For the most part, even though I have a paid 1password family account I just use the iCloud keychain for passwords and obviously with the upcoming keychain app, I’m ready to kick one 1pwd to the curb. (never quite got the hang on how to use it). So, as I’m sure a lot of folks have been requesting, what alternatives are there to securely store PDFs, screenshots, things like that that the keychain app doesn’t handle?
Apple notes doesn’t allow PDF attachments, took a look at Nord locker signed up. I guess it’s free with the Nord account. Could run bitwarden I guess on my ubuntu server. Any other options? Probably need some system to share secure document with family members.
Well, the answer is an encrypted disk image. You can store any files you want. And you can store the password for the disk image in the keychain, if you want.
That said, Notes can too accept a PDF attachment. Just drag & drop the PDF into a note.
If it’s just for access by you, encrypted archives (7z/zipx/rar)? Cryptomator (via CyberDuck)? Rclone crypt? And yes, local-only or cloud-based NordLocker (and similar services)?
Yep, lots of options. It all depends on how much portability you want. For a Mac-specific option, encrypted disk images are fine. For sharing small amounts of data, BitWarden Send works and is robust as well as being basically user-proof.
When I try to lock a note in Sonoma with a PDF attachment (not a scan), it fails with a message telling me I can’t do it for notes with PDFs (and some other document types) attached.
You can’t lock any of the following:
A Quick Note
A note you’ve shared with other people
A note that has a video, audio file, PDF, or document attached. Only tables, images, drawings, scanned documents, maps, or web attachments can be included in a locked note.
A note that contains tags
A note stored in an iCloud account that hasn’t been upgraded. See About using iCloud Notes.
For access, it may or may not suit, but I can recommend using the combination of ChronoAgent and InterConnex, their iOS client, from EconTechnologies.
You can set up anything from full root access to limited paths or folders for remote access, including a separate designated folder on the Mac for InterConnex access from iOS. You can set up a password protected secure area on your iOS device with it too.
It’s cheap, you need a license for each Mac you run it on.
In my opinion using anything other than an encrypted disk image is asking for difficulties down the road. Too many opportunities for a third party to disappear or fail to maintain compatibility.
Assuming one only wants to open it on macOS…an encrypted disk image works fine…but AFAIK they’re useless on an iAnything device. Notes…as suggested in this thread…is lacking to some extent amd in any event only encrypts the contents so one would have to use some innocuous name rather than Passport Copy for instance…and Untitled1, Untitled2 doesn’t cut it.
As I said in another thread…and I’ve looked extensively…there is nothing that provides all of the capabilities of 1PW that doesn’t have the same lack of capabilities that 1PW lost from v7 to v8. If there was…I would likely have switched already or at least seriously considered it. 1PW v8 has finally reached the point of ‘I could get by with it’ except for the loss of DropBox which is why I’m still on v7. IMO…if Apple had half a brain they would have licensed or bought the underlying tech from 1PW and made Passwords an actually fully functioning and capable offering…just like they should have bought DropBox long ago when iCloud storage/sync capabilities sucked.
I hate subscription software…but then I also realize that devs like to eat and pay the mortgage. Thats why I have N Adobe one for photo work and maintain a 1PW one even though I’m not using their cloud except for an additional backup copy to my local ones.
I use encrypted disk images for this purpose myself, but I’m firmly on the Apple device path. There is an iOS/iPadOS app called Disk Decipher that can access encrypted Mac disk images, but iOS natively does not support them.
If I worried about accessing on other desktop/laptop platforms (Windows, Linux) I’d use either veracrypt or perhaps aescrypt, but probably Veracrypt because, again, Disk Decipher supports that on mobile platforms.
Disk Decipher is free but I’d suggest the in-app payment of $7.49 to support writing APFS, NTFS, and HFS file formats. (It can read them for free.)
Disk Decipher may have once been free, but it’s $0.99 now just to download, plus extra cost for the additional filesystem support. Not a large amount, but definitely not free.
But they do support encrypted archives on iOS, weirdly. Or maybe not—they’re probably more popular. It even works in the Shortcuts app to manipulate them.
Also, VeraCrypt is great, but it only supports fixed-size images, which aren’t “cloud-friendly”, though they may update more efficiently depending on the sync tech.
This problem space seems to be full of compromises and half-solutions, especially once mobile platforms get involved, seemingly. But there are options.
If what you need is a secure version of Apple Notes – encrypted end-to-end and at-rest and with the capability of attaching any kind of file to a note, you might find this useful:
Frankly, it’s something of a niche product. Much better known in the iOS/iPadOS world (app store has 2.7k comments) than in the Mac world (app store has 5 comments). It’s also available – although I don’t know how popular it is on these others: on Windows, Linux, as well as web-based. Its UI is pretty consistent across all those versions, and although it is Notes-like in many ways (but without all the ways in which Notes can inter-operate with other Apple apps), its UI is just different enough to surprise you some times.
Although one Standard Notes account gives you access to your notes across your systems, it doesn’t do sharing as such. You’ll need to “export” and encrypt (e.g. using a PDF password or ZIP file password) yourself to send a document securely to someone else.
Its free version lets you do all the essentials (including 2FA & 100MB of note storage), while a $90/year “Productivity” version adds nice (markdown) editing along with useful note formatting capabilities, ability to organize notes in folders, a 1-year revision history, and unlimited note storage, plus dedicated support. A $120 “Professional” version subscription sharing with up to 5 accounts, 100GB encrypted cloud storage for documents, offline file access, etc.
Small development group, but they’ve been around for years – it takes them a long time to introduce new features, due to the time it takes to ensure security. Nowadays they work with Proton (which does not have a product like this).
Strongbox works for me. Store your vault where you want. My iPhone and iPad will show me pdfs and photos in my vault. It is watch aware for authentication, but not for vault/password access on the watch face. I think Apple will introduce a secure storage app which is accessible from all platforms soon.