Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) No Longer Available in Big Sur

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Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) No Longer Available in Big Sur

BLUF: I need to format my external hard drive for use with (encrypted) Time Machine backups -AND- simultaneously for additional storage (password protected) - without having to partition the drive.

I just upgraded to macOS Big Sur. I have an external hard drive that I want to use with Time Machine as well as for additional storage - both encrypted. It appears that once Time Machine reformats the drive for use with backups, the drive can ONLY be used for Time Machine backups and not for additional storage unless, of course, you partition the drive.

I want to format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) which previously allowed me to do exactly what I'm trying to do, an option which is no longer available in Big Sur, as it appears APFS (Encrypted) has superseded it within Disk Utility. Yes, I have ensured that "Show All Devices" is selected in Disk Utility's drop-down menu, as well as ensured that I have the drive selected, and not a volume or container.

The kicker? I have a separate, exact same external hard drive on another Mac running Big Sur which was formatted in macOS Catalina prior to the Big Sur upgrade, and I can use that drive seamlessly for both encrypted Time Machine Backups as well as for additional storage - encrypted and password protected - without having to partition it. This rules out it being a hardware-specific problem.

I have reformatted the external drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and tried to use it as my Time Machine disk, but I get promoted that it is not formatted for use with backups. As soon as I direct it to reformat, it defaults to AFPS (Encrypted) and, you guessed it, goodbye additional external storage.

I was able to partition the drive and found a workaround however, the strict defining of finite storage space is a bit of a turnoff, as I may be short-changing my backups partition given the size I allocate to it, or my external storage partition for the same reason.

Ultimately, my concern is that I am no longer able to do what I need to do as easily as I was able to do it in previous macOS versions within Disk Utility.

Is there any third party application or utility I can use to still achieve reformatting my drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), or am I stuck with my current dilemma?

Thanks for reading!

-J

Posted on Dec 5, 2020 12:27 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

65,462 points

Dec 5, 2020 2:18 PM in response to RicanHavoc787

It is a terrible idea to use the TM drive for anything else, but with APFS drives there is no longer a reason to partition, anyway. You can create separate volumes within the same container without partitioning, and those volumes share the available space on the drive. Again, not recommended for a TM drive but I think it’s worth spreading the news that partitioning is getting less necessary than it used to.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

142,644 points

Dec 5, 2020 2:04 PM in response to RicanHavoc787

I need to format my external hard drive for use with (encrypted) Time Machine backups -AND- simultaneously for additional storage (password protected) - without having to partition the drive.

That was never a good idea, and with Big Sur I have reason to believe you may no longer do that.

For what it's worth your experience is identical to mine. Once you connect a previously unused backup drive and designate it for Time Machine backups, TM owns it. From TM's security perspective that's a good thing.

I have a separate, exact same external hard drive on another Mac running Big Sur which was formatted in macOS Catalina prior to the Big Sur upgrade, and I can use that drive seamlessly for both encrypted Time Machine Backups as well as for additional storage - encrypted and password protected - without having to partition it.

Same here. Time Machine will respect what you did with that drive and its files and won't change any of that.

Is there any third party application or utility I can use to still achieve reformatting my drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), or am I stuck with my current dilemma?

Not to my knowledge, and I would be reluctant to use anything like that in conjunction with Time Machine. Its primary purpose is reliability and the only way to assure that is to let it work.

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Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) No Longer Available in Big Sur

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