Finder Integration: Open Your Vault Like a Folder

What is Finder integration?

Today the plan is that you add files to the vault through the app: drag and drop, File > Import, a menu-bar drop zone and (in version 1.1) a Services-menu item and a Share extension. Finder integration would go one step further. The unlocked vault would be mounted in Finder, so you could browse it like any folder.

It is planned as a Pro feature. Plans and prices are not final. See pricing for the current state.

How it is planned to work

1. Unlock

   You draw your pattern in Hidden Folder, as you do for any vault.

2. Mount

   The unlocked vault appears in the Finder sidebar, like a drive. The spec says it closes on lock.

3. Open files

   Other apps open the vault's files the way they open files from any folder. This is the goal. Whether every app works is not tested.

4. Lock

   The vault leaves Finder. Hidden Folder is planned to lock on ⌘L, when the Mac sleeps or the screen locks, and after idle time.

The spec names a File Provider extension as the building block. Apple's deployment guide says File Provider extensions let you integrate a file sharing service into the macOS file system and the Finder. In Apple's 2021 developer session on the topic, the system shows the provider's entry in the Finder sidebar and creates a root directory for it in the file system. That is the cloud drive model. How a vault fits into it is part of the open question below.

The open question: decrypted copies on disk

The first release rule is that decrypted content is never written to disk. Apps that open a file from Finder usually need the actual file. A Finder mount has to be built so it does not leave decrypted copies behind. Whether that is possible without limits is not settled, and this page will say so when it is.

The spec describes how the app avoids plaintext today. Images decode from memory. Video plays through a loader that decrypts chunks on demand. Export is the only way out, and only when you ask. That works because the app controls the viewer. A Finder mount hands files to apps the vault does not control.

In the cloud drive model that Apple describes, the extension downloads a file to a location on disk and the system uses it to fill a placeholder file. A vault that must not write decrypted content has to avoid that step or find a safe version of it. The spec does not say how. Until it does, do not read "no plaintext on disk" as a promise for the mount.

Other questions the spec does not answer

• Hidden vaults. The app shows no vault list. A pattern that matches nothing opens an empty vault. What a mount would show for an unknown pattern is not decided.
• Locking while a file is open. On lock, the app wipes key state and releases decoded media. What happens to a document that another app still has open is not decided.
• Search and previews. The vault storage folder is excluded from Spotlight. Whether Spotlight, Quick Look or Finder thumbnails would see a mounted vault is not decided.
• Names. On disk, file names are random, and real names, dates and tags live in an encrypted index. A mount would have to show real names to other apps, which adds a new place where names can appear.
• macOS version. The planned app needs macOS 14 or later. The spec does not say whether the mount needs a newer release.

What you can do before version 1.2

These are the planned ways to move files in and out without a mount. They belong to the first beta and version 1.1. None of them is released.

• Drag files in from Finder or Photos, or use File > Import. A Photos picker is also planned.
• Use the secure camera, which saves into the vault and never into Photos.
• Drop files on the menu-bar extra's "Drop to add" zone.
• Take a file out with Export (⌘E) when you need it outside the vault. The spec calls export the only way out.

If you need a folder-like encrypted store on a Mac today, an encrypted disk image mounts in Finder like a drive. Apple warns that while a disk image is mounted on your desktop, anyone with access to your computer can use the files on it. Read encrypted disk images on Mac and the Disk Utility comparison.

What it would not change

• Hidden vaults, the recovery phrase and the pattern lock work as before.
• An app that you open a file in can keep its own copies, recent-file lists and previews.
• A mounted vault is readable by anyone at an unlocked Mac, so lock it when you leave.

How to judge it when it ships

1. Open a file from the mounted vault in an app, then lock the vault. Check whether the app still holds the file.
2. Search for a unique file name in Spotlight while the vault is mounted, then again after you lock it.
3. Look in the app's recent files list and in Apple menu > Recent Items for the file name.
4. Follow the steps in how to test a vault app yourself. Read the source once it is public. The spec plans GPL-3.0.