You know who you are: a) your passwords are scribbled on a tattered and torn piece of paper right next to your computer; b) your spouse’s credit card number or social security number is on a post-it note next to the mouse; or c) you create a Christmas shopping list and save it on your desktop as “DO NOT READ.”
Save yourself the hassle of applying for a new social or ruining Christmas for everyone. You can create an encrypted, password protected folder on a mac without using any third-party software and it is done in just 5 easy steps – by creating an encrypted disk image.
1. Open Disk Utility by navigating to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities.
2. Choose File > New > Blank Disk Image or click the New Image icon.
3. In the New Blank Image window that appears, name the new secure folder or “image.” Next, choose your desired size from the pop-up menu that is sufficient to hold your super-secret data. Then, from the Encryption pop-up menu choose 128-bit AES Encryption (secure enough for all of us and faster than 256-bit). Finally, choose either read/write or Sparse Disk Image from the Image Format pop-up menu and click Create.
A read/write disk image takes up a set amount of space on the drive, while a sparse image is a type of disk image file that grows in size as the user adds data, taking up only as much disk space as stored in it.
4. At this point, you will be prompted for a password. Click one that is easy for you to remember, as a lost password means all the files on the image are lost too.
Remember to uncheck the ‘Remember Password in My Keychain’ option. Otherwise, anybody sitting down at your computer will have access to your image – which would defeat the purpose of this whole helpful article
Click OK and both the sparse image file and mounted image are created. This will look familiar to anyone who has put an external drive into their computer before.
5. Double click the image to mount the “folder.” Drag the content that you want to protect into the mounted image.
When you’re done with it, drag the mounted image to the trash to eject it or right-click it and choose “Eject.” When you next need it, double-click on the image file and enter its password when prompted.
With these 5 simple steps you can create a password protected folder on your mac. While this is an effective means of keeping data from the prying eyes of thieves or children, as explained above, it is far from secure as anyone can simply delete the image. If you really want to secure and protect data for your personal computer or business, call FloridaPro Computing.
Dr. Airstream says
Drew,
Thanks for the info….I have created a folder on my desktop that is fairly secure…..Thanks.
Drew Register says
You’re welcome! I’m glad that you found this article helpful. Continue to check back with us for new tips and tricks.
Adnan says
Thanks Drew,
It was really helpful to protect personal files… A quick question, is it possible that I can create more space in the folder, if needed in the future?
Best wishes
Adnan
Drew Register says
Certainly!
Simply re-open Disk Utility and select the protected .dmg file from the left column. Then from the top menu, select “Resize Image.” Disk Utility will prompt you for the password and then allow you to expand or shrink the folder.
David Patterson says
Hello I just did what you posted to Adnan but it’s only the dmg image that has 1G the actul folder itself still has 14Mg how could I increase the size of the folder please?? Thanks
Kathy says
Hi-I followed all your instructions but I cannot open the encrypted folder. It doesn’t launch I guess. I don’t receive an option to put in a passcode. Thoughts?
Drew Register says
My first suggestion would be to just trash the encrypted folder and start again. Make sure that when you type in your password, you are un-checking the “Remember my Password” checkbox. Otherwise, it will not prompt you for a password. Let me know if you are still having trouble and what operating system you are running. Find that out by clicking the Apple menu in the upper left-hand corner, and Selecting “About This Mac” then give me the “Version” number.
sar says
Hi. I followed your instruction and I am also having problem opening the encrypted folder. I made sure to un check “Remeber my Password” checkbox. When i click on the encrypted folder it does not prompt me anywhere.. I am using Mac book version number 10.7.5.
Thank you.
Drew Register says
You aren’t the first person to get in touch with me with this same issue: there is no password prompt.
Is your folder simply opening up or is it staying locked forever? Try downloading my Automator action above and see if you get the same results.
George says
Hi,
Great video. Can this encrypted folder be stored on a USB drive and accessed by PC users as well?
Thanks
Drew Register says
George,
If you are trying to encrypt a USB stick, you would probably be more interested in encrypting the entire storage device rather than having a free-floating .dmg file hanging out. I don’t have much experience with it, but the OpenSource application TrueCrypt seems to be a pretty good option, see http://www.truecrypt.org/
That way, you can format the drive as ExFat so that both your Mac and PC operating systems can have read/write access to that drive. Hope that helps.
bhanudas kamble says
helpful information thanks
RGS says
Great! Very useful, solved an important problem for me. I’ll check back for more expert advice.
Annie says
Worked like a charm, however, i’m an idiot and somehow made up some really obscure password that I never use and now can’t remember how to open it. Is there a way to recover the file or crack the password?
Drew Register says
Nope. But I think that is the point of encrypting your important data.
You could try to use a time machine restore to bring you to a point prior to your encryption, assuming you have a backup from that time.
If anyone else has a suggestion, feel free to comment – I’d love to hear it as well.