How to password protect applications on Mac?

Wow, your statement is pretty oxymoronic. No. I actually just googled the same question myself.

Then read the thread, the alternatives have been well covered already.

An important thing to understand about Mac OS X is that [Applications and Sytem] are completely and utterly separate from Users' information.

All Preferences, Documents and saved game progress are in the User's Home folder (except for a very, very, small number of system wide preferences such as the default resolution of the main screen).

If you do not want other Users messing up your mail, documents, game progress, and settings, the "Approved method" is to give that other person their own account. It is completely effective.

Locking Applications is needlessly complex and unnecessary.

Grant Bennet-Alder Thanks. The problem I frequently run into is that I render and export huge files in FCPX and sometimes I have to leave my iMac running (logged in as me) for 12+ hours, so it is unattended sometimes.

I have no guarantee that someone can just come in when I'm not there and snoop around my Mail or my Calenders or Quickbooks and so on. It happend to me this weekend, so I'm just browsing the Help forum.

Csound1I did read the thread. My original comment had nothing to do with the solutions people have given.

Lock the screen with a password protected screen saver to stop others from messing around while your machine is rendering.

JonTh is correct. That is available on:

System Preferences > Security...

[√] Require password nnn minutes after sleep or screensaver begins

you people are rediculous, no reason for an app like this? parental controls? encrypt? (those a re stupid crappy solutions) its like saying itd be dumb to password protect apps on your iphone its a genius idea, that shouldnt be a jailbreak option on the phone, you guys are beating around the bush, my air sits downstairs with my 3 roomates(friends for over 10 years) all use it for our school work or just surfing, but i have imessage, so if im texting some girl in my room and the convo goes a bit "adult" im not going to go downstairs and grab my laptop so no one can see what im saying, not that i care cuz id tell them about the convo anyway haha, but the point is its a good idea to have an app password option for computer and iphone for a number of induvidual resons, crazy gf, nosey poeple/co workers who cares, its a good option to have, so stop trying to give him resons to stop wanting this option.

thats what locks are for. If people you dont want are using your Mac,...

lock it up

keep said people out of your home/ room

put it in a lockable briefcase like a Haliburton.

However there IS an app to lock an application, however youd have to drag the APP out of the Application folder each time you want to use it, which is borderline absurd.

Espionage: state of the art security for your Mac's confidential data.

http://www.espionageapp.com/

espionage ***** its glitchy, im on trial for this http://knewsense.com/macappblocker it seems perfect simple good interface lets you know of attempts on apps, it seems very much worth the 14.95

Refrain from abusive talk please. This is a family forum. Be kind.

Espionage works fine, ..that statement is false. 😊

If a person needs to keep applications from peoples use, ...then the entire notebook should not be allowed access to that person.

Quinn2891 wrote:

Grant Bennet-Alder Thanks. The problem I frequently run into is that I render and export huge files in FCPX and sometimes I have to leave my iMac running (logged in as me) for 12+ hours, so it is unattended sometimes.

I have no guarantee that someone can just come in when I'm not there and snoop around my Mail or my Calenders or Quickbooks and so on. It happend to me this weekend, so I'm just browsing the Help forum.

I have similar concerns with my Mac when I need it to run unattended, but if the above description is the nature of the problem, there is no need for locking applications or creating extra accounts or anything like that. Here is what I do.

I open the Keychain Access application (in Utilities) and open its Preferences. In "General" I select "Show keychain status in menu bar." That puts a lock icon in the menu bar. Whenever I need to lock my Mac, I just go up there to the menu bar, click the lock, and choose Lock Screen from the menu that drops. Now if anyone tries to use the Mac, they cannot, because they don't know my account password.

Before I found out about that, I used an alternate method which is to click the accounts icon or name in the menu bar (if "Show fast user switching menu" is enabled in Users and Groups) and choose Login Window. That pops out to the OS X login window and now access to my account is blocked unless the password is entered.

In both cases, your current session and the applications running in it are preserved. So it is not like logging out.

If I interpreted your request wrong and you do want others to have access to the Mac, then you do want to create another account for them. Because the way I read it, your actual requirement is not really to block specific applications, but to block access to your personal data in those applications. I doubt you care if people used Mail or Calendar as long as they cannot see your mailboxes or calendars. Separate accounts totally achieves that. I don't have to care what crazy stuff other users do in their accounts on my Mac because it will never cross over to affect my account files or the system (as long as I don't give them Admin access). Using the Accounts feature together with Fast User Switching is an easy and fast way to share a Mac while respecting the privacy of every user on it. I am not sure but I believe that Final Cut Pro can continue to render in the background while a different user account is in the foreground, but you might want to test that.

Finally someone with an actual solution rather than insults and 'advice' 🙂

Old Thread. I know. This may help ...

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/49881/ilock

I agree. Not sure why everyone got so upset about the question. I for one would like to do the same thing. ALL I want password protected is my imessage account. I don't mind if my family reads/uses my laptop for interntet access etc, but I do want my texts to remain private. Why is it such an odd request to want to password protect an individual app?

If what I'm reading is correct, Network23 is saying the only way to do it is to lock your account and allow them guest access. Not a bad solution, just more than I needed to secure. Thanks for being respectful and helpful though!

It's perfectly reasonable to want to lock down one application. The problem was that isn't the way the system is built. Most modern desktop operating systems (Mac, Windows, Unix, etc.) are built on the "account" model where users can use any program, but cannot see any documents (including communications) other than the ones inside their user account folder. In other words they are locked out at the document level, not at the application level.

Because the account makes it easy to lock people out of documents but harder to lock them to applications, it is easy to lock them out of your iMessage texts but harder to lock them out of the iMessage application.

But because locking them out of your iMessage documents means they can't see your messages anyway, it isn't necessary to lock them out of the iMessage application. When they open iMessage in their own account they will see either an empty application, or if they sign in with their AppleID they will see their own iMessages instead of yours.

But since you would not ever want them to sign into their Apple ID in your account, the best thing to do is not let them into your account.

(If they were to sign in with their Apple ID in your account, the authorizations for everything from iMessage to synced calendars and contacts could change from yours to theirs, and yours would be gone.)