All the Ways to Lock and Unlock a Mac

The importance of locking your Mac and its different ways of doing it

As we mentioned before, blocking the Mac is very important especially if there are many people around who can have access to it. Not only for your privacy, but for the peace of mind that no one will be able to touch any document or file you are working on, thus avoiding any possible alteration of it. In addition, having a wide variety of options in the range of blocking your Mac will allow you to choose the one that is easiest for you to carry out so that the action of blocking your Apple computer is not a hassle. Here are several ways that are adapted to practically all the needs of users.

Lock your Mac the traditional way

There is a really traditional way to block the Mac and that surely many users is the one they carry out. This is putting the Apple computer to sleep from the menu that is displayed when we click on the apple icon, which is located in the upper left corner. If we click there, as we say, a menu is displayed, in this case all you have to do is click on “Sleep”, so that the Mac will automatically lock itself. This is, perhaps, the best known way to all because it is also the way in which users tend to turn off the device, and therefore, they have this highly automated process.

The easiest way to lock your Mac

The second option that we bring you is the most traditional way, lower the lid of your Apple computer and voila. Obviously this option is only available to those users who use an Apple laptop in their day-to-day life, be it a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or MacBook. Of course, when lowering the lid, we recommend that you do not do it too quickly since an excessively strong blow from the screen with the body of the computer can damage the screen itself and, obviously, you do not want to block your Mac two seconds before you end up damaging the fantastic screen of Apple laptops.

Use keyboard shortcuts

One of the ways to perform a large number of routine daily actions in a much faster way is through keyboard shortcuts. This is something that very few users use and it really is an ideal way to optimize the time spent performing different tasks. Of course, just as there are keyboard shortcuts to close apps, move between different windows, copy and paste documents, among others, there is also a keyboard shortcut to instantly lock the Mac just by pressing a specific combination of keys. Therefore, if you want to lock your Apple computer in this way, you just have to press Command (cmd) + Control + Q. With this key combination you can lock your Mac instantly.

The terminal is good for everything

Another really powerful tool that most users do not take advantage of is the terminal. From the terminal you can get to carry out any process that you propose, that is, something more advanced knowledge is needed to be able to use it with relative ease and with the necessary security of not doing anything atrocious within your computer. In this case, the steps to follow to block the Mac from the terminal are really simple, you just have to open the Terminal app, type the following command, “pmset displaysleepnow”, and hit enter. Once this is done, your Mac will go to sleep and therefore, it will be locked.

Did you know what hot spots are?

We continue in the search of methods to lock the Mac in a simple and intuitive way. In this case we want to talk to you about hot areas or also known as active corners. Within the Mac settings there is the possibility that clicking on any of the 4 corners of the screen will automatically take an action that you have previously configured, in this case, the action that we encourage you to configure is to lock the Mac To do this, you just have to follow the steps that we indicate below.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Mission Control.
3. Click on Active Corners.
4. Choose the corner you want to use.
5. Select Lock screen.
6. Click OK.

In this simple way, you make that every time you click on the corner you have chosen, the Mac screen automatically locks. This option is undoubtedly a fantastic alternative since it will become in a short time something intuitive that you will do with great naturalness and speed.

Do you have a Touch bar? Use it

This option is only available to users who have a MacBook Pro that has the popular Touch bar. We remind you that the Touch bar is a touch bar that each user can customize to a greater or lesser extent depending on the application they are using at that time. Obviously, this customization also includes native functions of the system itself, therefore, you can include a “button” that when pressed, the Mac automatically locks. To carry out this option, you just have to follow the steps that we indicate below.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Keyboard.
3. Click on “Customize Control Strip …”
4. Drag “Screen lock” onto the Touch bar where you want this shortcut to be.
5. Click OK.

In this simple way is how you can include in your Touch bar an immediate way to lock the Mac without having to perform any further action.

Lock your Mac automatically

Finally, we also want to talk to you about the automatic locking of your Apple computer. In System Preferences you have the option of being able to set a maximum time without the computer being used so that it locks automatically. On many occasions, you may without realizing it you go to another place or do another task and leave your computer unlocked on your desk, with this function you can prevent someone from using your computer because of this mistake and again endangering both your privacy as the content you have stored in it. Therefore, here are the steps you have to follow to make use of this function.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Battery.
3. Click on Battery again.
4. Choose the amount of idle time that you want to pass until your Mac, when used on battery power, goes to sleep.
5. Click on Power adapter.
6. Choose the amount of idle time that you want to pass until your Mac, when connected to the power, goes to sleep.

Unlock your Mac so you can use it

As you have seen in this post, there are a wide variety of ways to be able to lock the Mac safely, comfortably and quickly. However, these options are not so numerous when we talk about unlocking the Apple computer, although that does not mean that the user does not have different ways of doing it on the table and that we are going to tell you next.

Use the unlock code

We start with the most traditional method known to all, unlocking the Mac using the unlock code, password or whatever you want to call it. With total security, this is the most used way by the vast majority of users when it comes to unlocking their computer. Of course, what we recommend is that if you want this way of unlocking to be really safe, take care and make sure that the code you use is safe and difficult to guess. In addition, we recommend that if you have any questions about someone knowing your unlock code, you change it automatically to protect both your privacy and the content you have stored on your Mac.

Usually, when you perform the first configuration of your Apple computer, you already have to establish an unlock code or password. However, if this were not the case or you would like to modify this unlock code, you just have to follow the steps that we are going to indicate below and in a matter of a few seconds you will have established your new password.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Security and privacy and go to General.
3. Click Change password.
4. Follow the steps to change your password.

Touch ID? Also on the Mac

The most secure touch unlocking method on the market has also reached Macs, although not all of them at the moment, but a majority of them. Apple has wanted to give you the same option that it gave iPhone users years ago to unlock their device with their fingerprint. In all those computers that have this unlocking method, when making the initial configuration of the device, the Mac itself gives you the possibility to enter your smell, however you can configure it or change the one you put and even add more fingerprints by following these steps:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Touch ID.
3. Click on “Add footprint”
4. Follow the steps that they indicate.

In addition, you can also select when you want to use this technology, being able to activate it for the following options.

• Unlock the Mac.
• Apple Pay.
• iTunes Store, App Store and Apple Books
• Password autofill.

Use the Apple Watch

Finally, the Apple Watch can become your best ally when it comes to unlocking your Mac since you can do that, as long as you wear the Apple Watch and you are going to unlock your Mac, this process is done automatically without the need for you have to enter any code. To do this, below we explain the steps you have to carry out.

1. Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on your Mac.
2. Sign in to iCloud on your Mac and Apple Watch with the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication.
3. You have an unlock code activated on your Apple Watch.
4. Select the Apple Menu and go to System Preferences.
5. Click Security & Privacy.
6. Select “Use Apple Watch to unlock apps and Mac” or “Allow Apple Watch to unlock Mac.”