How to Add a Password to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote Documents on iPhone

Protect your iWork documents with a password using this nifty trick on your iPhone or iPad.

You can view, edit, and create documents for free in Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps. Besides that, if you have an important, confidential file, you can easily password protect it in these apps to prevent unsolicited access.

This brief tutorial shows you how to use your iPhone or iPad to add a password to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations inside Apple’s iWork suite of office applications.

How to Set a Password for Documents in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote

Follow these steps on your iOS or iPadOS device:

1. Launch Pages, Numbers, or Keynote and open an existing document or create a new one by tapping the plus (+) button.
2. With the document, spreadsheet, or presentation open in full screen, tap the more icon (three dots inside a circle).
3. Tap Set Password.
4. Enter the desired password you want to set. Repeat it in the Verify field.
5. You must also enter a suitable Hint to ensure you can figure out the password in case it slips your mind.
6. For ease, leave Open with Face ID or Open with Touch ID enabled.
7. Finally, tap Done.

You have now successfully password-protected a document. Once the file has password protection, you’ll see a padlock icon on its thumbnail, signifying it’s locked. You may want to save the password to your iPhone for safekeeping.

How to Open a Password-Protected File

To open a password-protected document, spreadsheet, or presentation in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote, simply tap the file and authenticate your identity via Face ID or Touch ID. In case you hadn’t enabled biometric authentication, type the document’s password to get inside.

If Face ID or Touch ID fails repeatedly, you’ll see the box appear to enter the password manually.

How to Change the Password

You can easily change the password on your document or stop using Face ID or Touch ID to open the document. To do this, open the password-protected document, and tap the more icon, then hit Change Password. You can also choose to remove the password from here.

Protect Your Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations

This is how you can add a secure password to your file in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Even if you send this password-protected file to a different device, it will still ask you to enter the password. So make sure you share that password with anyone else who needs access.