Password protect a folder!

[JamesGorman]

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know how to password protect a folder without having to do it through disk utility? Id like to be able to just put a password on the folder I want, so that every time you try to open it, you require a password. Simple as that.

Thanks.

 

[Hellhammer]

You can password protect your whole Home folder with FileVault (System Preferences -> Safety -> FileVault). Encrypting a single folder needs a 3rd party app I think.

 

[stridemat]

I had a little look around I remembered reading about this somewhere!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/320907/

Not sure if it any of it will work!!!

I particularly like the idea of using a .dmg

 

[JamesGorman]

Ok, well thats not exactly what im looking for, but thanks for your reply. Ill keep waiting and searching myself to see if I cant come up with a way to do this.

 

[Sky Blue]

I know you said, you don't want to use DU, but an encrypted disk image is your best bet.

 

[iPhone 62S]

Create a sparsebundle or other disk image and encrypt it.

 

[JamesGorman]

I realize that a disk image is probably the best way to go. But I really just want a password to be required to open my music folder in my home folder. I just want it so that when you double click it, it ask for a password. Otherwise a disk image is just sitting there, and doing nothing, and people who have physical access to the computer can still open up the original folder without the password.

 

[C64]

I'm watching The Other Man (2008) right now, when a password dialog pops up when he tries to open a folder:

I've been looking for the same thing for ages, but never found anything exactly like this though. It seems native OS X, but I don't know they did that.

Anyway, yes, you can hide or encrypt files and folders. And yes, you can create encrypted images with a password or create a separate account. But that's just not the same as having a folder in plain sight that'll simply ask you to fill in a password when you double click it. When I'm at work I don't want to lock my MacBook every time I walk away, but I also don't want people to be able to access some personal files and folders. So something like this is preferable.

However, here's a topic with some more info on encrypting folders: http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/31/espionage-brings-folder-encryption-to-os-x/

They talk about Tao Effect's Espionage which comes pretty close. You can lock individual folders (among many other things) with this as a result:

I used an early version of Espionage, but had some problems with the app back then. But this was probably due to some other hacks that made it incompatible, and there've been many updates since. You might want to give it a try; the video of version 2 seems pretty cool.

 

[iPhone 62S]

If you're doing this to the Music folder, though, it might stop iTunes from accessing it if you do something like that.