Introduction

Eagle offers password protection for folders and the application interface, primarily designed to prevent casual viewing of your content within the software. This feature effectively prevents shoulder surfing and provides basic protection when you temporarily step away from your workstation. However, it's important to understand that this protection does not extend to deliberate attempts to access your data outside the Eagle application or prevent access through file explorers.

Password Protection Limitations

Eagle does not encrypt files at the disk level for two main reasons:

Eagle cannot control operations that occur outside its interface
Full encryption would significantly impact file loading speed and overall performance

These design decisions and functional limitations are explained in our help center articles:

Recommended Security Measures

We understand your security concerns. To better protect your data, we recommend these additional measures:

Avoid sharing computers with others when possible
Use separate user accounts with password protection on shared devices
Store your .library files on a personal external drive that only you can access, rather than in local directories on shared devices

Important Considerations

For optimal data security, we recommend regularly backing up your hard drive and important data. This practice helps protect against malicious file modifications or deletions by others, as well as data loss due to hardware failure. For information on backing up your Eagle library, please refer to: How to Back Up Your Eagle Library.

Why Can Encrypted Folders Still Be Accessed Locally? Understanding Eagle's Password Protection Limitations