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Require Touch ID

P

Party on Garth!

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 27, 2025
4
1
Hi all, I enabled "Require Touch ID" for the notes app on my iPhone & would like to do the Touch ID equivalent for the same app on MacOS - I've done some Googling but the only option appears to be locking individual notes...

Any ideas? 🤓
 
bogdanw said:
Apple Support - Lock your notes on Mac
https://support.apple.com/guide/notes/not28c5f5468/mac
Click to expand...
I appreciate you're trying to help the OP but this article literally describes their issue with the MacOS notes app.

I did the ole Gemini search and daddy AI came back with this if it helps you OP:

While macOS doesn't have a built-in feature to lock individual apps with Touch ID in the same way that iOS 18 allows for locking apps with Face ID, there are third-party solutions that provide this functionality. Here's a breakdown:

  • Third-party apps:
  • Apps like "AppLocker" are designed to password-protect individual applications on macOS. These apps often include support for Touch ID, allowing you to unlock protected apps with your fingerprint.
  • These applications add an extra layer of security to your mac, and can be very useful in situations where you want to keep certain applications private.
  • macOS built in security:
  • macOS does have strong security features, like requiring a password or Touch ID to log in to your user account, and file vault for encrypting your drive. But this does not extend to individual application locking.

Therefore, while a direct, native feature like iOS 18's app locking isn't standard on macOS, you can achieve similar results using third-party applications that support Touch ID.
 
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I'd argue this is notably less important for macOS. iOS doesn't have multi-user support like this so its more likely that you'd hand your phone off to someone for some task while still having other stuff that you want to keep protected. macOS *does* have multi-user support. You can lock your session quickly (Cmd+Ctrl+Q), and if you want to allow another user to use your Mac but not have access to your personal data, then you can set up another account for them or enable the guest account.
 
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JuicyGoomba said:
I appreciate you're trying to help the OP but this article literally describes their issue with the MacOS notes app.

I did the ole Gemini search and daddy AI came back with this if it helps you OP:

While macOS doesn't have a built-in feature to lock individual apps with Touch ID in the same way that iOS 18 allows for locking apps with Face ID, there are third-party solutions that provide this functionality. Here's a breakdown:

  • Third-party apps:
  • Apps like "AppLocker" are designed to password-protect individual applications on macOS. These apps often include support for Touch ID, allowing you to unlock protected apps with your fingerprint.
  • These applications add an extra layer of security to your mac, and can be very useful in situations where you want to keep certain applications private.
  • macOS built in security:
  • macOS does have strong security features, like requiring a password or Touch ID to log in to your user account, and file vault for encrypting your drive. But this does not extend to individual application locking.

Therefore, while a direct, native feature like iOS 18's app locking isn't standard on macOS, you can achieve similar results using third-party applications that support Touch ID.
Click to expand...
Thanks, AppLocker looks like it'd do everything I want. Upvote for you!

If only it was free...
 
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PotentPeas said:
I'd argue this is notably less important for macOS. iOS doesn't have multi-user support like this so its more likely that you'd hand your phone off to someone for some task while still having other stuff that you want to keep protected. macOS *does* have multi-user support. You can lock your session quickly (Cmd+Ctrl+Q), and if you want to allow another user to use your Mac but not have access to your personal data, then you can set up another account for them or enable the guest account.
Click to expand...
This is more for when I'm handing my Mac to my wife to show her something quickly. I don't want her poking around in the notes app.
 
JuicyGoomba said:
I appreciate you're trying to help the OP but this article literally describes their issue with the MacOS notes app.
Click to expand...
If we don't start with the manual, we don’t know if we are talking about intended behavior, a bug or a missing feature.

More, the support article details various configuration that might be used and requirements.

“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.”

“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 later or macOS 13 or later to see notes that are locked using your login password.”
 
bogdanw said:
If we don't start with the manual, we don’t know if we are talking about intended behavior, a bug or a missing feature.

More, the support article details various configuration that might be used and requirements.

“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.”

“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 later or macOS 13 or later to see notes that are locked using your login password.”
Click to expand...
It's okay to admit that you didn't read the OP correctly.
 
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JuicyGoomba said:
It's okay to admit that you didn't read the OP correctly.
Click to expand...
I did read the post, but “some Googling” is not official, updated, reliable information.

Nor is whatever “AI” garbage generators are providing.

There is a fundamental difference between locking a note and locking the Notes app.

When a note is locked, as described in the documentation, that note is encrypted.

Locking access to the Notes app, with AppLocker or a similar app, doesn’t do anything to the notes, they are stored unencrypted. Someone with psychical access to the Mac, as in this case, can just copy the notes from ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/ and read them on another account or Mac.

Secure features in the Notes app https://support.apple.com/guide/security/sec1782bcab1/web

Here is a free AppLocker app http://langui.net/applocker/ that works in 15.3.1, different from the paid one in the App Store.

And an example on using another solution (Santa) to block access to apps https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rminal-for-productivity.2157611/post-33642041
 
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