How to find passwords and ID scans left on your Mac
A passwords.txt on the Desktop, a passport photo from a WhatsApp chat, a server key in Downloads. Here’s how to find them before someone else does.
Open Sensitive in Tidzy. It flags files that look like they contain passwords, private keys, ID documents or card numbers, and records only the kind of thing it found, never the number or password itself. From there, move them to a safer folder, trash them, or mark them as fine.
Review what Tidzy found
- Open Sensitive
The sidebar shows how many files need a look. Filter by Passwords & keys, ID documents, or Cards & banking.
- Check each file
Each row shows a badge for the kind of thing found, like Password, Private key or Passport, plus where the file lives.
- Decide
Move to Folder puts it somewhere you choose (an encrypted disk image, for example). Move to Trash removes it. Not Sensitive hides it from the list for good.
What it looks for
| Kind | Examples |
|---|---|
| Passwords | Text files and notes with saved passwords, screenshots of Wi-Fi details |
| Private keys | .pem and .key files, SSH keys left in Downloads |
| ID documents | Scans and photos of passports, Aadhaar and PAN cards, driving licences |
| Cards & banking | Documents with card numbers that pass a checksum test |
Why this is safe to run
Everything happens on your Mac. Tidzy stores the category it detected, not the secret, so its own index never becomes a list of your passwords. It also skips app bundles, so password managers don’t show up as false alarms.
Doing it without Tidzy
You can search Finder for words like “password” or “passport”, since Spotlight indexes text in documents and PDFs. It won’t read text inside images, and it won’t recognise ID numbers or keys by their format.
Try it on your own files
From $4.99, one time, for 1, 2 or 3 Macs. Everything runs on your Mac, and every action can be undone.