I recently doubled my Time Machine backup drive size from 1T to 2T. When I set it up, I was prompted to encrypt the drive, which I did. That is turning out to be problematic. PITA, actually. ;)
I know the password; that isn't the problem. Can I remove the password without erasing the drive? Running Catalina 10.15.7 on a MacBook Pro 2015
TIA
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
Wow! I feel some chagrin; it never even occurred to me to try another USB port. There's also an HDMI port so I can dispense with the thunderbolt adapter for my second screen. Yay! Mac for Dummies might be needed here. smh
No anti-virus gunking up the machine, to my knowledge. My backup drive is relatively new, though I purchased it second-hand. It had the original software and I formatted it to use with Time Machine. For that reason, I'm pretty confident it isn't failing. However DriveDX tells me the 'diagnostic of the external drive is unavailable.' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Scans of my computer SSD and another external SSD worked fine and the T5 is connected via USB Hub connected to the original port.
I already tried physically removing and reinstalling the TM HDD drive, a 2T Seagate drive showing up as Ultra Slim MT.
Oddly enough, when I ejected the TM drive and moved it to the other port, I wasn't prompted for the password, the problem that set this whole thing in motion in the first place.
The random disk ejection thing was happening well before I connected the Seagate drive btw. The good news is I have not seen that notification in a couple of days.
The bad news is that while checking the troubleshooting pages for DriveDX, I learned that Mac OS doesn't allow multiple drivers for the drive at the same time, and they name my other external by name (Samsung T5 portable). It says I have to uninstall the driver for that drive. There's also a comment on another support page that indicates 'SMART support disabled'.
This is all well above my pay grade. I'm going to cross my fingers and soldier on. As long as my TM backups are occurring without any issues on the ext HDD and my music files are being saved properly to my other T5 SSD, I will assume all is well. If I start seeing the 'disk not ejected properly' message again, I'll revisit.
Thank you so much for your expert input @HWTech!
The only way I know to Remove an Encryption Password from the Time Machine Backup is to Erased the Entire TM Backup Drive
Then start over
Mama-Gaga wrote:
Thank you for the detailed visual! If my MacBook would stop randomly ejecting discs (possibly related to a powered USB hub?), I wouldn’t worry or care. Life goes on.
That is the problem you need to resolve as you may end up damaging the file system and your backups. Try connecting the drive directly to the laptop to see if that makes a difference. Also, try using another USB port especially on the other side of the laptop. Try using a different USB3 cable.
Make sure you are not using any anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, or third party security software that may be interfering with the normal operation of macOS.
There is also a chance your external drive is failing. You can attempt to check the health of the external by running DriveDx. You will need to install a speical USB driver. However, even with the special USB driver some USB controllers of external drives/hubs/docks/adapters may not allow access to the drive's health information. Post the complete text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
No !
Maybe I’m reading between the lines here (letters?) but in your opinion, is that a bad setup? It is, in mine.
Thank you for the detailed visual! If my MacBook would stop randomly ejecting discs (possibly related to a powered USB hub?), I wouldn’t worry or care. Life goes on.
Remove password from encrypted backup drive?
