Can I put a password on individual files?

[happygodavid]

Is there a way to limit access to individual files by using a password just on the single file? Or do I have to create different user accounts? Is there perhaps a third party software which will let me do this?

Rock.

And thanks in advance.

 

[TimJim]

i dont think theres a way to do it inside OSX.

theres a program called Excess that locks what ever you want and you can do anything you want on it with the free trial.

 

[backsidetailsli]

cant seem to find this program, can you link it?

 

[numlock]

what are the advantages of that program over say a sparse disk image?

 

[-kritter-]

there is a way to hide files and the only way to get to them is to in the finder go to Go then Go to Folder, then you type in the file name, but to get the files to be basically invisible you need to go into the terminal and type mkdir then to make the folder a hidden one you put a "." in front of the name you give the folder. so for example

mkdir .hidden

this will end up in witchever directory your in at the time,
so to get to this you would simply in the finder go /Go/Go to Folder
then type in after ~/.hidden

you can drag whatever you like into this but be sure when you done to erase the .hidden in the go to folder and just leave ~/ so it cant be easily accessed by anyone who dose not know the name of the folder.

thats the closest solution to your question i could give you hopefully what i wrote wasnt to obscure.

 

[pianoman]

you can create an encrypted disk or sparse image in which you can put the files you wish to be protected. a sparse image is a disk image, but it's as small as the number of files you put into it up to it's maximum size, as opposed to a disk image which is constant in size regardless of what's in it (up to the maximum size).

in Disk Utility, click "New Image" at the top. in the window that appears next, choose a name and location and then the maximum size you want your image to be, encryption (AES-128, i believe, is the only option), and format (regular ol' disk image or sparse image).

enjoy!

 

[andiwm2003]

http://www.excesapp.com/

it's part of the macupdate/macheist bundle for 49 bucks or 15 bucks

 

[Tom B.]

Maybe it would be easier to just not download porn.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Maybe it would be easier to just not download porn.

Just keep your porn in a Parallels install of XP. Then just make a password login for XP.

That's what I do!

 

[nickd06]

Here is an easy solution.

I have a folder with about 10 pics in it.

Right click (on folder), get info

from here go to ownership & permissions

change it from read/write TO no acess

then click on details, under here click, Apply to enclosed items.

It will then give you a confirmation, hit ok

Here it will ask you to enter your password (for your admin user, in my case the only user set up)

Done!

Now you can go to the folder and everything will remain the same, however when i try to open any of the pics it says it may be corrupt. It will not let me preview them or open them.

To "unlock" the pictures I just right click on the folder and select "get info"

Go back to ownership and change it from No acess back to read/write

Click "apply to enclosed items" again and it will once again ask for your password. Once entered everything is back to normal and no longer "locked"


Hope this helps. It is a pretty simple and easy was to "lock" just about anything and everything you want on your computer.

 

[happygodavid]

This could be it...

Yeah, I'm thinking that's the way to go, Nickd.

Thanks a ton!

Too bad there's not a direct option in OSX when you right click: something like "Password protect this file", and you type the admin pw, and bam, you're done.

However, this will certainly work as an easy alternative.

Another question, though; do I need to change the O&P on everything? (ie-Owner, Group, and Others) Or just the top one in the list? It automatically changes Owner to No Access, but Group and Others stay at Read & Write.

Thanks.

 

[Fairly]

Exces isn't much help and putting a dot on a file name is foolish. If you want to protect something you make a directory inaccessible and make the files within inaccessible too. And you can create a super-directory for it all and call it PRIVATE KEEP OUT. You can't hide things on OS X or any Unix system. You can otherwise take the advice of other posters here and not put porn on the box.

 

[interslice]

Exces isn't much help and putting a dot on a file name is foolish. If you want to protect something you make a directory inaccessible and make the files within inaccessible too. And you can create a super-directory for it all and call it PRIVATE KEEP OUT. You can't hide things on OS X or any Unix system. You can otherwise take the advice of other posters here and not put porn on the box.

Exces worked ok for me - it pops up as a disk image - quite cool - crashes a lot - however i'm now facing a problem where I was running this image in windows under vbox and it crashed and now i lost everything - how miserable. all that hard work.
unless of course anyone knows how to restore a exces disk image! with no backup . ..

 

[GGJstudios]

Another method is to compress the files into a zip file, then rename the file, changing the extension to something that's not associated with any program, such as .dll (from windows). That way the files won't appear on any Spotlight or Finder searches, if someone is looking for pictures, excel files, etc. Not perfect, but fairly convenient. To access the files, just rename, changing back to a .zip file and extract. You could also compress with StuffIt and add a password, for extra protection.

 

[disconap]

Just keep your porn in a Parallels install of XP. Then just make a password login for XP.

That's what I do!

Good idea--keep your questionably sourced porn in the OS that is susceptible to viruses!