Similarly, while Hider supports Mavericks’ Tags feature, you can’t add or modify an item’s tags while it’s in your vault. But you must remove an item from the vault to view or modify it. With small files, the processing time is almost instantaneous, but larger folders (such as a 7GB folder I tested) take significantly longer.įinally, this processing time wouldn’t be as much of an issue if you could preview or edit files while they’re in your vault-you wouldn’t be swapping your files in and out very often. In addition, every time you hide or unhide a file or folder, that item must be copied and encrypted or decrypted, respectively, which can take time. Hider 2 took almost 15 minutes to hide this 7GB folder. (MacPaw told Macworld that the company will be adding secure deletion in a future version.) Hiding or unhiding a large file can take a bit of time. This isn’t something you’d likely need to worry about when it comes to your family members, but if you have data you need to keep absolutely secure, Hider 2 currently isn’t your best encryption option. This means that savvy malcontents could theoretically recover that data off your hard drive. Securely delete files that you’ve moved to your vault-the original files are simply deleted as if you’d moved them to the Trash and emptied the Trash. While Hider 2’s approach is more secure than simply hiding files in place, it has a few important caveats to consider.

(If you have multiple drives, you can choose which one Hider 2 uses for its encrypted storage.) When you toggle an item’s switch to Visible, Hider 2 copies the item back to its original location. It actually copies those files to the app’s own private, encrypted space on your drive and then deletes the items from their original locations. However, unlike many hiding programs, Hider 2 doesn’t just make your files invisible to the average user.

Hider 2 reveal