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.

Level 1

8 points

Encryption of external drive with Big Sur 11.1

Hello all,

What is the best way to encrypt an external drive in Big Sur 11.1?

I have tried in "Finder" and "Disk Utility" but I don't get any "Encryption" option.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 9, 2021 4:27 AM

Top-ranking reply

Level 10

116,770 points

Posted on Jan 9, 2021 4:35 AM

You’ll need to use Disk Utility to format the drive with a GUID partition map. That will erase the drive.

In Disk Utility, select “Show All Devices” from the View popup menu.

Select the device and click erase. Choose GUID for the partition map, and you then should be able to choose an encryption format.

View in context

Similar questions