Password Protecting A Folder (A Solution)

Password Protecting A Folder (A Solution) 41

Trick

Hey

Currently there is no easy way in Mac OS X to password protect a folder. You can password protect hard disks through the use of File Vault. But what is needed is an easy way to protect your important files (pr0n), you can do this through the use of a disk image.

Creating a disk image to protect your stuff is really simple. First open up Disk Utility in Applications > Utilities. This area is designed to manage all of your disks, but thats not the point of this post. I want you to cast your eyes to the top at the tool bar. At the top there is a cleverly named button called New Image. This will be used to create our disk image.

Once as you click this image you will be given some options. Name it what you want, but there are some options that you should be aware of. For example the volume size, if you plan on putting a lot of files in there make it quite large, although you can change the size on the image later, it is easier to add in a bit of space now.

The next, most important part, is the encryption. You can pick either 128, or 256 bit encryption, it really doesn’t matter. I would recommend 128 bit due to speed although if you want to be extra safe pick the second option. Make sure the Image Format at the bottom is set to read/write, so you can write files into the disk image.

Once as you click ok, the engine will start working and it will create your disk image.

Now is the most important part. Enter the password you want as your image. As usual the longer the password, the better, although if you lose it you will never get your work back.

Once as you click ok, the image will mount and you have a standard image. You can then add in the files you want. Unmount the image and there you go.

To be extra secure you may have to delete the Keychain password as it stores it by default. To do this open up Keychain Access, find your file in the list and delete it. You will then have to enter the image password if you want to access your files.

If you ever need to increase the size of you image because you have filled it up it is pretty simple. Make sure you have opened and closed Disk Utility. Click on the disk image you have created and then on Resize Image in the tool bar. Once as the box pops open click on the blue down arrow. Click on Resize Image, this will then enable you to increase the size of the image all the way up to the maximum free space on your disk. Once as you have done this you are done.

Hopefully, if you have followed the instructions OK, you will be able to password protect your files, and as a result of folder. Until Apple release a way of doing this in Finder, or the Get Info pane. If you have any comments of suggestions please leave on below. If you want to learn more about this sort of stuff I recommend Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual or Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies.

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41 Responses to “Password Protecting A Folder (A Solution)”

1

Nice.
Also check out Secret Folder.

Comment By Anonymous on April 9th, at 12:53 am
2

Very nice trick, indeed.
Any newbie will now be able to protect his important files(sic) .

Still, since I can’t test that now, I’m wondering : does that protect your hum, how do you say, important files, from being spotlight-found?

Comment By Zack on April 9th, at 10:12 am
3

I don’t to be honest zack. I don’t think so, i’ll have to test it out.

Comment By James Powell on April 9th, at 10:18 am
4

No problem.
I’ll test that out too, and share the results if they appear to be interesting.
But still, thanks to you for opening the way!

Comment By Zack on April 9th, at 10:34 am
5

The only thing I can find is that it will only search the disk image if you have the image mounted. Other than that its locked out.

Comment By James Powell on April 9th, at 10:47 am
6

Nice tip!!. Zack, James, I think it can be done, at least in Leopard (sorry if it isn’t exactly this way, but my MBP is localized in spanish; I’ll try my best, though): System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy tab. Select or drag your image location into the list. I haven’t tested it yet, but maybe you’ll have to put your image inside a directory in order to select the directory as the location Spotlight should skip…

Hope this helps, I think I’ll try it this weekend.

P.S.: wonderful blog!!!

Comment By ojkiviri on April 15th, at 8:21 pm
7

great tip. I did everything you said and it worked great. The question I have is that when I want to increase the size of the image where is the “resize image in toolbar”? I don’t see that.

Comment By Robert on August 1st, at 11:36 am
8

Right, “Resize image in toolbar” … I cant find the resize option. Does anybody know how to increase the size of the disk image?
thanks.

Comment By carlos on August 4th, at 12:37 am
9

Great write-up, that’s sure to protect my ‘sensitive’ files. haha

Comment By M. on December 6th, at 10:18 am
10

Okay this seems RLY useful, but cause i am ignorant so far with computer stuff, i cant seem to solve this last step. I have the Disc image on my desktop now, but im not sure how to proceed/it is not protected by a pass word….If soemone who is good at this sorta thing can plz HELP ME, it’d be great :)

Thanks Doug….

Comment By Doug on December 31st, at 8:25 pm
11

Okay, i may have solved my own problem (somehow) but just to be sure if someone can clarify my followingassumptions so i know i have tis right ;)

When i want to access my folder from the disc image, i double click on the file located on my desktop and it will ask for a pass word…..once entered, i can access the folder and its contents inside. However i still have to unmount the image each time i open it, is this right?

+ how secure is this? Is the only way to access the folder to enter the password when the image is mounted?

Thanks again Doug….

Comment By Doug on December 31st, at 8:34 pm
12

Hey Doug, you are right with your assumptions. This isn’t a very secure method but most people won’t bother prying if it has a password. You do have to unmount the disk when you have finished using it.

Comment By admin on January 1st, at 5:53 pm
13

I am hoping to use this method as a way of storing secure info (passwords, contact info, ect.). And some people say that this method is a VERY secure way as long as i unmount the disc image when i am done. Others beleive that, but are unsure whether it is true (my self inculded). So can anyone clarify this for me?

Comment By Doug on January 2nd, at 3:02 am
14

Hmm… For some reason, i’m not sure that it works like it’s supposed to. Everything is going as it should do, though i dont see any passwords. I can get to my folders from everywhere… Is there anything i maybe did wrong?

Comment By Vanderspar on January 14th, at 7:43 pm
15

Aaaand nevermind… It worked after i logged off and on again

Comment By Vanderspar on January 14th, at 8:02 pm
16

amazing trick man!

Comment By tree on January 17th, at 12:21 pm
17

Awesome, thank you so much! I’m a new mac user so any other tricks you post will be greatly appreciated. :)

Comment By Jessica on January 17th, at 5:47 pm
18

Does anybody know if the files from the folder will run slower??

Comment By Nathan on March 24th, at 4:06 pm
19

I have been using it for a while now and i havn’t seen any problems with things running slowly…

Comment By Doug on March 24th, at 4:31 pm
20

hey, this thing takes forever for big files within folders. any other possibilities?

Comment By adog on April 29th, at 7:23 pm
21

I dont tend to leave comments often but this was such a simple and great tip, thanks so much :) :) Does exactly what it says on the tin!

Comment By melissa Grant on May 9th, at 8:13 pm
22

I dont tend to leave comments often but this was such a simple and great tip, thanks so much :) :) Does exactly what it says on the tin M

Comment By melissa Grant on May 9th, at 8:14 pm
23

Wow, great info. Is there a way to create a new HD disk and password-protect that? Do tell!

Comment By Treehunter on May 17th, at 4:14 pm
24

Thanks!

Comment By Kate on May 25th, at 9:04 pm
25

Thats Great! Now, how do i undo it? If i decide to delete or no longer want the new image, how do i recover my memory?

Comment By Ivan Villegas on May 31st, at 7:32 pm
26

If you delete the disk image you will get back any space it took.

Comment By admin on May 31st, at 11:54 pm
27

I made the folder, but when I click on it it just opens, it doesn’t ask for a password. I logged out and back on like someone suggested but it still doesn’t seem to ask for a password. You mentioned something about deleting keychain access. Will this solve the problem? Where do I find keychain access? Also, I apologize for being so clueless, but what exactly do you mean by mounting and unmounting?

Comment By Trevor Clements on July 7th, at 10:41 am
28

nevermind, I figured it out.

Comment By Trevor Clements on July 7th, at 11:04 am
29

If you do not have multiple users set up, whole family or something use one account and you wish to password protect a file or folder, without having to Log out of the computer and have other people use a Guest Log in….

Hilight the file or folder, press control and click the mouse, go to MORE INFO. Then click on the “padlock” image to be able to change the folder settings. You will only be able to lock it or unlock it if you have the password for the user account. After clicking the padlock, it will prompt you to enter the password. Then, where it allows access to specific users, on the main user, where it says privilege, select “Write Only (drop box)”. (note: you will only be able to change the privileges if “LOCK” up op, is UNCHECKED. For every other user, set the level as “NO ACCESS” or “Write Only (drop box). That means people can only drag things into it but can not access it. So now, even for yourself will need a password to be able to change the access level.

Voila!

When you want to unlock the folder, click on the “padlock” image and again, it will prompt you to enter the password…then you can unlock the settings of the folder, and change it back to “read & write”.

Hope this helps someone, it took me hours to figure out how to do it!!!!

Comment By Megan Jebara on July 25th, at 4:34 am
30

i cant find it after i log out

Comment By zeke on September 30th, at 6:26 pm
31

Thanks for all this amazing info. I am about to try it out. But my question is: how do i unprotect my files again? Is that possible? So that they become ‘normal’ unprotected files again.

Comment By Hanneke on October 14th, at 7:41 pm
32

I did this process mentioned above…but when accessing the mounted disc image, it never asked my for a password. I logged out, restarted my mac, but to no avail, I opened the file very easily….!! My only other option is to completely erase the image, and start over again with the disc utility…hoping to either get an answer or to have the problem solved by doing it again..!!
Thanks in advance for any tips and tricks on that….you guys have been very thorough…!!!

Comment By Andonis on October 16th, at 4:20 pm
33

Hi guys..
I just finished doing the above process, got the disc image, but when I press on it, it opens the file no problem without asking for the password…is this normal…?? I did provide a password during the process. I even erased the file and started the process from the beginning, but to no avail…..it opens without prompting for password…!!! This is so frustrating..I don’t understand why this is not working for me but for everyone else…!!
Please, any help with this will be appreciated. I’m a new user of Mac.!!!

Comment By Andonis on October 16th, at 4:54 pm
34

Ok..so…I didn’t know that un-ticking the “Remember Password in my Key chain” had anything to do with it…as soon as I un-clicked it,…it worked absolutely fine…!!
Sorry and thank you for your tips…!! I have already bookmarked you..!!!

Comment By Andonis on October 17th, at 1:32 pm
35

Only one problem: after you put everything you want to be secure in the disk image, you can still do something as simple as go to Spotlight and a search can tell anyone that the file is actually still there. Is there any way to make it look as if the file isn’t even there?

Comment By Matt on October 19th, at 5:20 am
36

ok so i have been using this whole image creating thing for a while and it’s all been great and what i want to do now is to change the password for the image, does that mean i have to create a new one over again or is there a way to keep my old one and just change the password?

Comment By Rustam on October 25th, at 1:44 am
37

why is that i can delete my files even though it is protected? they didnt prompt me for any password and simply just moved my files to the trash.

Comment By esyq on November 26th, at 2:52 am
38

Just delete the password from your KeyChain..it will work

Comment By Daniel on January 11th, at 7:58 pm
39

Hi I really like this “vault” system for storing all my passwords, bank info, and other confidential stuff. BUT I just found out that Time Machine is NOT backing up the documents on that disc! So is there any good way to create an equally protected backup on another harddrive?

Comment By Matt on February 25th, at 5:48 am
40

Wow! It thinks a good method to protect mac folder. I found another method to do that.
http://www.macpassword.com/password-protect-a-folder-on-mac.html

What is the difference between these two methods?

Comment By albel on July 23rd, at 8:34 am
41

I can not find the “new image” button in utilities or disk utility!

Comment By Adam on July 30th, at 11:46 pm

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