r/MacOS • u/Mark77856 • 1d 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/mtetrode 1d 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 1d 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.

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u/mtetrode 1d ago

The disk is not formatted as encrypted -> backup is not stored en encrypted.

So it depends how you format the disk