Click on Security & Privacy → FileVault.Go to the Apple menu in the top left corner of the screen and open System Preferences.Even the older version of this tool for Macintosh encryption guarantees the safety of your sensitive files. For macOS Snow Leopard 10.6 you can use FileVault, whereas for 10.7 Lion to 10.15 Catalina FileVault 2 is in place. Encrypt your startup disk with FileVaultĮncryption with FileVault is the most reliable measure to protect your data on a Mac. Let’s go into detail and find out how to encrypt files on a Mac. Disk Utility to encrypt folders and external disks.FileVault to encrypt your entire startup disk.There are several free macOS tools you can use for file encryption on a Mac: To protect your Mac and ensure the safety of your files we recommend to use data encryption. Therefore, the risk of your computer being hacked may cause you a lot of anxiety. Nowadays, a laptop is one’s private world and a place to store personal information. Long gone are the days when a computer was thought of as a device solely for work.