Locked folders stay private

A folder can be locked. Everything in it, including subfolders, is forced private until you unlock it.

The padlock

Select a folder in the sidebar and click the padlock. The dialog tells you that documents in that folder and its subfolders cannot be shared. If any of them are already public or sitting on a public collection, Share tells you how many will become private, and removes them from your profile and public collections when you confirm.

A locked folder shows a padlock in the tree. A subfolder of a locked folder shows a dimmer one: the lock belongs to the parent, and you unlock it there.

What the lock actually stops

Moving a note into a locked folder makes it private. A bulk visibility change skips locked documents. Publishing to Micro.blog is refused. The API reports the lock, and a client that tries to set a locked note to public does not win.

Unlocking does not blast everything back to public. Documents stay private until you share them on purpose.

This is a guardrail, not a vault. Share still has to read your Markdown to render and search it. A lock is the thing that stops “oops, I shared the journal.”