If you walk away from your Mac for a moment, you can of course put it to sleep. But did you know that you can also just lock the screen? We show you how it works.
This is how you can lock your Mac screen
If you’re away from your Mac for a while, you obviously don’t want anyone accessing your data. If you don’t shut down your computer, someone can do everything with the device. Locking your Mac is the solution, but before you can ‘lock’ your Mac, you need to set a password on your Mac. If you haven’t done this yet, follow the steps below.
- Click on the Apple menu and open ‘System Preferences’;
- Open ‘Security and privacy’;
- Check whether a password has been set, or change it via ‘Change Password’;
- Check the box next to ‘Ask for password after sleep or screen saver starts’ and choose ‘Immediately’.
Now that you’ve set a password, there are several ways to lock your Mac. The device asks for a password when it goes to sleep, so by choosing ‘Sleep’ from the Apple menu, your data is safe. You can also use the keyboard combination ‘Ctrl + Shift + Eject’, or ‘Ctrl + Shift + Power’ if you don’t have an Eject button.
You can also lock the screen yourself. To do this, click on the Apple menu and choose ‘Lock screen’. Your Mac just stays on, but then safely behind a password. You can also activate this option with the shortcut ‘Ctrl + Command + Q’. You do need macOS High Sierra or higher for this.
Another way to shut down your Mac is to move your mouse to a specific corner. To do this, go to ‘Desktop & Screen Saver’ in System Preferences. Click on ‘Screen Saver’ and then on ‘Interactive Corners’. Here you can set one of the corners of your Mac to lock the screen for you when you click on it.
Read more about macOS
- 3 ways to safely remove apps from your Mac (24-12-2018)
- Tip: Organize macOS System Preferences according to your needs (3-9-2018)
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