SOLVED-how to encrypt SD cards in El Capitan

Question

SOLVED-how to encrypt SD cards in El Capitan

This has been vexing me beyond all possible belief to my wits end since Fail Capitan's new Disk Fail utility made it impossible to re-format and/or re-partition and/or erase/encrypt SD cards.

Time Machine is the answer. Finally. Maybe I'm late to the party, but this is for all those out there pulling their hair out. Simply enter Time Machine preferences, choose your SD card to use as a Time Machine backup--even if it's obviously way too small of a size to do so--then when all is said and done, simply remove it as a Time Machine backup disk. It will still be encrypted.

Why is this so obfuscated in Fail Capitan?

You try to get an answer from the "geniuses" at the Apple Store and you get a flat-line.

Who is minding the store? Literally? Why is something as simple as this task not documented somewhere--or better yet--why is it NOT IN THE NEW DISK UTILITY?

Hope this helps some of you.

Again, if this is old news, please don't flame me. Find something better to do with your life other than to troll.

Posted on Mar 11, 2016 10:37 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 11, 2016 11:53 AM in response to Summer Storm Pictures

I think what you found was a side effect.

Most SD cards are formatted as some flavor of FAT (FAT32, EXFAT, etc.). These formats don't work with FileVault; you need Mac OS X Extended or some derivative. So if you were just trying to encrypt a FAT drive, it won't work.

Time Machine _also_ requires a Mac OS X Extended formatted volume, so it can store file names and hard links, etc. If you set something as a Time Machine destination, you probably got a "this will erase..." warning of some sort, and then the SD card had its file system converted to Mac OS X Extended, which could then be encrypted.

I suspect if, within Disk Utility, you selected "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) Encrypted" as the file system, it would have worked too. But trying to non-destructively encrypt some form of FAT won't work.

Reply

Answer 2

Duane

Level 10

124,267 points

Mar 11, 2016 12:04 PM in response to Summer Storm Pictures

Did you try simply control-clicking on the icon?

It does need to be formatted correctly though.

Reply

Answer 3

leeboski

Level 1

4 points

Jul 28, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Summer Storm Pictures

I stubbled on this work around also by just trying to make a 64 gig card after fail after fail to encrypt it and just said well i let time machine use it anyway. When I turned on time machine I had to click on encrypt the bkup to make it work, got an error that it was not large enough after it formatted and encrypted the drive then plugged my old time machine drive back in and then made sure the sd card wasn't going to be used as a time machine bkup drive, then remove the small file time machine tried to bkup but after several reboots to test it, it still works and ask me to enter the password I setup on the drive since I do not wish to store it in keychain. Defeats the purpose of having a safe card if the password is stored on any machine for ease of use.

Reply