[markm]

Greetings,

Just wondering if it's possible to put a password on OmniFocus? I pretty much keep my life in there, including things like "look for new job". It would not be cool if my boss decided to open OF on my work machine and found that!

OK, it's a contrived example, but I really would like to password-protect OF on at least one of the machines where I use it.

Can it be done?

Thanks,
--Mark

[Toadling]

Not currently. But I know there's an open request for it in Omni's feature database (because I asked for it a long time ago :-).

In the meantime, you could put your OmniFocus database on an encrypted disk image. But that may lead to issues with syncing. OmniFocus only syncs the database in the default location (~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus). You might be able to rig up a soft link/alias type solution, but I haven't experimented with that myself and I suspect it's risky.

Another option is to turn on FileVault, which will simply encrypt your entire user account, including the default OmniFocus database.

Of course, if you're using syncing, neither of these solutions do anything for your data once it leaves your Mac.

-Dennis

[watchit]

Just a warning about using FileVault... it still has issues with Spotlight and Time Machine does not back up individual files from a user account protected by FileVault, only the entire user account's sparsebundle image disk... and only after you have logged out of that user account.
I eagerly await password-protection and perhaps a way to exclude projects with sensitive material from being synced to portable devices.

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by watchit

Just a warning about using FileVault... it still has issues with Spotlight and Time Machine does not back up individual files from a user account protected by FileVault, only the entire user account's sparsebundle image disk... and only after you have logged out of that user account.

I haven't encountered any problems with FileVault and Spotlight; it seems to be working very well here. Can you tell me specifically what problems you're referring to?

As for FileVault and Time Machine, that is true, your user account will only be backed up when you log out (but the rest of your system is still backed up on the regular schedule). Personally, I don't find this to be much of a problem since I work on a MacBook Pro that's not always connected to my Time Machine drive anyway.

Because FileVault uses Apple's sparse bundle disk image format, your entire user account is broken down in 8 MB bands and only those that have changed get backed up, so Time Machine performance is also fine.

Although you can't restore individual files through the conventional Time Machine interface, you can still retrieve individual files by simply mounting the encrypted disk images that get backed up to your Time Machine drive.

So yes, there are some caveats, but overall I find the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, especially because the backups of your user account are also encrypted on your Time Machine drive. So if your house were to be burglarized, all your data is still protected. And as long as you stay within the confines of your user account, everything is secured automatically.

Of course, it'd still be nice to be able to encrypt your OmniFocus database when it leaves your Mac during syncing, so I still support this feature request. :-)

-Dennis