Can I use a Samsung T5 SSD without the encryption app? If so, How?

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Level 1

4 points

Can I use a Samsung T5 SSD without the encryption app? If so, How?

I have a Samsung T5 SSD drive, it has obvious compatibility issues with Mojave and Catalina.

How do I remove the Portable SSD application from the drive completely, so that it doesn't use encryption and I can just use it as a plug and play hard drive?

Whenever I try to turn off the encryption, then unplug the drive. I plug it back in and it needs a password.

It won't work on my machine, (because i'm on Catalina), so i have resorted to using another machine to open the drive, which is a pain in the butt.

Any help and steps on how I can remove/format the drive to use as a regular hard drive? I don't need the encryption.

I have offloaded all data to another drive until I can figure out how to use it without encryption.

Thanks,

Jeff

Posted on Nov 4, 2019 12:59 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,264 points

Nov 5, 2019 5:44 PM in response to Jeffb0572

Turn off the SSD's encryption using the Samsung software while the drive is connected to your other Mac or a Window's PC. I've never used the Samsung software so I cannot provide you any specific instructions. Once the encryption has been disabled, then you can proceed with @Soren's advice to erase the drive using Disk Utility. You can also have macOS encrypt the drive for you using software encryption.

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/encrypt-protect-a-storage-device-password-dskutl35612/mac

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Answer 2

Tankred

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2019 12:06 PM in response to fuzzymo

I solved this with fuzzymos instructions. I found it hard to pick the right volume to delete and encrypt since my disk utily app showed only volumes. I listed the option all devices, then I could select the drive and encrypt it. My aim was to erase everything, create a APFS volume and encrypt that.

So workflow is as follows

deactivate the Samsung encryption as above mentioned.
erase the volume
list devices
pick the samsung device and erase with APFS encrypted (best for SSD for use with latest OSX. Don´t use that if you want to exchange data with Windows etc.)

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Answer 3

Nov 5, 2019 11:16 AM in response to Jeffb0572

Hi Jeff,

One thing you can do is open Disk Utility which is what I do with all new external drives such as two Samsung T5 drives that I own personally and format them for Mac which removes the encryption.

To open Disk Utility hold down command space bar which will bring up a search window. Type Disk Utility and then double click it in the list to open it.

Plug in the Samsung T5 drive if it's not already plugged into your Mac and it should show up in the list on the left under External. Select it, it should say Samsung T5 drive. Then click the Erase button to erase the drive. Make sure you select the correct drive.

If you wish to use the Samsung T5 with your Mac, you can select MacOS Extended (Journaled) next to format. Leave the Scheme as GUID Partition Map the way it is If it's not already shown.

I hope this helps.

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Answer 4

fuzzymo

Level 4

2,042 points

Nov 5, 2019 6:14 PM in response to Jeffb0572

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/support/faqs-portable/

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Can I use a Samsung T5 SSD without the encryption app? If so, How?

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