Password protection

All My Books can lock a collection in two different ways, and they solve different problems.

A password on the whole collection

Nobody can open the collection without the password — not in All My Books, and not in anything else that reads the file format.

  1. Choose Database › Set Password….
  2. Type the password and repeat it to confirm.
  3. Confirm.

From then on the collection asks for the password when it is opened. To remove the protection, set an empty password the same way.

There is no recovery. The password is part of the database file, not a setting of the program. If you forget it, the collection cannot be opened — by us either. Write it down somewhere safe and keep a backup.

A password on changes only

Better for a shared family or office collection: everybody can look, only you can edit. Switch it on in Tools › Preferences › Expert options with Password protection of database changes.

The collection then opens in read-only mode. Searching, sorting, grouping, statistics, printing and exporting all work as usual; adding and editing books does not. To unlock the session, choose Database › Get write access… and enter the password. The command only appears while the collection is read-only.

The extra option Prompt for password when trying to change the database decides what happens when somebody tries to edit: with it on, the password dialog appears by itself; with it off, the attempt is quietly refused and the user has to ask for write access from the menu.

See also Working over a network and Opening a database.

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