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Password protect Mac Mail program?

A

Alleyoop

macrumors member
Original poster
I need to take my MBP in for repairs, so I want my Mail program password protected. Is this possible? The protection right now is very weak. You can still read everything saved, just not access new mail.
 
They're not going to read your mail. They don't have time and your mail is FAR more interesting to you than it is to others.
 
I agree that my Mail is most interesting to me and they most likely won't read it. BUT, I wasn't asking opinions on that. I want to know if I can password protect the entire program. I am not comfortable with my life exposed like that.
 
new account

Just make a new admin account for them to use and password protect your account.
 
I don't know if this will work with Mail or not, so make sure you have a back up before trying it.

You could make a encrypted disk image (using Disk Utility) and then put your "mail" files (not the app) on that disk image. You'd have to mount the disk image (requiring the password you set for the encrypted disk image) to be able to access the "mail" or anything else on it.
 
OP, were you looking for a way to to do this for free? I can't help you there, but, Espionage, encrypts apps. In fact, their screencast shows how to password protect mail.app, which is exactly what you're looking for.

Espionage is part of the current MacUpdate bundle. The bundle is $50, the app by itself is $35.
 
Just so you know, the actual emails you have is not stored inside the Mail.app, but it is stored in folders in you user account's Library folder and even if the application would be password protected, one could simply copy the folders and open them somewhere else.

Thus the separate user account is the best idea, though a user account password can be reset via the Mac OS X DVDs.
 
spinnerlys said:
Just so you know, the actual emails you have is not stored inside the Mail.app, but it is stored in folders in you user account's Library folder and even if the application would be password protected, one could simply copy the folders and open them somewhere else.

Thus the separate user account is the best idea, though a user account password can be reset via the Mac OS X DVDs.
Click to expand...
That's actually quite disconcerting. Sounds as if someone really wants your mail, if they can get your computer and have access to the install DVDs, they can get it. But when I turned in my Mac Pro to get its video card repaired, I took the following attitude:
GGJstudios said:
They're not going to read your mail. They don't have time and your mail is FAR more interesting to you than it is to others.
Click to expand...
 
If you place your machine in their hands, there's almost nothing you can do to prevent them from being able to access your mail, your pictures, anything they want. It's a judgement call. You have to decide if you trust them enough to let them work on your machine without trying to access your information. With an Apple retail store, I'd say chances are you're pretty safe, but if you give them your machine, they can almost certainly get to your data, and the few measures that might stop them would also prevent them from doing the software troubleshooting they might need to do, and thus could end up keeping your repair from being completed, or make them wipe your hard drive.

Just have to decide if you trust them or not.

jW
 
You can always go to the extreme and make a Time Machine backup, wipe the laptop, have it repaired and then restore from backup when you get it back.


But honestly, don't be that paranoid - they get hundreds of laptops every month, they won't risk their jobs checking your email and browsing around.
 
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