Unable to lock (relock) notes

Hey Leisa Mccord,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities. To enable locked notes, try these steps from Lock your notes on Mac.

"Set a password to lock notes

Depending on where your notes are stored, you can choose to lock your notes with the login password for your Mac, or create a custom password to use just for locked notes.

1. In the Notes app  on your Mac, choose Notes > Settings, then click Set Password. If you have multiple accounts, first click the “Locked notes” pop-up menu and choose the account you want to set a password for.

Note: You can also create a password when you lock a note for the first time.

2. Do one of the following:

• Use the login password for your Mac for locked notes: Click Use Login Password. (If your notes are in an iCloud account, you must have two-factor authentication enabled and turn on iCloud Keychain in System Settings to use your login password for locked notes. If you have additional devices, they must be using iOS 16 or macOS Ventura to see notes that are locked using your login password.)
• Create a custom password for locked notes: Click Create Password, then enter a password in the Password field. Enter the password again in the Verify field, enter a hint, then click Set Password.
  • Note: It’s highly recommended that you create a hint.

3. If your Mac or Magic Keyboard has Touch ID, select Use Touch ID to be able to use your fingerprint to unlock your notes."

If you can't lock your notes, the following guidance from that same article may help explain.

"If you can’t lock a note

You can’t lock any of the following:

• A Quick Note
• A note you’ve shared with other people
• A note that has a video, audio file, PDF, or document attached. Only tables, images, drawings, scanned documents, maps, or web attachments can be included in a locked note.
• A note that contains tags
• A note stored in an iCloud account that hasn’t been upgraded."

All the best.