How to password-protect one or more photos on Mac

In this guide, we’ll share four easy ways to add password protection to your sensitive images and screenshots to keep them safe from prying eyes.

If you give other people, such as your spouse, kids, or even office colleagues, access to your Mac, the best option is to simply create a separate user account for them and change your main account password. This way, you don’t have to worry about file mixing or unauthorized access.

But if you must share your user account with others, or want an additional layer of protection to make your pictures and screenshots more private, here are four easy ways to do so.

Please check all four and pick the one that best suits your needs. I use method 3 on all my Macs.

Convert to PDF and lock the file

If you have to hide just one or a few images and want to do it quickly, without many steps or downloading third-party apps, then this method is for you. Just remember that this may affect picture quality, but it shouldn’t be a big deal if you’re looking to protect private screenshots and such.

1) Control-click over one or multiple images in your Finder folder or desktop and select Quick Actions > Create PDF. This will turn your selected pictures into a PDF.

2) Now, open the PDF in Mac’s Preview and set a password on it. You can do this by clicking File > Export > Permissions and adding your custom owner password. Then, check the box for “Require Password To Open Document,” add the password under it, and click Apply > Save.

3) You’ll now have a password-protected PDF. Delete the original unprotected PDF and image, and keep just the locked PDF copy.

Compress the photo into a ZIP file and password protect it

This second method is similar to the one above. All you need to do is select one or more pictures in Finder, control-click, and choose Compress to turn them into a ZIP file. Then, set a lock on that ZIP file with a custom password.

Create a locked disk image and save the picture there

In this method, you’ll use the built-in macOS Disk Utility app to create a password-protected, encrypted virtual disk of the desired size (like 2 GB). Then, you can add photos, videos, documents, and files of any kind here. They will remain locked until you enter the password to open that disk image. Our linked tutorial will guide you through everything.

Use Encrypto to encrypt and decrypt the photo

And finally, the most straightforward method of them all. But it requires using a third-party app. However, note that this app is by MacPaw, which is popular for creating reputable Mac apps like Setapp and CleanMyMac.

1) Download the Encrypto app for free from the Mac App Store and open it.

2) Drag and drop an image over its window and set a password to encrypt the file.

3) After encryption, click the Save As button and save the encrypted file with the ‘.crypto’ extension to the desired folder.

4) Then, delete the original, unencrypted file.

5) When you need to view the locked image, double-click to open it in Encrypto, enter the password, and click Decrypt.

6) You can now view the image by clicking its thumbnail and also save its unencrypted version to Finder if needed.

Which method will you be using?

Also, check out:

• How to secure your Mac and all of its valuable data
• 9 ways to lock private files & documents on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2026/01/29/password-protect-photos-mac/