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Step away from your Mac for a few moments and you leave it easily accessible to absolutely anyone.
Others could view your personal information, delete files, change important settings, access websites and a lot more besides.
Adding a password to your screensaver can protect your Mac, because as soon as someone touches the keyboard or moves the mouse, it prompts for a password.
You can even start the screensaver yourself – one quick mouse movement and your Mac is locked, allowing you to walk away with the knowledge that your personal information is as safe as houses.
Perfect for use at work or if you live with others who you don’t trust to respect your privacy!
1 Open System Preferences
From the Apple menu in the top-left corner select System Preferences. The screensaver password options are not in Desktop & Screen Saver, instead head to Security & Privacy.
2 View password settings
Select the General tab and tick the Require password box. You will be asked to enter a password after a screensaver is activated, so choose one that can’t be guessed easily.
3 Set the delay
It is useful to set a delay before a password is required, giving you a chance to cancel the screensaver if you don’t want it. Click the time and set it to five seconds.
4 Change the password
If you want to edit the password used to log in after a screensaver kicks in, it’s simply a case of clicking Change Password. Enter the old one and then the new one twice.
