Where Should You Keep Scans of Your Passport and ID on a Mac?

The situation

You scanned a passport for a visa form. Months later you are not sure how many copies exist, or where. Each one is a file that can be copied, synced or backed up without you noticing.

The job has three parts: find every copy, keep one safe master, and delete the rest. The order matters, because deleting before you have a safe master can lose the only good scan.

Step 1: find every copy

1. Search by name

   In Finder, click the search field and type part of the file name, such as passport, visa or scan. Apple says you can choose Name to find items whose name contains a word or phrase.

2. Search by kind

   Add a Kind criterion for images or PDFs, or type kind:images at the end of the search. Apple describes this as a way to limit results to one type of item. Scans often have names like IMG_0231 or Scan 14, so a kind search finds what a name search misses.

3. Check the usual places

   Open Downloads, Desktop and Documents by hand. Look in your scanner app's own folder, in Mail attachments you saved and in the Photos app if you photographed the document. If you scanned with an iPhone through Continuity Camera, Apple says the scan appears as a PDF in the window on your Mac. Apple does not say whether the iPhone keeps a copy, so check the phone too.

4. Check what you sent

   Look through Messages and Mail for the scan you sent. The other side keeps their copy, and you cannot delete it. Apple says some AirDrop items are saved in Downloads, and most are saved in the app that sent them, so check both.

5. Check cloud folders

   If the Mac syncs a folder with iCloud Drive or another service, a scan in that folder exists in the cloud too. See storing private photos safely.

Step 2: keep one master copy locked

Put the master scan in an encrypted container. The built-in choice is an encrypted disk image: encrypted disk image guide has the steps, and how to password protect a folder shows the one-folder version. If the scan is a single PDF, you can also encrypt that PDF. See password protect a PDF.

Store the password in a password manager or on paper away from the Mac. Apple warns that if you forget the password you cannot open the disk image or view its files.

Step 3: delete the rest, and know what deletion leaves behind

• Apple says items you drag to the Trash are not deleted until you empty it. Empty the Trash after you check the master copy opens.
• Apple says items emptied from the Mac Trash are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered from the Trash. They can still sit in older backups.
• Time Machine keeps older copies. If the scan was on the Mac when a backup ran, the backup still holds it. Apple says an external backup disk without encryption can be read by anyone who has it, so see encrypting a Time Machine backup.
• Items you delete from iCloud Drive are removed from the Trash automatically after 30 days, per Apple.

Share a copy, not the original

Most forms need only part of a document. Cover the numbers the other side does not need with the free blur and pixelate tool, and choose the solid box, not a blur, for anything that must not be read. A phone photo may carry location data. In Photos, Apple documents choosing Image > Location > Hide Location for selected photos. You can also run the file through the metadata remover before you send it. Both tools run in your browser and upload nothing.

Where a vault fits

Hidden Folder stores a scan encrypted, shows original names only inside its encrypted index, and plans an encrypted iCloud backup for version 1.0. It does not delete the loose copies for you. The steps above still apply.