Lock notes and notebooks with a password
Lock a sensitive note, or a whole notebook, with its own password. Even after you open it, it locks again when you step away.
Applies to Web · Mac · iPhone app · unshared notes and notebooks you own
A note lock adds a second password — separate from your account password — to a single note or a whole notebook. It hides the content and attachments even while you are signed in and away from your desk. The plaintext password is never stored.
Before you start
- You can only lock unshared notes you own and notebooks you own that aren’t shared or team notebooks. Shared notes don’t show the padlock button, and shared or team notebooks show a greyed-out Cannot lock — shared/team notebook.
- A locked note can’t be shared. Remove the lock first if you want to share it.
- Passwords must be 4 to 256 characters. A forgotten password cannot be recovered.
Lock a note
- Open the note and click the padlock button in the note header (Set password lock), or press ⌘L. You’ll also find the lock option when you right-click a note in the note list.
- Enter the Password and Confirm password.
- Choose Auto-lock after inactivity: 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes (the default), 30 minutes, 1 hour or 4 hours.
- Click Set password lock.
Lock a whole notebook
- Under My notebooks in the sidebar, right-click the notebook (or use its ⋯ menu) and choose Set notebook lock….
- Enter Password (4+ characters) and Confirm password, then choose Auto-lock when idle (same choices as for notes).
- Click Lock.
Every note in the notebook and in all its sub-notebooks is locked with the same password, and so are notes you create there later. Notes that already have their own password keep their own lock. When you open a sub-notebook, it tells you the lock comes from its parent notebook.
Open, relock or remove a lock
| To… | Note | Notebook |
|---|---|---|
| Open it | Click the note to see This note is locked, enter the password and click Unlock | Click the notebook, or right-click → Unlock with password… |
| Lock it again right away | Padlock button → Lock now | Right-click → Lock now |
| Change the auto-lock time | While open, padlock button → Auto-lock after inactivity | Right-click → Manage lock… |
| Remove the lock | Padlock button → enter Password to remove lock → Remove password lock | Manage lock… → enter the password → Remove notebook lock |
Unlocking opens the note only for your current sign-in session. It locks again after the auto-lock period with no activity, or when you restart the app. On another device you unlock it separately.
What a lock changes
- Search: a locked note you haven’t unlocked can only be found by its title.
- Notifications: notifications from a locked note hide its title and content.
- Full backup ZIP: locked notes you haven’t unlocked in this session are left out. Unlock them first to include them.
- Trash: you have to unlock a locked note before you can move it to Trash or delete it forever, and the 30-day automatic cleanup skips it.
Too many wrong passwords
Five wrong attempts within 15 minutes block further tries for 1 minute. If the wrong attempts continue, the wait doubles each time, up to 15 minutes.