2 Ways to Lock Photos on Mac

When you store photos on your Mac, you sometimes include some private photos. To ensure their privacy, you may consider locking them. This prevents others from viewing the photos without permission. This article will explain how to lock photos on Mac to ensure that only you can access them when you need them.

How to Lock Photos on Mac [2 Methods]
You can lock photos on Mac in two ways – using the Photos app or the Disk Utility app.

Method 1: Use the Photos app
You can use the Photos app to lock your photos if they are stored in the app. If your photos are stored elsewhere, you'll need to lock them by moving them to the Photos app.

Step 1: Add Pictures to the Photos App
If you have pictures saved in your Mac’s storage, you can add them to the Photos app.

1. Open the Finder app and find the picture you want to lock.

2. Once you find the pictures, hold down the Command(⌘) key and click on the picture you want to select.

3. Once selected, right-click or Control-click any selected file and go to Share > Add to Photos from the menu that appears .

The selected picture will now be sent to the Photos app.

Step 2: Hide Pictures on Photos

To lock a picture, open the Photos app on your Mac from Finder, Launchpad, or Spotlight. Within Photos, click the Library tab on the left sidebar. You will now see all the pictures added to the Photos app. To select a picture to lock, hold down the Command (⌘) key on your keyboard, and then click the picture you want to select. Once selected, right-click or Control-click any selected picture and select Hide Photos, where n is the number of photos you selected. To confirm your action, click Hide in the prompt that appears.

The pictures you selected will now be locked in a hidden folder in the Photos app. Anyone who opens the Photos app won't be able to access the photos because they will be hidden.

Method 2: Use the Disk Utility application
If you have a bunch of pictures scattered in different folders on your Mac. You can then lock them with a password using the Disk Utility application. Until then, you can compile all the pictures you want to lock into a separate folder on your Mac.

Step 1: Create a folder containing the images you want to lock

First, open the Finder app and navigate to the location where you want to place the locked folder. From there, click the File tab in the top menu bar and select New Folder. After creating the new folder, type a name for the folder and press the Return key on your keyboard when finished. Once done, move the pictures from your Mac to this newly created folder before locking them. To do this, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts to accomplish this:
To select multiple files: Hold down Command(⌘) and click on the files you want to select.
To cut selected files: Use the Command(⌘) X shortcut on your keyboard.
To paste selected files: Use the Command(⌘) V shortcut on your keyboard. After moving all the pictures you want to hide, you can now lock them using the next step.

Step 2: Lock the folder using Disk Utility

To lock the folder with a password, open the Disk Utility application from Finder, Launchpad, or Spotlight. When the Disk Utility application opens, click the File tab in the top menu bar and go to New > Disk Image in Folder. In the Finder window that appears on the screen, navigate to the folder you created in step #1, select it, and click Select. Now you will see the New Image from Folder menu on your screen. To lock the selected folder, click the Encrypt drop-down box. In the menu that appears, select 128-bit AES encryption (recommended). Now you will see a prompt asking you to create a password to lock the selected folder. Carefully enter your preferred password in the Password and Verification boxes and click Select. You will now return to the New Image from Folder menu. Here you can edit the name of the locked image (where it is saved) and add a label to it. When finished, click Save in the lower right corner. The Disk Utility application will now start creating a disk image of the locked folder. When ready, you will see the following message. To continue, click Finish. The selected folder will now be locked and saved as a DMG file in your preferred location. You can open it to check if all the contents are there and then delete the original folder from your Mac.

How to View Locked Photos on Mac
If you have locked photos using any of the above methods, you can follow the steps below to view them on your Mac.

Method 1: If Using Photos Lock
When you lock pictures using the Photos app on your Mac, you can unlock them directly from the same app.

Open the Photos app on your Mac. With the Photos app open, click the View tab on the top menu bar and select Show Hidden Albums. You will now see a new tab appear in the Photos app. To open a locked photo, click the "Hide" tab on the left sidebar. Here you will see all the pictures you locked using method 1 above. To hide these pictures again, click the View tab in the menu bar and select Hide Hidden Album.

Method 2: If locked using Disk Utility

If you used Method 2 above to lock pictures on your Mac, you can view them by opening the Finder app and navigating to the location where the folder-locked image was created. Once you find the disk image you created, double-click it to access its contents. Now you will see a prompt on the screen asking you to enter your password. Enter the password you added to the folder in Method #2 and click OK. The contents of the locked folder will now appear in the disk image folder in a new window. You can open, copy, or share pictures just like in any folder. The disk image will also appear on your desktop with a gray drive icon. Once you have accessed the pictures, right-click or Control-click the disk image and select Eject .

If you keep the injected disk image, it can be accessed from within the desktop, and others who open it may not need to enter the necessary password. Therefore, it is very important to eject the disk image after you are done using the locked folder.

How to Prevent Other Applications from Accessing Photos on Mac
Locking pictures has many purposes, but if you want to prevent other applications on your Mac from accessing pictures stored in the Photos app, you need to remove them from Disable this access in macOS settings.

Open the System Preferences app on your Mac from the Dock, Launchpad, or Spotlight. You can also open it by clicking the Apple () icon in the menu bar and selecting System Preferences from the menu. Within System Preferences, click Security & Privacy. On the next screen, select the Privacy tab at the top. Here, click on the Photos tab in the left pane. You will now see a list of apps that can access pictures and videos from the Photos app. Checked apps currently have permission to view content in Photos. To disable this access from an app, uncheck the box to the left of the app you want to remove permission from. When this box is unchecked, the selected app will not be able to access anything in the Photos app.

You can repeat this for other apps you want to block access to photos.

That’s all there is to know about locking photos on Mac.

The above is the detailed content of 2 Ways to Lock Photos on Mac. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!