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Dennis Hagen Author

Level 1

50 points

Any problem continuing to back up a T2 chip iMac 2020 to an unencrypted external Time Machine drive?

I started using a LaCie 4 TB external drive in May 2019 for my Time Machine backups of my 2017 iMac (1 TB, all SSD, not Fusion).

(The LaCie drive currently has 1.25 TB available of the 4 TB.)

A few days ago I replaced by 2017 iMac with a 2020 iMac that includes the T2 chip, which encrypts the iMac’s data.

I used Migration Assistant to copy the data from my LaCie backup to the new iMac.

During the first Time Machine backup of the new iMac to the LaCie, the system warned that the Time Machine backup wasn’t encrypted.

I like being able to use Time Machine to see versions of files from my old iMac, but I wonder whether there is a technical reason why having an unencrypted Time Machine backup will cause me problems in the future.

In an emergency, will I be able to recover the encrypted contents of my new iMac from an unencrypted Time Machine backup?
Will the T2 chip encrypt all the restored files during the recovery process?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 23, 2020 7:19 PM

Top-ranking reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,855 points

Posted on Aug 23, 2020 8:31 PM

There is no need to encrypt the Time Machine backup drive unless you need to protect your data from prying spies/eyes. The fact that you use an encrypted drive on your iMac was your choice as is encrypting the backups. Note that the Time Machine backup drive should be formatted using Mac OS Extended, Journaled.

Yes, you can recover your dat from an unencrypted Time Machine backup. The data are not encrypted.
Data restored to the computer will be encrypted as long as the computer's drive is encrypted.

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Any problem continuing to back up a T2 chip iMac 2020 to an unencrypted external Time Machine drive?

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