May 01, 2008 Power Mac G4 Dual 1.25ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.9), 20' Apple Display, 1 Gig Ram Posted on May 1, 2008 8:57 AM Reply I have this question too ( 64 ) I have this question too Me too (64) Me too. When you are prompted to log in again at your new location, does the screen where you enter your password have an option to 'Cancel' at the bottom or 'Sleep', 'Restart' and 'Shut Down'? Trying to work out whether you are being logged out completely or your session is just locked.
While Apple Watch does allow you to unlock your Mac without entering the password, there is no way to remotely lock your Mac. One workaround to this problem is to use third-party apps such as MacID and NearLock. But if you are looking for a native way to remotely lock your Mac using your iPhone, you can use apps such as Shortcutify. It uses Siri Shortcuts to set everything up, so you can actually ask Siri on iPhone to lock and unlock your Mac. Before we begin, there are a few steps to set up everything but it would only take a few minutes and I’ll keep the description as thorough as possible.
How to Lock your Mac Screen with an iPhone
Step 1. Install Shortcutify on your iPhone
First, install the Shortcutify app on your iPhone. Also, make sure you’re running the latest iOS and have the Shortcuts app is installed on your iPhone. Once you have the apps installed and ready open Shortcutify.
Step 2. Find your Mac’s local IP Address
This method only works on local Wifi so make sure your Mac is connected to the Wifi. If you don’t know the IP address of your Mac, go to System Preferences> Network> Your IP Address. Note down the IP Address, we’ll need it later.
If you need help finding out your IP address, you can check out this guide here.
Step 3. Enable Remote Login on your Mac
As the shortcut would essentially log in to your computer remotely, you would have to enable Remote Login feature on your Mac first. To do this, go to System Preferences> Sharing> Enable Remote Login.
Step 4. Setup Shortcutify app
Now, open the Shortcutify app on your iPhone and tap the Mac option, it would ask you to enter the IP address of your mac and login credentials. Enter the details correctly and proceed.
After that, we need to enable the accessibility settings on the Mac, to do this, tap the Accessibility button in the app on your iPhone.
It should prompt a dialog box on your Mac. Simply navigate to System preferences> Security and Privacy> Privacy> Accessibility> enable “sshd-keygen-wrapper”.
Click the Padlock to lock the changes.
Step 5. Setup the Shortcuts
You can do a variety of things with this app such as capturing screenshots, toggling apps, and injecting keystrokes. However, we’ll focus on locking the Mac. Open the Shortcuts app and tap the + button on the top right corner to create a new shortcut and tap Add Action.
Search for macOS: lock screen in the search bar and tap the action to add it to your Shortcut. Tap next to proceed to the next page.
Give your shortcut a name and you’re done. I named my shortcut “lock my mac” and every time I run this shortcut, it will lock the mac. You can even ask Siri to do it for you.
Unlock your Mac with iPhone
If you want to set up a Siri Shortcut to unlock your Mac with the iPhone, doing it is just as simple. You just need to create another shortcut and add macOS: Wake and Log In action to your shortcut. It would require your password, so add it in the text field and save your shortcut. You would be able to unlock your Mac by simply tapping the shortcut or asking Siri to run the unlock Shortcut.
Closing Words
This was a quick way to set up your iPhone to unlock and lock the Mac with just a simple command. I agree it has a few steps but it’s a one time process and you’d certainly enjoy it. Let me know if you face any challenges while setting it up.
Also Read: 6 Best Siri Shortcuts Apps for Power Users
Leaving your MacBook unattended can result in someone gaining unauthorized access to files and data stored on your Mac. An easy way to prevent such a possibility is to setup your Mac to Lock itself while it lies unattended. Let’s take a look at How to Lock Your Mac without logging off.
Lock Mac Without Logging Off
Most people leave their Mac open or just put it to sleep, so that they can quickly return back to whatever they were doing on their computer.
While this practice appears convenient, there is always a risk of someone trying to take a look at your computer activities or gain access to your computer for other reasons.
To prevent this, you can set up your Mac to lock itself, whenever you press Control + Shift + Power buttons on the keyboard of your computer.
This keyboard shortcut will lock your computer and anyone trying to gain access to your Mac will be required to enter its login password.
1. Lock Mac Without Logging Off Using Keyboard Shortcut
The ability to Lock Mac using Control + Shift + Power Keyboard shortcut is not enabled by default on your Mac. Hence, follow the steps below to setup your Mac to lock itself when the keyboard shortcut is used.
Click on the Apple Menu icon located in the top menu bar on your Mac and then click on System Preferences.
On the System Preferences screen, click on Security & Privacy
On the next screen, click on the General tab and check the option for Require password.
Next, click on the down arrow next to Require Password and change the time interval from the default 5 minutes to Immediately (See image below)
On the pop-up, enter the password for your user account in order to confirm the changes.
After this setting, you will be able to Lock your Mac at any time by simply pressing Control + Shift + Power keys. On older Mac’s with an optical drive, the keyboard combination is Control + Shift + Eject.
Can You Lock An App On Mac
2. Alternate Methods to Lock Mac Without Logging OFF
Once you setup your Mac to Require Password Immediately using steps as described above, you can use other methods to Lock Mac without logging off.
Can You Lock A Mac Without Closing Apps Free
Close the Lid – If you are using a MacBook, you can simply close the lid and your MacBook will automatically lock itself.
Use Sleep option – On all other Mac computers, including MacBooks, click on the Apple Menu Icon and then click on Sleep. This will also lock your Mac with a password.
Note: For above methods to work, you need to setup Mac to require password whenever it goes to sleep using steps as described in the first method.
3. Lock Mac Without Logging Off Using Hot Corners
Another easy way to Lock Mac without logging off is to make use of hot corners as available on your Mac.
Click on the Apple Icon located in the top menu bar of your Mac and then click on System Preferences. On the System Preferences screen, click on Mission Control.
On the Mission Control screen, click on the Hot Corners button located at the bottom left corner of the screen.
On the next pop-up, select your Hot Corner location (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Right, Bottom Left), click on the Arrow and select Put Display to Sleep option in your selected Hot Corner.
From now on, you can quickly lock your Mac by hovering your mouse over your selected Hot Corner position.