You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Encrypting backups with Time Machine

Hello.


I bought a new external drive (2TB Seagate Ultra Touch) for Time Machine backups after my WD 2TB drive decided to give up the ghost all because I transferred some files from it to a server. Long story.


Anyway, I set up the new one using the Seagate software as an encrypted drive, then started up Time Machine. It doesn't work with ExFAT formatted discs, and asked me to erase it. Which I did, it's now HFS+ Case-Sensitive Journaled and Time Machine kicked in and did it's thing. Great.


Except that the drive is no longer encrypted. I naively thought it would keep or prompt for the setting. Time Machine then gives me the unencrypted warning, so I decide to set it to encrypt backups in the control panel.


It's been running since Monday and so far it has encrypted 21.09GB of 1.73TB. At this rate, it'll be running until 2020. It's on USB 3.0.


My question is, am I better off erasing the disc and starting again, or will that damage the disc? Should I just sit it out in the hope I don't die of old age before it completes the encryption process.


Thanks in advance.

Will

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 5, 2019 1:21 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 5, 2019 11:52 AM

Consumer grade HDDs are all pretty much the same cheap disposable junk. All the more reason to have a few, so that if one fails you can just throw it out. The added bonus of using encryption is that it obviates any concern about being able to extract its contents, which remains a glaring security vulnerability.


From Keep your Time Machine backup disk for Mac secure - Apple Support:


  • If you back up to an external disk and don’t use disk encryption, any person who gains possession of that disk can read any data backed up to that disk. Be sure to physically safeguard your backup disk so untrusted users don’t have access to it, and store it in a secure location.


I naively thought it would keep or prompt for the setting. Time Machine then gives me the unencrypted warning, so I decide to set it to encrypt backups in the control panel.


Apple ought to enable encryption by default instead of the other way 'round, so that you wouldn't have wasted the time finding out. I would like to think the reason is that they're preparing TM to back up to APFS formatted volumes, but I have no direct knowledge of that.

Similar questions

9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 5, 2019 11:52 AM in response to MrMonoboy

Consumer grade HDDs are all pretty much the same cheap disposable junk. All the more reason to have a few, so that if one fails you can just throw it out. The added bonus of using encryption is that it obviates any concern about being able to extract its contents, which remains a glaring security vulnerability.


From Keep your Time Machine backup disk for Mac secure - Apple Support:


  • If you back up to an external disk and don’t use disk encryption, any person who gains possession of that disk can read any data backed up to that disk. Be sure to physically safeguard your backup disk so untrusted users don’t have access to it, and store it in a secure location.


I naively thought it would keep or prompt for the setting. Time Machine then gives me the unencrypted warning, so I decide to set it to encrypt backups in the control panel.


Apple ought to enable encryption by default instead of the other way 'round, so that you wouldn't have wasted the time finding out. I would like to think the reason is that they're preparing TM to back up to APFS formatted volumes, but I have no direct knowledge of that.

Dec 5, 2019 5:45 AM in response to MrMonoboy

I think I misunderstood the data in Activity Monitor. The Disc menu was reading 1.12 TB written at 30 MB a second. Although it fluctuates wildly. It's just gone down to 6 MB a second.


If I've read this correctly, it should take roughly 17.3 hours to encrypt 1.73 TB at a rate of 30 MB a second, or 86.5 hours at 6 MB a second. So between 1 and 3.5 days to go.


What a ballache.

Encrypting backups with Time Machine

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.