Another super-useful tutorial, Gary! For the reasons you gave, I don't usually need to password-protect/encrypt documents on my Mac, but it's great to be able to do so and create PDFs from any app at all on the occasions when it's necessary or just useful. Thank you!
How to password protect Text Edit? My mac is too old to get Pages. Oops!! I should just shut up and watch the entire video. 🤣. Thank you!! This is amazing!
Your videos are helping me a lot. Thank you for these explanations again. In macOS Sonoma, however, there is also an "owners password" which you can set under the Permissions button if saving a PDF in Preview. What does that owners password do differently, and why is it here? (Apple doesn't say much about this in its support section.)
That's also known as the "change permissions password" and you can use it to restrict making various changes to the PDF. You can see that as a list of checkboxes right above when you set an owners password. The other password prevents you from viewing the PDF.
Great video as always. But one question about the quality of the encryption of PDF’s in particular (but also Numbers too): How good is it? i.e. is it AES256 or the like, and essentially unhackable by even the CIA, or is it something that a really determined person with access to some high end hardware and a bit of patience will get into?
@@Leen-bf4em Right Pages has two types of documents: word processing and page layout. I'll assume you mean page layout. In that case, you have to delete the content on the page to delete the page. Text flows from one page to the other. If you have inserted a Page Break character, simply find it and delete it. Turn on "show invisibles" to help with that.
Hi Gary, how about your Time Machine backup on an external drive. Even though my main hard drive is password protected, are the backed up files protected?
I’m always afraid that someday my Mac will break down and I will have to let a technician work on it or send it to a repair shop. I created a user account called Maintenance that has its own password which I can give to any repair person. There is nothing in that account. No contacts, files or photos. Is that pretty safe?
That sounds like a good idea and simple to do. What I did when I needed to hand my Mac to the repair shop, was to transfer all my sensitive files/folder into an external storage. After I picked up my Mac, I just transferred them back into my Mac. No worries about repairmen looking at your sensitive info, either accidentally or on purpose. ;)
Protecting a folder is a very different thing. See @ If your Mac is protected with a user password (and FileVault) then no one can log into it to get to any of your files anyway.
Is it possible to Password-Protect a text Document in TextEdit? I can save it in pdf and protect it, or I can encrypt it with DropStuff or BetterZip and encrypt it, but can I protect it inside TextEdit?
I don't want any passwords. I do a lot of scanning in pdf. A lot of times these documents will ask for a password.. Please help! Is there away I can join pattern group and pay by the year??? Thanks Betty
Not sure what you mean. If you are the one creating the documents, then you have control over whether there are passwords. And for Patreon I only offer the monthly option since I need to have a steady monthly budget to do this work. Hard to do a job if you have to wait 12 months between paychecks.
When FileVault is turn off and local user login options are not assigned with Apple account, reset password can be easily done in recovery menu (more in Apple article HT202860)
Which is why you should ALWAYS have a login password set. And you should use FileVault if your Mac can be physically accessed by people you don't trust.
@@macmost I see a lot of discussions on the internet about the fact that filevault negatively affects the lifespan of SSD but this is a topic for another story 🤓
You can't. It is encrypted with that password as the key. So it isn't just locked in a box, it is completely encrypted and unreadable without that key.
I'm pretty sure you are out of luck. Likely that Excel encrypts the file with that password, so it isn't simply "locked" but completely encrypted. You'll need the password or to maybe find a version of the file in Time Machine you had before you encrypted it?
The PDF file on my Mac has become automatically locked, seemingly requiring a password to unlock it. Strangely, I never set a password for it. c Can i have the reason and how to rectify
Not sure how that would be possible. To "lock" it you need to encrypt it and set a password. Encryption (locking) doesn't work unless there is a password to use as a key. Maybe use your Time Machine backup to go back to a point before that happened?
I have an older SimpleText document which contains older passwords, it was encrypted, now I cannot access it. There doesn't seem to be information available about the algorithm apple used in 0S9 for file encryption. I tried running a 0S9 emulator and managed to get the file copied the with the proper attributes (shows up as encrypted) but it's still not working. Is my only recourse to get a older mac that will run os9? Or should I be okay with Snow Leopard (Rosetta)?
After spending a day researching I resolved the issue by installing Snow Leopard and then discovering I used the Rosetta app "Pastor" to create the password file which saves the data in an encrypted Simpletext document.
@@macmost yes, but the finder had that, so since I created the password file in 2001, my memory of what I did back then didn't stick. In any case discovering that I used Pastor app, resolved the issue. Was not long after that I migrated to an early version of 1password.
@@macmost would you believe I just got off a support chat with Apple trying to resolve a snow leopard app store access issue and that basically ended up telling me I should upgrade the os. told the support person I needed to stick with snow leopard for Roseetta support, and they told me I only needed that to run intel apps on apple silicon, i said no I am referring to Rosetta 1, not 2, and they told me there was only 1 roseetta.
Protecting a folder is a very different thing. See czcams.com/video/kFvZAmP0Ibg/video.html You can't protect a single album in the Photos library, but if your Mac is protected with a user password (and FileVault) then no one can log into it to get to any of your albums.
How do you mean? To stop someone from running them? You should use the parental controls in System Preferences, Screen Time to do that. You would have to set up an account for the other person and then restrict what they can do with that account.
@@yasinvfx Seems, from the reviews, that this isn't a good solution. What is your use case? If you are letting someone else use your Mac, you should definitely NOT do this. You should be setting up a separate user account for them.
@@macmost Thanks for answer. No need for 2nd user. My disk is only 256 GB... My friends rarely use it, I want to hide a few apps and that's all. (FaceTime, Messages, Whatsapp, etc) -Why is the application not secure?
@@yasinvfx The word "rarely" is concerning. If it was "never" then fine. Otherwise, if someone else uses your Mac they should be in the Guest Account or an account you create for them. Otherwise this is a major security issue. Even if you basically trust them, they may not be as careful when they use your Mac as you are.
Sorry you didn't like my tutorial. I try to teach people about how to use their Macs. So I don't just present a set of steps but I take the time to explain why and other aspects of things as I go.
@macmostvideo. How can I encrypt a file on my Mac and send it via email to a windows user so they can successfully unlock my encrypted zip file and it work across OS platforms? I would never send the password in that email with the file either. I would provide them the password either verbally or in some other fashion and not in an email.
@@macmost so if I make a pdf like in this video I believe I understand that your saying that it IS encrypted right? But if I want to share a number of files where they do not have to keep entering passwords every time they close the file. Then use terminal and encrypt a zip file with all the files inside it this way you only need to send one zip file with all the files inside it encrypted. Is that right?
Another super-useful tutorial, Gary! For the reasons you gave, I don't usually need to password-protect/encrypt documents on my Mac, but it's great to be able to do so and create PDFs from any app at all on the occasions when it's necessary or just useful. Thank you!
How to password protect Text Edit? My mac is too old to get Pages. Oops!! I should just shut up and watch the entire video. 🤣. Thank you!! This is amazing!
Thank you, Gary, for showing us how! ❤️👍🏻
Thanks Gary, best regards from Austria 🇦🇹 (Europe)
Born to teach.👍
Your videos are helping me a lot. Thank you for these explanations again. In macOS Sonoma, however, there is also an "owners password" which you can set under the Permissions button if saving a PDF in Preview. What does that owners password do differently, and why is it here? (Apple doesn't say much about this in its support section.)
That's also known as the "change permissions password" and you can use it to restrict making various changes to the PDF. You can see that as a list of checkboxes right above when you set an owners password. The other password prevents you from viewing the PDF.
Great video as always.
But one question about the quality of the encryption of PDF’s in particular (but also Numbers too): How good is it? i.e. is it AES256 or the like, and essentially unhackable by even the CIA, or is it something that a really determined person with access to some high end hardware and a bit of patience will get into?
Good question.
Thank you for crisp explanation. However tThat would have been great if you showed us a way to encrypt folders and pictures in particular.
I do. This particular video is about documents. But I have one on encrypting folders too. Here: czcams.com/video/kFvZAmP0Ibg/video.html
Thank You Gary.
Gary I created a password protected .dmg file and it worked but somehow I thin I ejected it and it disappeared from my desktop help!
Love your videos Gary. How do I remove the requirement for a password from a locked .pdf once it's opened?
Print it, then click the PDF button to print to a new PDF file.
how to delete a single page in pages, also how to add a new page before and after a certain page
In a word processing document or a pay layout document?
@@macmost in apple pages document
@@Leen-bf4em Right Pages has two types of documents: word processing and page layout. I'll assume you mean page layout. In that case, you have to delete the content on the page to delete the page. Text flows from one page to the other. If you have inserted a Page Break character, simply find it and delete it. Turn on "show invisibles" to help with that.
Great update! Thanks, Gary 😀
Hi Gary, how about your Time Machine backup on an external drive. Even though my main hard drive is password protected, are the backed up files protected?
You have the option to encrypt your Time Machine drive too. Use that if you want the backup encrypted.
mmmmm hi Gary. just tried it out on a word doc, opened in word and tried in preview, no joy :(. ??
life saver!
thank you, excellant
Great information, thank you.
How do I remove the Home Bar at the bottom of my iPhone screen?
great info keep up the great work
I’m always afraid that someday my Mac will break down and I will have to let a technician work on it or send it to a repair shop. I created a user account called Maintenance that has its own password which I can give to any repair person. There is nothing in that account. No contacts, files or photos. Is that pretty safe?
That sounds like a good idea and simple to do. What I did when I needed to hand my Mac to the repair shop, was to transfer all my sensitive files/folder into an external storage. After I picked up my Mac, I just transferred them back into my Mac. No worries about repairmen looking at your sensitive info, either accidentally or on purpose. ;)
Nice one m8 very informative 👍
VERY helpful. How do I password protect a folder that contains several documents?
Protecting a folder is a very different thing. See @ If your Mac is protected with a user password (and FileVault) then no one can log into it to get to any of your files anyway.
Thank you
Is it possible to Password-Protect a text Document in TextEdit? I can save it in pdf and protect it, or I can encrypt it with DropStuff or BetterZip and encrypt it, but can I protect it inside TextEdit?
Wonderful!! Please, what about setting a password for a photo or for a folder which has photos?
There's no way to do that. But ALL of your photos are protected by your user account security (user password, FIleVault)
I’ve tried this way (zip folder).
Also by Gary.
czcams.com/video/kFvZAmP0Ibg/video.html
It works
I don't want any passwords. I do a lot of scanning in pdf. A lot of times these documents will ask for a password.. Please help! Is there away I can join pattern group and pay by the year???
Thanks Betty
Not sure what you mean. If you are the one creating the documents, then you have control over whether there are passwords. And for Patreon I only offer the monthly option since I need to have a steady monthly budget to do this work. Hard to do a job if you have to wait 12 months between paychecks.
Could you tell me how to reset password when I can't remember this password please?
When FileVault is turn off and local user login options are not assigned with Apple account, reset password can be easily done in recovery menu (more in Apple article HT202860)
Which is why you should ALWAYS have a login password set. And you should use FileVault if your Mac can be physically accessed by people you don't trust.
@@macmost I see a lot of discussions on the internet about the fact that filevault negatively affects the lifespan of SSD but this is a topic for another story 🤓
How you do unlock a pages document if you forgot the password?
You can't. It is encrypted with that password as the key. So it isn't just locked in a box, it is completely encrypted and unreadable without that key.
If I forgot my password to access my excel file. How do I get back access?
I'm pretty sure you are out of luck. Likely that Excel encrypts the file with that password, so it isn't simply "locked" but completely encrypted. You'll need the password or to maybe find a version of the file in Time Machine you had before you encrypted it?
The PDF file on my Mac has become automatically locked, seemingly requiring a password to unlock it. Strangely, I never set a password for it. c
Can i have the reason and how to rectify
Not sure how that would be possible. To "lock" it you need to encrypt it and set a password. Encryption (locking) doesn't work unless there is a password to use as a key. Maybe use your Time Machine backup to go back to a point before that happened?
Hi, I actually mistyped a password and now can't open it. Any advice?
Do you mean when you set the password? You need to enter the same password. If you don't know what that is, then you can't open it.
I have an older SimpleText document which contains older passwords, it was encrypted, now I cannot access it. There doesn't seem to be information available about the algorithm apple used in 0S9 for file encryption. I tried running a 0S9 emulator and managed to get the file copied the with the proper attributes (shows up as encrypted) but it's still not working. Is my only recourse to get a older mac that will run os9? Or should I be okay with Snow Leopard (Rosetta)?
After spending a day researching I resolved the issue by installing Snow Leopard and then discovering I used the Rosetta app "Pastor" to create the password file which saves the data in an encrypted Simpletext document.
Makes sense as I'm sure that SimpleText did not have an encryption option.
@@macmost yes, but the finder had that, so since I created the password file in 2001, my memory of what I did back then didn't stick. In any case discovering that I used Pastor app, resolved the issue. Was not long after that I migrated to an early version of 1password.
@@macmost would you believe I just got off a support chat with Apple trying to resolve a snow leopard app store access issue and that basically ended up telling me I should upgrade the os. told the support person I needed to stick with snow leopard for Roseetta support, and they told me I only needed that to run intel apps on apple silicon, i said no I am referring to Rosetta 1, not 2, and they told me there was only 1 roseetta.
I'm curious about password-protecting (1) an individual folder and (2) a Photos album. Your advice?
Protecting a folder is a very different thing. See czcams.com/video/kFvZAmP0Ibg/video.html You can't protect a single album in the Photos library, but if your Mac is protected with a user password (and FileVault) then no one can log into it to get to any of your albums.
@@macmost You tha man, Gary. Thanks!
@@macmost Sorry, I did mean Photos library, not album, but your point is well taken.
Thanks. I have a question. How To Password-Protect Apps?
How do you mean? To stop someone from running them? You should use the parental controls in System Preferences, Screen Time to do that. You would have to set up an account for the other person and then restrict what they can do with that account.
@@macmost I found solution on M.A.S. > "AppLocker App" 😇I can password-protect any specific app.
@@yasinvfx Seems, from the reviews, that this isn't a good solution. What is your use case? If you are letting someone else use your Mac, you should definitely NOT do this. You should be setting up a separate user account for them.
@@macmost Thanks for answer. No need for 2nd user. My disk is only 256 GB... My friends rarely use it, I want to hide a few apps and that's all. (FaceTime, Messages, Whatsapp, etc) -Why is the application not secure?
@@yasinvfx The word "rarely" is concerning. If it was "never" then fine. Otherwise, if someone else uses your Mac they should be in the Guest Account or an account you create for them. Otherwise this is a major security issue. Even if you basically trust them, they may not be as careful when they use your Mac as you are.
how can I recover a password on a numbers file? TIA 🙂
sorry or... the file is open on my iPhone , is there a way to see it there??
Not sure what you are asking. So you have opened it and all is OK?
HOW TO TURN THIS FEATURE OFF
In Pages, you would open the document, then go to File, Change Password. Then click the Remove Password button.
i forgot the pasword, wht to do in that case
sighs... too many passwords in my head already, i wonder how many passwords an individual has in their life-time? haha
Well, all my password-protected Notes suddenly disappeared. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Or maybe you just want to protect a document.
you talk to much and take for ever to get to the point.
Sorry you didn't like my tutorial. I try to teach people about how to use their Macs. So I don't just present a set of steps but I take the time to explain why and other aspects of things as I go.
Get to the point
talk too much! shut up and get to the damn point!
Way to verbose and you wanrt me to use you on Pateon.. no way...
Sorry you don't like my videos. I know I can't please everyone and that's OK.
@macmostvideo. How can I encrypt a file on my Mac and send it via email to a windows user so they can successfully unlock my encrypted zip file and it work across OS platforms? I would never send the password in that email with the file either. I would provide them the password either verbally or in some other fashion and not in an email.
This is one way. Send them the password-protected file. Also see czcams.com/video/kFvZAmP0Ibg/video.html
@@macmost so if I make a pdf like in this video I believe I understand that your saying that it IS encrypted right? But if I want to share a number of files where they do not have to keep entering passwords every time they close the file. Then use terminal and encrypt a zip file with all the files inside it this way you only need to send one zip file with all the files inside it encrypted. Is that right?
@@carlod545 Right.