

If you choose to use your iCloud account, Apple will store the recovery key for your disk on its servers, and you’ll have to provide questions and answers for three security questions that will unlock the disk. You will be asked to choose a method to unlock your disk if you ever lose your account password. From the Apple menu, choose System Settings.A simple password (“1234,” or “password1,” etc.) is easy to guess and could allow anyone to log in, thus bypassing FileVault protection. It is important to use a strong password to secure your user account, because that password not only gives you access to your account, but it also unlocks your drive. When you turn it on, it encrypts all the data on your drive as you work, writing and editing new files, they are encrypted on the fly. Use FileVault to Encrypt Your Startup DriveįileVault, the built-in full-disk encryption feature in macOS, is a robust way to encrypt the contents of your entire startup drive. Īnd you can set a firmware password to prevent someone from starting up your Mac from an external drive (for Macs with Intel processors).


This ensures that no one can steal your Mac can read the data on its drive.īut you should also set a password to protect your Mac when the screensaver is active, because, if not, anyone walking by could access your Mac. The best way to prevent unauthorized access to your data is to encrypt your startup drive.

