorrect, because Bensheim never logs out of hir account.

Go with Andreas, Bensheim (but other users can consider the alternative)!

This Apple doc, "How to create a password-protected (encrypted) disk image in Mac OS X 10.3 or later," "Last Modified: June 09, 2009," is more current and directly "from the horse's mouth."

Or better yet, create a second keychain, and put the password in that. Set up the second keychain to auto-lock after a brief period of inactivity.

Use this second keychain to hold all your more sensitive passwords: bank accounts, encrypted disk images, etc. All of those passwords can be different, but you only have to remember the one password that unlocks that keychain.

The system is smart enough to recognize that a password it needs is in a locked keychain, and will ask you for the password to the keychain. Because you've set this keychain to auto-lock, someone sitting down at your computer can't use it to gain access, even if you didn't log out, or even if they know your login password.

Horses for courses. When deciding how to answer a question it's not bad policy to read what - and how - the questioner has written. The answers to

“Ive been told to find something with a Terminall. How do I do that please?”

and

“I have no 'find' in /usr/bin/. Suggestions appreciated. BSD re-install?”

should, I suggest, be geared to the apparent 'saviness' of each OP. "find should be in /usr/bin/" could be frightening to one, insulting to the other. Same horse, different event.

For someone who wasn't aware of the existence of encrypted images, I suspect that some of this thread might be making him regret having asked the question, or having asked it here! ( )  While talk of logins and different keychains may be erudite, they may not be apposite -- apposite, directed at the OP and intended to be helpful to him.

Horses for courses.

At least it's helpful to make one aware of alternatives.

Your advice -- i.e., "Obviously you must decline" -- was not necessarily the best (or most accurate) approach either.



Reacting with fright or disparagement to factual (and useful) technical information is also something we can help the reader work through.



And you helped!