Time Machine "encrypt backup disk" option is disabled (greyed out)

Question

Time Machine "encrypt backup disk" option is disabled (greyed out)

This is with a brand new iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011), connected to a Lacie 500GB disk via Firewire 800.

The only thing slightly unusual about my setup is I have the Lacie partitioned into two, a small NTFS partition, and a much larger (485GB) Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) partition. That is the partition I'm trying to encrypt in time machine, but the option is always disabled. I even erased that partition and reformatted it, thinking that was the problem (yeah, wiping out my previous backups).

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7), 27-inch Mid 2011 / 3.4Ghz Intel i7

Posted on Aug 3, 2011 11:01 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 4, 2011 3:09 PM in response to ThatsUnpossible

I just spoke with Apple tech support. The guy initially said, "It's probably your dual partition setup causing the problem, let me check with an engineer." When he came back on the phone, he said good news, you don't need to use the "encrypt backup disk" option, because you've turned on FileVault 2 and the entire drive that's being backed up is encrypted...

This is not the way I understand things to work at all. I told him that, and said are you sure? He said, yep he double checked it with a supervisor...... uhhh, does anyone know whether this is true or not?

Guess I need to do some experimenting.

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Answer 2

Dec 13, 2011 3:09 AM in response to ThatsUnpossible

So do you have FileVault on?

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Dec 13, 2011 4:15 PM in response to ThatsUnpossible

ThatsUnpossible wrote:

. . .

This is not the way I understand things to work at all. I told him that, and said are you sure? He said, yep he double checked it with a supervisor...... uhhh, does anyone know whether this is true or not?

You are correct; the backups are not encrypted unless the backup drive/partition is encrypted.

Most likely, the problem is the disk does not have the GUID (aka GPT) partiton map scheme. See #31 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

If you select the drive, then position the cursor over the Encrypt Backup Disk box for a moment, you should see a message explaining why the option is not available.

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Answer 4

Apr 6, 2012 8:58 AM in response to ThatsUnpossible

Hello!

I know it's probably too late, but I just run into the same problem with new 2TB external drive. Solved pretty easily this way: when you are creating partitions using Disk Utility, click on "Options…" button under partitions list and select first options there. Of course you'll have to repartition and reformat your disk and, probably, lose all of the data. So be warned. But after this you can enable backups encryptions in Time Machine.

Hope this helps!

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Answer 5

afugit

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2016 8:37 AM in response to ThatsUnpossible

I had this same issue with Sierra. I also have FileVault set up, and kept having the issue. It was actually user-error, as I completely disregarded that the Password Hint is required; once I entered something it encrypted and began backing up. Silly oversight by me that I even found this thread, so perhaps someone else is overlooking this too.

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