hiding or locking folders

myrandom2004myrandom2004
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
hi i am a recent switcher... i had a quick question as to how I would be able to hide or lock folders from being opened.



I have other family members using this computer and dont really want to go through with setting up other accounts. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    smaxsmax Posts: 361member
    Probably the most complex way to do it would be to rename a folder with a period in front of it, like ".stuff". OSX recognises these folders as hidden, so you can't see them in Finder. The only easy way to get to it would be to either have Finder show all hidden files or to manually type in the location of the folder in the "Go to folder..." menu item in Finder.



    The problem is that OSX won't let you, so you have to do it through the Terminal and you have to learn some basic unix commands, which isn't really too bad.



    All commands here assume that you're doing this within the home driectory.



    Easiest way would probably be either:

    mv -vi ~/original ~/.hidden



    With "original" being a folder that you already created and put stuff in to and "hidden" being the name of the hidden folder (don't forget the period). Best used if everything's already in a folder.



    Or strat from scratch with:

    mkdir -v ~/.hidden



    With "hidden" being the name of the folder again.



    Let me guess... This is going to be for a porn folder? :-P
  • Reply 2 of 6
    audiopollutionaudiopollution Posts: 3,226member
    Just make accounts. It's too easy.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by myrandom2004 View Post


    I have other family members using this computer and dont really want to go through with setting up other accounts. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.



    OS X makes setting up accounts very easy, and if you enable Fast User Switching it's very easy to quickly switch accounts as needed.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    imon4imon4 Posts: 22member
    just right click the folder, and get info, on the ownership and permission click - NO ACESS...
  • Reply 5 of 6
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Like others have said, in a multi-user system the only true way is to make separate user accounts. The quick switching works quite well in general.



    That said, if I wanted to sort-of-secure something inside a common user account, I'd use the Disk Utility to make a .dmg disk image that is encrypted and password protected. How you use it is you open the disk image, enter password, and when you're done using it you close it from the Finder like you'd eject a CD.



    This way is not gimmicky or reliant on other users being ignorant of basic computer operation. (FYI, this line of thought often fails to take into account that the people who don't know how to use computers, have friends and invite people over who do know how to use computers. Like if you're securing a computer so your kid won't get access, it's very possible some of their friends can. Assuming, of course, that you know how much your kid knows in the first place.) The encrypted disk image setup is actually secure as long as the other users of the same account are not installing key loggers to find out the password you're typing. I have a feeling this level of security is not a priority for you, so the solution should work out fine.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Just thought I'd reinforce the advice that you should set up additional accounts for the other users of the machine. It's ridiculously easy and means each user can have the Mac set up exactly how they want without affecting anyone else's settings.



    It'll take about 30 seconds per account to create them.



    On the keeping-files/foders-secret front, use an encrypted disk image.
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