It’s always a good preventive measure to protect your data from unnecessary exposure. Whether from cyber intruders or just your relatives and colleagues. In this way, your information will be kept safe, and access strictly limited. We’re going to review two simple methods, and it’s up to you to pick the one that suits you the best! First comes the disk utility option.
Protect a folder using Disk Utility
You’ll probably wonder “What a Disk Utility is?” It’s a built-in feature in Macs that allows setting a password on any folder on your computer. Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide on how to protect your folders with a password on Mac.
1. Open the Disk Utility by going to “Applications,” and then the “Utilities” folder. There you’ll see a “Disk Utility,” double-click to open it.
2. Then, follow these actions, click “File” – “New Image” – “Image from Folder.”
3. After a window popped up, select a particular folder you wish to protect and press “Open.”
4. In the next window, select image format as “read/write” and the encryption as “128-bit AES”.
5. Next, type in the password to verify this action and when you are done, the Disk Utility creates an encrypted disk image. That’s all!
If you want to open a protected file, find it on your Mac and enter the password, after you’re done, unmount the disk image so that the files can become password protected again.
Note, that after creating a disk image it’s important to delete the original folder manually. Also, keep in mind that if you lose the password, accessing your file becomes impossible and there’s no way to retrieve your information at all.
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Use third-party apps
Though disk utility is a fantastic built-in option in Mac, it definitely has its limitations compared to the more advanced paid programs. The apps protect your files by encrypting them using the AES-256 encryption method. Another great feature is that they can protect both local folders and external ones. For those with limited storage on their Macs, it’s a great option worth considering.
If you decide to use a third-party app, then keep in mind that usually after the download, once the app is launched, it requires creating a vault where you should come up with a password for encrypted file vaults. When you’re done, press on the “create vault” button and be ready to use the app!
With such apps, it’s much more comfortable to access all the encrypted files since they require only a single password for the vault. You can sort your files by type and use the search option for easier navigation. Also, delete any files from your computer using the shredder feature that can be provided in the app.
All these tools offer amazing options to protect your files with a password. One of the highlights of the disk utility is that it’s absolutely free and ready to be used on your Mac. On the other hand, by paying extra cash for a third-party app you’ll get more handy features like a backup option for your password, an auto-lock feature, and moreover, files are not exposed to changing their size while encrypting or decrypting.
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