Face ID Unlock

Look at the camera. It types your Mac password in for you.

A free menu-bar app for Macs with no Touch ID in reach.

Download

It's a Mac app. Open this page on your Mac to download it.

Touch ID only helps when it's under your hand.

System Settings wants your password. Then an installer, then the Passwords app, then a keychain prompt. Touch ID covers a lot of these boxes, but only if the sensor is right there.

A Mac mini or Mac Studio comes with no keyboard. A MacBook docked with the lid shut, or up on a stand, has its sensor out of reach. And Apple doesn't sell Touch ID on its own, so the keyboard you love doesn't have it.

Which desk is yours?

This is who it's for. It works with a Studio Display's camera or a webcam.

Set it up once. After that, just look at the screen.

  1. Download it and open it. It lives in the menu bar, not the Dock.
  2. Four steps in Settings, about a minute. Allow the camera, let it fill password boxes, type your Mac password once, and show it your face.
  3. Next time a password box opens, look at the screen. On my Mac the password is in about two seconds. About three when it asks you to look left or right.

Test It Now opens a real password box, so you can watch it work before you rely on it.

The Settings window with all four steps done Look left. Turn your head a little to the left. Password filled. Click OK or Allow.

Your face and your password stay on this Mac.

  • Nothing leaves your Mac. The app makes no network connections.
  • Your password stays in memory until you restart, log out or quit, and is never written to disk.
  • Your face is saved in your login keychain as numbers, not a picture. Forget My Face in Settings deletes it.
  • It finishes System Settings and the Passwords lock screen by itself. Every other box waits for your click, because any program can raise one.
  • Admin prompts, keychain prompts and the Passwords lock screen ask you to look left or right, picked at random. A photo or a recording can't know which way. Three misses in a row pause it until you type your password in Settings.
  • It never fills while someone is connected by Screen Sharing or Remote Management.

Good to know

  • It's a convenience, not extra security, and it's less safe than Face ID on an iPhone.
  • A Mac camera can't see depth. Clips of you turning both ways, a live deepfake or a 3D mask could get past it, and System Settings boxes and the general Touch ID box skip the look left or right.
  • It can't fill the login or lock screen, FileVault, sudo, App Store or Apple Account passwords, or Apple Pay.
  • It's made for a desk where nobody is likely to try logging in as you, like a home office.

Typing your password always still works.