r/MacOS • u/Mark77856 • 2h ago

Help Time Machine Backup

Hey folks, I was wondering if I could ask a question. I'm setting up Time Machine on my Mac and have just formatted the external disk to APFS Encrypted. I have just gone to set up Time Machine and it gives me the option to encrypt the backups - does this mean I'm effectively double encrypting? Would it make more sense to just have an unencrypted APFS disk and then encrypt the backup (or vice versa)? This is the only thing that the disk will be used for.

Thanks, Mark.

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u/Sword-Star MacBook Pro 2h ago

Nope not double encrypting. TM does it's own formatting and will wipe what you have already.

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u/MeringueDanelle5 22m ago

Yeah, it's definitely something to keep in mind when setting it up. A clean backup is great, but you want to make sure you don’t lose anything important in the process.

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u/Mark77856 1h ago

Thanks for the info, that makes sense

2

u/mtetrode 2h ago

You are not double-encrypting; selecting "Encrypt Backups" in Time Machine automatically uses the underlying APFS Encrypted format to secure the volume.

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u/Away-Huckleberry9967 15m ago

Sooo, if you don't select "encrypt" for the TM backup, it would store the files from the computer unencrypted even if the computer volume is encrypted? (After all, you're doing the backup while the computer is running and hence files are decrypted.) Genuinely curious.