Time machine disk password rejected

Question

Level 1

19 points

Time machine disk password rejected

I set up Time machine to backup my Mac on an external 3rd party hard drive and chose to encrypt it by using a password that I wrote down on the Mac itself (in a specific app). I regularly connect the drive to make a backup and it all works, except for the request, sometime, of the disk password. The first time I used that encrypted disk I had to enter the password that I wrote down before and confirmed the Mac to save it in the Keychain. Now, sometimes when the disk is connected, a dialog box appears asking me the "password to unlock the disk". I entered the same password everytime but didn't work (the dialog shakes), even though both the backup feature and the navigation (I mean accessing files and folders on the encrypted disk) work well.

I tried with different passwords and with capital letters but no success at all.

What should I do? Shall I ignore the request or may I have to fear that only the current Mac will be able to read the backup? Which by the way doesn't make a big sense!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 7, 2011 1:58 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 23, 2011 4:30 PM in response to Streeme

Hello Streeme,

Did you Manage to resolve this issue?

I am also having the same problem but Now it is not even allowing me to log /browse on to that 3rd party USB drive.

Kind regards

Sid

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Answer 2

Streeme Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 24, 2011 7:10 AM in response to siddharthshah

No, I haven't. So far this issue is not too relevant, since my only Mac recognizes that disk and opens it. I should test it connecting it on someone else's Mac: after that I'll repost the results.

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Answer 3

Dec 26, 2011 5:32 PM in response to Streeme

I have a new problem login box / dialog box keep shaking when I connect drive now 😟 please let me know if you findout anything else I will also try to dig more on this issue. Thanks again for your reply.

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Answer 4

Streeme Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 27, 2011 1:29 AM in response to siddharthshah

Actually I thought that someone here would have replied to my question, so I guess the 100+ users may have read the topic cannot say anything about.

I sent a feedback to Apple about this issue, though it doesn't mean immediate assistance: they may see whether there's a bug and to fix it with an update, but it will require time. I currently do not fear the time, unless my computer ⚠ breaksdown, as the Mac itself recognizes it and backs up my stuff in there.

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Answer 5

FuzzySS

Level 1

29 points

Sep 5, 2012 4:09 AM in response to Streeme

I'm having the exact same problem. I even reformatted the disk. It worked for a week, and then suddenly started rejecting the password again. External encrypted disk on Mountain Lion. 😟

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Answer 6

Geophizz

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2012 7:53 AM in response to Streeme

I'm having the same problem. It seems that the computer recognizes the drives and works perfectly until I power down the iMac and turn it on again. If I do a restart from the menu the drives work fine, but if I power down the computer and restart it, then it won't recognize the password (that was working before) for the encrypted drive.

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Answer 7

parap77

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2013 10:27 AM in response to Streeme

I have the same problem. Now a year later than these posts. In my case, it really is a problem because I need to restore my computer to a previous state. And for that I need to be able to access the external disk my backups are saved on. My mac can get into that disk. And the keychain says the password is what I thought it was. But when I try to do it myself during the recovery process I get the shaking dialog.

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Answer 8

Oct 26, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Streeme

Same here 10.8.5 always asks for the password, entering the password that is saved in keychain still shakes as if it's the wrong password. Cancel the dialog box and time machine works fine, I can even browse all the files using finder.

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Answer 9

Mar 11, 2014 7:42 AM in response to 4Runner_mac

Same problem here, 10.9.2. This kind of *****, I have some stuff on that disk and nowhere else just because it is encrypted. So, Apple support, any solutions? Has to be a bug, not sure, but I think it worked fine in 10.8.

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Answer 10

May 5, 2015 2:16 PM in response to parap77

I also have this problem, it seems like it have been around for a number of years, yet Apple haven't fixed it.

Not being able to access the backed up data on a restore is a worry though. Maybe I should make my CCCloner offsite backups more frequent, as I don't feel I can rely on Time Machine...

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