Mac os screen lock. Lock using iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch
In case your Mac computer falls into the hands of third parties, Apple has a system that allows you to prevent criminals from using the device. However, sometimes, unfortunately, the owner himself may suffer from this, and in this case Mac lock turns into a severe headache.
It all started when one of our readers encountered an unpleasant problem: his iCloud password was remotely guessed and his computer was locked. It would seem that if he is the owner of the computer, Apple should be able to unlock the device without any problems. But everything turned out to be not so simple.
Procedure iPhone lock or iPad and Mac computer seriously different. In the second case, the EFI chip is blocked and needs to be reprogrammed, but this cannot be done remotely. We contacted Apple support and made sure that to unlock you really need to contact the company’s authorized service center.
But the most interesting thing is that the unlocking service turned out to be paid, since this is not a defect in the device, and the services charge money for it. Our reader from Murmansk was asked for 4,500 rubles for this. And this is in an authorized service center.
We interviewed representatives of several authorized service centers in Moscow and found out the average pricing policy for unlocking - from 1,500 to 2,000 rubles. Cheaper, what can I say. Also, when contacting the service center, you will need a receipt to confirm that you own the computer. They have special equipment for EFI flashing.
We can help you, for this you need documents about the purchase of the device, the cost of the work is 2,000 rubles, if attackers blocked the computer and deleted the data, then it is no longer available. The unlocking procedure consists of soft reset protection mode enabled with motherboard Your device. No actions are taken with your disk.
As we managed to find out, the corresponding work is also carried out by unauthorized service centers. In this case, the EFI is unsoldered, the data is corrected using a programmer, and then the chip is installed back. This is not the simplest matter, so the price for the service is appropriate.
Third-party organizations are also involved in unlocking Macs - in this case, you need to pay them a certain amount (), and then send them your computer for EFI reprogramming. Whether this is advisable is up to you to decide, but we would not recommend it. However, these guys will not ask for a purchase receipt or supporting documents.
There are other dubious organizations that accept payment and then send it to you by email special file, which supposedly unlocks the Mac. Here, as they say, at your own peril and risk, although there are video instructions.
So there are two ways out of an unpleasant situation with a locked computer - do everything in an authorized service center or trust to third parties. It's strange that Apple charges money for this even if everyone has it necessary documents. Moreover, even authorized service centers can set arbitrary prices - in this case, they are controlled only by the FAS, but not by Apple.
To avoid getting into this situation, under no circumstances register your Apple ID on mail.ru or yandex.ru. Accounts with exactly these postal services are most often hacked, according to Apple representatives.
It happens that you need to step away from the computer, but you don’t want to log out - there are a lot of programs running or you’re downloading a long-awaited torrent from the unsinkable thepiratebay. It’s a rare pervert who likes it when someone rummages through his intimate files in the owner’s absence, so let’s look at ways to block access to a computer running Mac OS X. From somewhere in long-term memory I'm told that this is called "lock the screen".
Unfortunately, in Mac OS, none of the screen lock options are obvious - I was not able to find them directly at the time.
Enable password prompt when exiting sleep and screen saver
There is an item in the system settings that includes a password request when waking up the computer or exiting screensaver mode. This method is the simplest and was not difficult to find. Let's go here: System Settings→ Security → General. We put a tick in the right place.
After enabling this option, you will need to enter the user password to exit sleep or screen saver.
Close the screen using a keychain
Not suitable for everyone previous method, because you need to wait for the screensaver to turn on, and this takes several precious minutes. There is another option, it is less obvious for a novice user (especially a switcher), since it requires the involvement of the Keychain, which in Windows environment has no standard analogue.
So, let's run the program (it is in the folder Programs → Utilities ), go to the menu Keychain → Settings → Basic settings, enable the item Show status in menu bar.
A lock will appear in the menu bar, clicking on which brings up the keychain menu. We are interested in the first point - close the screen. To be honest, I have never used the others.
Fast user switching helps us
There is another way to protect your computer from intruders - take advantage of the opportunity provided by the fast user switching mode. If you share a computer with someone else, then this option is quite good. I am a sole proprietor, so I present this method only for the sake of completeness.
Go to system settings again System Preferences → Accounts → Sign-in Options. We enable fast user switching, choose what to display in the menu bar - name, short name(login) or picture.
A new item in the menu bar gives access to fast switching users, as well as to the point Login window, which does what we need - it locks the computer until one of the users enters the password.
I should turn it on at home last mode, and sometimes I get burned, yes...
It seems like that's all standard methods lock the computer. There are also third-party applications, like MacLock, ScreenLock, but I don’t see the need for them - there’s enough for any case of paranoia.
A little curious if one of the options can be assigned to hot button. I don't know how yet.
If you work in an office or other place where your computer can be accessed strangers, it’s useful to remember to lock your computer. It's simple but reliable way protect your data from falling into the wrong hands. When leaving the computer, many people often turn it off or put it to sleep instead of simply locking it. In the long term, such treatment can harm hard drives and SSDs, for which every full sleep is a load. We'll tell you how to quickly lock your computer. macOS control without putting him to sleep.
Hotkeys
Most quick way lock screen - quick keyboard shortcut. But in order not just to turn off the display, but to fully lock the computer, you must first change standard settings systems.
To do this you need:
Open System Preferences > Security & Safety > General.
Check the box next to “Request a password.” In the drop-down menu, select “immediately” or another interval of your choice.
Lock screen with keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Eject or Ctrl + Shift + Power.
One of the features new MacBook Pro with touch panel Touch Bar – it does not have a “Power” button, so the classic key combination for locking the display cannot be used. The Touch Bar will come to the rescue, for which there is special button blocking. You can find it here:
System Preferences > Keyboard > Setting up Touch Bar"
Display settings
The macOS interface allows you to adjust the display angles to perform quick action. One of these actions may be putting the monitor into sleep mode, which will automatically lock the computer.
You can configure this as follows:
System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Hot Corners.
Specify the desired angle and select “Put monitor into sleep mode” in the drop-down menu.
Click "OK".
Third party software 
There are many third party programs and utilities that allow you to place the computer lock button on top panel on macOS. For example, Parallels Toolbox, where in the drop-down menu there is a quick computer lock option.
One fine day I started using mac os x as my main operating system. And since then, I sometimes find that some of the features I'm used to are missing in one form or another. Having worked with computers for more than 10 years, I have developed a persistent habit of locking my desktop if I leave even for 2 minutes.
First of all, I decided to look in “Hot Keys”, in which you can configure almost everything, but “locking” was not there. I had to search a little, and as it turned out, there are several solutions. Conventionally, they can be divided into 2 methods. First, blocking by asking for a password to disable the screen saver. Second, quick change user.
Screensaver lock
In order to enable the password request to disable the screen saver, go to System Preferences->Security and enable the checkbox “Require password to wake up computer from sleep or screen saver”It would seem that this is not a bad option, but waiting for it to turn on is not at all interesting. The most offensive thing is that simple (without third party application) I was unable to connect the screen saver to any keyboard shortcut. We Google, we read, we remember about Expose. You can activate the screensaver by moving the cursor to one of the corners.
For a very long time this method was the most favorite.
Quick user change
It turned out that not everything is so bad in the Danish kingdom; there is a functionality for switching between users, which blocks the desktop for entering a password. It is also quite easy to activate. To do this, go to System Preferences->Accounts. Click on the lock image to log in and enable the “Enable fast user switching” checkbox.Now we have a beautiful icon for switching users.
Click on it and select the “Login Window...” item and observe a cool effect when blocked.
Returning to the keys, there is zero advancement, since it’s normal to switch users with one combination. I won’t even describe the perversions with the chain of combinations.
Quicksilver
After some time I discovered free utility quicksilver and its functionality of triggers that can be attached to hotkeys. And then the idea came to me to write a small script to turn on the screen saver using the combination cmd+shift+L. For this we need:1. Install quicksilver
You can download it from quicksilver.en.softonic.com/mac, installation is trivial.2. Write a script to launch the screensaver
For writing, we will use the standard application “Script Editor.app”. We launch and write the following text:Tell application “ScreenSaverEngine”
It should look something like this:
3. Save the screensaver activation script
Save it wherever you like (I saved it in the home directory), remember the path.4. Add a trigger to the desired keyboard shortcut
To do this, open quicksilver, triggers tab.Triggers in QS
Click on the plus sign at the bottom and select Hotkey. Add the script written in the previous step to the cell, as in the picture.
Bonus functionality
Later, I came up with an idea: why not pause iTunes when the screen is locked? To do this, we just need to add the following lines to the end of the script that launches the screensaver:Tell application “iTunes”
With the new functionality, life becomes a little easier.
Many Windows users know (and switchers remember) the keyboard shortcut Windows+L, which instantly “puts a lock” on a PC computer to limit unwanted access to it while the owner is away. Unfortunately, such a function has not yet appeared in OS X, although all the necessary tools have long been at hand. All that remains is to independently create a service that will allow you to block your Mac just as easily - with one press of the desired keys.
Creating an Automator Service
Of course, the easiest way to do this is using the Automator program, which is free and available on every more or less modern Mac. Create new document by choosing a type for it Service. In the header of the algorithm, set the service not to receive no input and worked in any application.
Add one single action to the body of the algorithm - Run Shell Script. Check that in the drop-down list Shell item was selected /bin/bash, and in the list Pass input- paragraph to stdln (to stdln). Inside the action, paste the following code:
/System/Library/CoreServices/"Menu Extras"/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend
Save the service, for example, under the name .
Keyboard shortcut binding
The created service will be available in the main menu of any Mac program - in the Services group. To make it easier to call, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it.
Launch System Parameters and open the module Keyboard. Here go to the tab Keyboard Shortcuts and select the item in the left list Services. After that, in the right list, in the category General, click on the name of the newly created service - Lock the Mac.
You will see a button add shortcut- click on it and immediately enter the desired keyboard shortcut. By analogy with Windows+L one could choose command+L, however, this keyboard shortcut is used in many Mac programs. Therefore, it is better to enter, for example, command+control+L (⌘⌃L) - just check if this combination is also used in some of your programs.
If everything is in order, then immediately pressing this keyboard shortcut will put your Mac into login mode: next to your name there will be an orange circle with a check mark, indicating that your Account OS X this moment is active and you only need to enter your password to return to the system.
[Added] Alternative method
The comments provide another method for blocking a Mac. Open System Preferences module Security & Privacy. Here enable the option Require password... after sleep or screen saver begins. Select the item from the drop-down list immediately (immediately) so that the system is locked immediately as soon as it starts screen saver or the display turns off. The same function will work if the display is turned off manually using a key combination control+shift+eject. The only disadvantage of this method is that in some cases you may only need to turn off the screen - without subsequently entering a password. If this method does not seem convenient to you, use the above method for creating the Automator service.