TimeMachine password

Walletarian wrote:

Thank you very much Encryptor5000.

Is it possible that I initiated a Time Machine backup without an encryption password? Would that be indicated somewhere? I looked in preferences. Could it be in an Administrator file somewhere?

If you backed up without using an encryption password, your backup drive would not be encrypted. You can verify this using Disk Utility (it should tell you whether the drive is encrypted or not).

I looked in Keychain Access>Login>All Items for keywords: volume, encryption, and also sorted the results to look for "volume encryption password". Nothing even close.

Ouch. Unfortunately that's a strong indicator that your Mac didn't store your backup password in the keychain. You could try searching the Login keychain for any other user accounts that exist on your Mac.

Is it possible to have 2 Time Machine backups on different external drives? I see there is a choice to SELECT DISK in Time Machine Prefs.

Yes, it is possible to back up to two or more external drives. When this is configured, Time Machine rotates between the backup drives.

Example: If you use two backup drives, the first backup goes to the first drive, second backup goes to the second drive, third backup goes to the first drive, fourth backup to the second drive, etc.

Is there a way I can test for a password BEFORE I create a new backup, without destroying the existing one? Perhaps start a RESTORE on an older machine (MacBookPro 2009)?

You can try as many passwords as you wish, by connecting the backup drive, opening Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilities), selecting the backup drive in the sidebar, and clicking the Mount button. You should then be able to attempt the encryption password.

The old backup history will only be erased if you explicitly tell macOS to do so (the most common way is Disk Utility -> select drive -> Erase).

Hi Walletarian,

Unfortunately if you forgot the encryption password for Time Machine, you'll need to erase your backup drive and start a new backup. This deletes the old backup history.

If you told your Mac to remember the encryption password, it should be stored in the Login keychain as a password entry, as the kind "volume encryption password".

Thanks for the detailed screenshots.

Walletarian wrote:

Thank you again. When I go to ADD or REMOVE BACKUP DISK, the Encrypt Backup is not checked. I believe I did that because I was sharing some space for non-TimeMachine files on those drives.

Generally it isn't a good idea to combine non-backup files with Time Machine backups on the same drive. If you want to do this, the best way to do so is to partition your drive in Disk Utility.

Also, the Encrypt Backup option is a per-drive setting. It's possible to encrypt some of the backup drives and leave others unencrypted.

In the new drive folder there is a file called 2021-02-18-150637.inProgress, and it is showing with 400+ GB

That's a good sign if Time Machine is backing up to the drive. However, I'm not sure why there is a discrepancy between Time Machine preferences (claims 20 GB) and the backup size (439 GB). How much space is being used on your Mac?

For a while now, there has been a file in TRASH with .InProgress. I cannot get it to erase. GET INFO indicates it is a Package file likely left over when I switched drives for TimeMachine (that drive was failing). Could this be why the two I'm using now seem to hang?

Possibly. Backups made in Time Machine are not intended to be deleted in the conventional way (moving to Trash). Instead, they should be managed using the tmutil command-line tool.

Nonetheless, to remove that failed backup out of the Trash, try these steps:

1. Connect your backup drives.
2. Open Terminal, located in Applications -> Utilities.
3. Type "sudo tmutil delete" without the quotes, add a space, but do NOT press Enter (Return) yet.
4. Drag the failed backup from the Trash into the Terminal window. The path to the failed backup should automatically be inserted into the Terminal command.
5. Select the Terminal window, then hit Enter (Return). Enter your administrator password when prompted; Terminal will not show any characters as you type the password.
6. If the process is successful, type "tmutil deletelocalsnapshots /" without the quotes and hit Enter (Return). This ensures that any local snapshots containing the failed backup in the Trash are also deleted.
7. Consider erasing the new backup drive you just added, and re-add it to Time Machine. This ensures that the first backup on that drive is clean.

Before I turn in my Mac for battery repair, it suggested I change my password, and set up a Test User. Do you have a URL to a "How To Page"?

To protect your data, back it up first using Time Machine, then turn on FileVault (System Preferences -> Security and Privacy) and wait for encryption to complete. Finally, erase your Mac.