Lockish

Yes. Lockish is $9.99 once. There's no subscription and no paid upgrade, and every update so far has been free to everyone who bought it.

Then they can unlock an app, and they can quit Lockish. The unlock is Touch ID or your Mac's login password, the same policy macOS uses. Lockish is for the moments other people are at your keyboard: family, colleagues, a shared desk. It isn't protection against someone who has your password, and no app that runs inside your account can be.

Yes. The lock card asks for your Mac's login password instead. Everything else is the same.

Device Control and Data Access (called Accessibility before macOS 27), so Lockish can find an app's windows and put the lock card over them. It's the only permission Lockish needs. Screen Recording is never asked for, because the card is a plain dark panel, not a picture of your screen. Locking Finder asks Finder to close its windows, which shows a one-time Automation prompt.

Each app has a timer that starts when you switch away from it, from 10 seconds to an hour. When it runs out the app locks and hides. Your Mac going to sleep or locking its screen locks every protected app at once. An app you leave in front doesn't time out on its own, so use your Mac's own screen lock for that.

Its windows are covered by a dark card with the app's name and an Unlock button. If the app was locked by the timer, by sleep or by Lock All, its windows are hidden as well, so there's nothing on screen at all.

Quitting from the menu asks for Touch ID or your password. Force Quit and Activity Monitor can end it, like any app, and nothing restarts it. That's another reason to think of Lockish as privacy on a shared Mac rather than a vault.

Lockish covers each window of a locked app. A cover can't change how macOS itself works, so these stay true with Lockish or any app like it.

• Locked apps keep running. Behind its cover an app can still play sound, finish downloads and show notifications. To keep an app's notification previews private, turn them off in System Settings › Notifications.
• Pictures of windows. Mission Control, Stage Manager's strip, and window previews in apps allowed to record the screen can show a locked app's windows with their content.
• Picture in picture. A video a locked app plays in picture in picture keeps playing in its floating window.
• Window titles in the Dock. The Dock's menu for a locked app lists its windows by title.
• The menu bar. While a lock card is up, the locked app's menus stay in the menu bar and can open, but their commands for its windows and documents are unavailable.
• Menu bar apps. For an app in the menu bar, Lockish covers its windows but not the panel that opens from its icon.
• Windows an app doesn't announce. Lockish covers a locked app's windows as macOS reports them. A window an app opens without telling macOS, or raises above its cover later, is covered at the app's next change: when it comes forward, hides or shows, or the displays change. Check Lockish names any app whose windows it can't follow.
• A split second. When a locked app opens or comes back from being hidden, macOS shows its windows for a split second before Lockish covers them.
• When displays change. When you connect or remove a display, or open or close the lid, macOS moves windows to fit. A locked app's window can show for a moment before its cover follows. There's nothing to do: Lockish covers it again by itself.
• Covers stay in front. A locked app's covered windows stay in front of other windows until you hide or unlock it; the card's Hide puts it away.
• A permission reset. A tool that resets permissions, such as tccutil, takes Lockish out of System Settings' list without telling it, and macOS won't ask again by itself. Lockish says protection is limited once an app refuses it. In System Settings, click + and add Lockish again: full protection is back at once, without reopening Lockish.
• Scripts and Shortcuts. Other apps, scripts and Shortcuts can still control a locked app.
• Quitting by force. Quitting Lockish while it protects apps asks for Touch ID or your password, but Force Quit, Activity Monitor and Terminal can end it, as can switching it off under Allow in the Background in System Settings, and its covers go with it. Nothing reopens it by itself: open Lockish again and locked apps are covered at once.
• Your Mac while you're logged in. Removing an app, turning auto-lock off and deactivating ask for Touch ID or your password, but someone using your Mac while you're logged in can still change Lockish's settings from Terminal. Lock your Mac (Control-Command-Q) when you step away.
• Other accounts. Lockish protects apps in your account. Other accounts on this Mac, and their apps, aren't affected.
• Finder's desktop. Locking Finder covers its windows, and closes them once you allow Lockish to control Finder. The desktop and its icons stay visible: they're part of Finder too. A busy Finder can close its windows a moment after you unlock it.

There's no account and no analytics. Lockish goes online for two things: checking your licence key with our payment provider, and looking for updates. Your list of protected apps stays on your Mac, and your fingerprint never leaves the Secure Enclave.

Open Lockish, then Settings › Help › Export Diagnostics. Lockish asks where to save "Lockish Diagnostics.txt" (your Desktop unless you choose somewhere else), then shows it in Finder. Nothing is sent by itself: read it, then attach it to an email to hello@appish.app (Settings › Help › Email Support starts one). The file lists your Mac (model, macOS and displays), Lockish's health check, its permission, the licence's state, updates, settings, the protected apps with their timers, and what the lock engine is doing. It never holds your licence key, an email address, window titles or your Mac's user name. If the menu bar icon is hidden, open Lockish again from Applications: its window has the same Settings.

Protection pauses: apps open without a lock card until you add a licence key. Your list of apps and their timers are kept. You are never charged automatically, because we never ask for a card.

macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later, on Apple Silicon and Intel.

Yes: your key works on up to 3 of your own Macs. Moving to a new Mac? Click Deactivate on this Mac in Settings on the old one first. If the old Mac is gone, email hello@appish.app and we'll free the seat.

Yes, if it lets you down. Try it free for 7 days. After you buy, if it doesn't do what its page says on your Mac, tell me within 30 days and I'll fix it or refund you. Email hello@appish.app.