Locked notes on a Mac: what Notes protects and what it cannot

26 September 2026 · 6 min read

How to lock notes on a Mac: select a note in Notes, choose File, Lock Note, then enter your notes password or use Touch ID. The first time, Notes asks whether to use your Mac login password or a custom password just for notes. A locked note’s contents are encrypted and hidden until you unlock it, but its title stays visible, and several kinds of note cannot be locked at all.

That makes locked notes very good for short secrets, such as a door code or an account number, and the wrong place for documents. Here are the steps, and where the edges are.

How to lock notes on a Mac

1. Open Notes and select the note.
2. Choose File, Lock Note. Or use the toolbar button next to the search field (a padlock on Sequoia; newer versions put the command under a More button) and choose Lock Note.
3. If you have never set up locked notes, Notes asks how you want to lock them: with your Mac’s login password, or with a custom password you create. A custom password comes with a hint field. Fill it in with something that reminds you and nobody else.
4. Enter the password, or touch the Touch ID sensor if Notes offers it.

If the note is still readable right after you lock it, that is expected: it stays open until you close your locked notes (below). In the notes list it now shows a padlock, and the preview text under the title is gone.

To change how locking works, choose Notes, Settings (Notes, Preferences on versions before macOS 13 Ventura). Next to “Locked notes” you can switch between Use Login Password and Use Custom Password, tick Use Touch ID, or use Reset Password. Each account has its own setting, so if you use both iCloud and On My Mac notes, pick the account first.

Which password to choose. The login password means nothing extra to remember. It also means anyone who knows your Mac login password can open your locked notes. If the person you want to keep out is someone who shares your Mac or knows its password, a custom password is the one that actually separates them from your notes.

Unlocking, and when notes lock again

Select a locked note and enter the password or use Touch ID. Apple’s guide is precise about what happens next: all locked notes in that account stay unlocked while you are using Notes, and they close automatically after a period of inactivity or when you quit Notes.

That first part surprises people: unlocking one note unlocks every locked note in the account. To close them at once, choose Notes, Close All Locked Notes, or click the Lock button and choose the same command. If you step away from the Mac with Notes open, your notes stay readable until the inactivity timer runs out, so lock the screen as well. Require a password immediately after a Mac sleeps makes that automatic.

What Notes will not lock

Apple lists these as notes that cannot be locked:

• Quick Notes.
• Notes you have shared with others. It works the other way too: a locked note cannot be shared.
• Notes with a video, audio file, PDF or document attached. Apple says only tables, images, drawings, scanned documents, maps and web attachments can be included in a locked note.
• Notes with tags. You also cannot add a tag to a locked note.
• Notes in an iCloud account that has not been upgraded to the current version of Notes.

Notes adds two more in its own messages: locking is not supported for notes in IMAP or Exchange accounts (the Notes section of a Gmail or work mail account), and a note can be “too large to lock” until you remove or shrink attachments. Locked notes also cannot be moved or copied into those account types.

The attachment rule is the one that matters most. The PDF of your tax return, a Pages document or a scan you saved as a PDF from another app cannot sit inside a locked note. A scan made with Notes’ own document scanner counts as a scanned document, so that one is allowed.

What a locked note still shows

The title. Apple’s guide says only the title appears in the list for a locked note, even while your locked notes are unlocked, and that searching a locked note searches only its title. The title is the first line of the note, so write “Bank” on line one and the account number on line two, not the other way around.

Anything you copied out. While a note is unlocked you can use File, Export as PDF, print it, copy its text or drag an image out of it. Every one of those makes an ordinary, unprotected copy that knows nothing about the lock.

The screen. An unlocked note is just text on the display, visible to anyone behind you or on a screen share.

Deleting a locked note asks for a password or Touch ID first, so nobody can quietly remove one.

iCloud, other devices and a forgotten password

For iCloud accounts, Apple says both options, the login password and a custom password, keep locked notes end-to-end encrypted, and that Apple has no access to them. They sync to your iPhone and iPad locked. Ordinary unlocked notes are a different matter: under iCloud’s standard data protection they are not end-to-end encrypted, and turning on Advanced Data Protection changes that. Is iCloud Drive private enough for sensitive files? explains the difference.

On iCloud.com you can open locked notes that use a custom password. Notes locked with your login password or a device passcode cannot be viewed there.

A forgotten custom password is final. Apple is plain about it: if you forget it and cannot unlock with Touch ID, you cannot view your locked notes, and Apple cannot help you regain access. Reset Password only sets a new password for notes you lock from now on; notes already locked keep the old one, and Notes will call your new password wrong when you try it on them. Keep every notes password you have used in a password manager.

Where private files belong instead

Notes is a good home for text. It is not a home for files, and it has no way to lock a folder of notes as a whole. macOS also has no setting that puts the Notes app itself behind a password.

For documents there are better tools. A PDF can carry its own open password, set in Preview, and a folder can go into an encrypted disk image made with Disk Utility. How to password protect a folder on a Mac compares the options.

Hushbox is the one that works like a locked note for files: right-click a file or folder in Finder, choose Lock with Hushbox, and it stays in the same folder, locked, until you double-click it and use Touch ID or your Hushbox password. It locks again by itself when the screen locks, when the Mac sleeps or after an idle time you pick. The same honest limits apply as with Notes: the name still shows, copies made before locking (in Time Machine, for example) are not changed, and there is no password recovery. It does not lock apps, including Notes, and it does not replace FileVault.

Questions

Why can’t I lock this note? Check for a PDF, audio, video or document attachment, a tag, a collaborator, or an IMAP or Exchange account. Quick Notes cannot be locked either. Remove the cause and try again; for a note in a mail account, move it to your iCloud or On My Mac account first.

Are locked notes encrypted? Yes. For iCloud accounts Apple says locked notes are end-to-end encrypted whichever password option you use, and Apple cannot read them.

What happens if I forget my Notes password? With a custom password and no working Touch ID, notes locked with it cannot be opened, by you or by Apple. Resetting the password only affects notes you lock afterwards.

Is it safer to use my login password or a custom one? A custom password, if anyone else knows your Mac login password. Otherwise the login password is simpler, and Apple says both options are end-to-end encrypted for iCloud accounts.