Time Machine Backup - Encryption Possible Yet?

Is there any way for a competent computer user at this point to safely encrypt a time machine backup yet?

Note that TM will not back up your home folder until you log out if you have FileVault turned on. This, IMHO, defeats one major purpose of using TM... frequent, scheduled backups. Not to mention that it eliminates the ability to restore only some files, as the entire home folder must be restored if it's in a FileVault. It's all or nothing.

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Time machine - backup not found yet visible

Hello,
I am having trouble setting up Time Machine on a new Macbook Air running OSX Yosemite 10.10.
I have an external hard drive connected to a first generation Airport Extreme, and it is running fine and backing up on my other computer, a MacBook Pro which is running OS X version 10.7.5 and AirPort Utility 6.3.1.
Yet when I purchased the new Macbook Air (listed above), which is using Airport Utility 6.3.4, upon opening Time Machine, it is not able to see my backup disk. It just keeps saying "Set up an AirPort Time Capsule that is not listed here." When I click "Setup" it brings me to the AirPort Utility, and I can see my AirPort Extreme, and further, when I click on my AirPort Extreme and "Edit" I am able to see my backup drive under the "Disks" header. There is plenty of space as well.
Any reason why Time Machine is not able to see my backup disk, despite being able to see it in AirPort Utility? I As I said, it is working fine on the MacBook Pro.
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Apple never officially supported Time Machine backups to a drive connected to the USB port of the AirPort Extreme, Generations 1 through 5.
Some users were able to make this work, and some were not up using operating systems up through Mountain Lion (10.8.x).
Apple pretty much shut off the capability to even try this when Mavericks (10.9.x) was introduced, and this continues through Yosemite (10.10.x).

Time Machine Backup not possible (normal external Hard drive)

Hi,
has anyone else had the problem that after the Lion upgrade its not possible to even really access your external time machine?
i have a 1TB Samsung HD103SI Media and when it tries to boot up it wont show in finder, i can see it in the disk drive utility and try to repair it but it only gets me an error saying i have to reformat that drive?
i hope this can somehow be fixed otherwise all my backups are gone

Hi,
Sorry to hear about your Issue...
Was your Samsung Formatted to Mac OS Entended (journaled) when you first started using it with TM...?
If so see the Troubleshooting Section in this Link to Pondinis excellent Tips on Time Machine...
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Index.html
Cheers,
You may also find the TM references in this Link of Interest...
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/LionChanges.html

Can i resume a Time Machine backup of an attached external drive (no system, just data) on a different laptop?

I am trying to find out if I can use a Time Machine (specifically on a 2013 Time Capsule) backup of an external drive (only data, no system) attached to a laptop, and then connect that same external drive to another laptop and resume the backup? Or is the Time Machine backup of an attached external drive a laptop "dependant" backup?
Additional info: The laptops in question are 15" MacBook Pro and a 17" MacBook Pro from 2011 running OSX 10.9 (Mavericks)

You are welcome.
I don't think there is a need to start a new discussion unless you want to.
You should have more than one backup of each computer. Hard drives do fail. Time Machine can alternate drives or have a Time Machine and a clone.
The concern arises because i was told that when a wireless Time Machine backup is interrupted the sparsebundle gets sort of "locked" or "damaged", and although the backups can be accessed, no further Time Machine backup is possible. One must that a brand new backup.
Apple support article. Don't let the title bother you. Look at Additional Information, which explains what happens when a backup gets interrupted. I also am including a link for troubleshooting. C3 explains what you can try if the backup is interrupted.
Time Machine First Backup Interrupted
Time Machine Troubleshooting

How can I tell if my Time Machine backups are encrypted?

Hi - I would really appreciate it if someone could help me find out if my Time Machine backps are actually encrypted.
I know that there is an 'encryption' option when choosing a disc for Time Machine to backup to, but the problem is I cannot remember whether or not I actually ticked it (as it was a couple of years ago).
Other info that might be helpful:
- The disk I use Time Machine to backup to is actually a Apple Time Capsule
- I do have FileVault2 enabled on my mac
- I have never encrypted the Time Capsule disc itself (via Disk Utility or anything similar)
- One possible clue might be: When I go into Time Machine preferences, and click on 'Select Disk...' (as if to choose another disk to back up to), and select the disc that Time Machine currently backs up to (i.e. the Time Capsule disc), it does show an 'Encrypt backups' checkbox at the bottom of the window... however this checkbox is unchecked and also greyed out.
Thanks in advance
a_quinn

a_quinn wrote:
- Because I originally created this Time Machine Backup (to the Time Capsule) back in my 'OS X Lion' days,
I wondered; you posted in the Mountain Lion forum, but your profile still says Lion.
that means that my backups now (and moving forward) will continue to be un-encrypted
Correct (as of now, anyway). You cannot encrypt existing network backups. I doubt that will be available in the future, and would take forever.
- The only way to encyrpt my backups now, moving forward, is to remove this Time Capsule disc (from Time Machine Preferences), and start all over again ensuring that I check the checkbox next to 'Encrypt Backup' when selecting the Time Capsule's disc to backup to.
Well, in theory it's possible, but would take forever, squared.
You could archive the TC's contents to a USB drive connected to it, per #Q6 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule).
Then delete the original, start a backup with encryption, and as soon as the encrypted sparse bundle is created, cancel the backup.
Mount the sparse bundle, open the disk image, and delete the Backups.backupdb folder inside it.
Connect the USB drive to your Mac, mount that sparse bundle, open its disk image, and copy the Backups.backupdb folder to the one on the TC.
Depending on how large the sparse bundle is, that could easily take a couple of days, at least, even connected via Ethernet.
Just for testing one day, I encrypted a very small set of existing test backups on a F/W 800 drive - 6 dated backups using a whole 12 GB. Took an hour.
An alternative would be, just do the "archive" and keep the USB drive "on the shelf" for a while. You can always connect it to your Mac and access those backups via the Browse Other Backup Disks option.
Trying to keep a couple of years worth of backups usually isn't a good idea. It's a very complex structure, so the odds of damage increase, it takes much longer to populate the TM browser, and it works slower and slower, and if you didn't need something for 6 months, are you really going to need it in 2 years?

Time Machine Restore Encrypted Backup

Got a new HDD and trying to restore from my backup which is Timemachine encrypted on my ReadyNAS. Booting from the recovery disk works etc, I can see and log into the NAS and see the correct time machine backup (I have two TM backups for two different Macs on the NAS), but then after selecting the relevant TM backup to be retored I get the message that it is encrypted and that the password does not match. I have not been prompted to enter one, only the login and PW for the NAS. There does not seem to be any place to enter the password to decrypt the backup. Any ideas? Thanks vm!

Try Repairing the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If/when you get this sorted out, strongly consider switching to File Vault 2. It works much better, especially with Time Machine.
Or, if possible, only encrypting a few sensitive items, per Protecting confidential documents in a secure disk image.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Do encrypted Time Machine backups work across a network?

I see that Lion offers the option of encrypting TIme Machine backup volumes, which seems like a Good Thing. After reading up a bit on this, it seems clear that it will handle the situation where the backup volume is physically attached to the machine being backed up. However, I've gotten mixed signals about whether this will work with networked clients. I have a server with a TM volume, and a number of machines on my network use that server and its disk for TM backups. Can I encrypt the TM volume in this situation, and will Time Machine be able to back up from those clients to the server? I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't work, but, like I said, the overall story isn't completely clear. Thanks for any advice!

There's nothing in the Help or other documentation I can find.
Just that OSX can't do it from the Mac that's doing the backup.
There was a similar post the other day; I asked the poster to let us know whether it worked, but haven't gotten an answer yet. So if you try it, please post back with your results.
I do agree with coocoo, though -- if you want to do this, keep "secondary" backups, not encrypted, just in case. See #27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for some suggestions.

I have my Time Machine on an external drive (not connected to Airport Extreme) and I have an external HD attached to airport extreme. Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme. How?

I have my Time Machine on an external drive (not connected to Airport Extreme) and I have an external HD attached to airport extreme. Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme. How?

Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme.
Sorry, but no.
Time Machine will backup your Mac, but not the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme.
Time Machine will back up a hard drive only if it is attached directly to your Mac via USB or FireWire.

Restore encrypted Time Machine backup: password failure

hi,
I upgraded my mid 09 MBP with an SDD and created a Fusion Drive maintaining my HDD in the optical bay. After rebooting and wanting to restore from a Time Machine Backup, I'm prompted with a password request of the disk image, being the password I used to encrypt the TM when creating it.
No matter how I enter the password, it says it's not correct and I can't proceed.
Finally I created in a fresh setup of Mavericks. Once I'm in my Mac, When going to Time Machine, I see my Time Capsule drive on the network, and entering the encryption password, I can indeed access my Sparse Bundle.
I have to say that my password contains a space at the end of the password (it slipped in by copying the password by accident) and I think it might be the reason it's not accepting it as the valid password when in recovery/setup mode.. Either way, I've tried the password with and without the space so...
In Disk Utility, I've had the disk listed but the change password feature is disabled..
I've looked thru different forums, but no luck so far.
Anyone who has had the same issue or has a clue on how to either change the encryption password or how to install the full backup I have in my sparse bundle, it would be highly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

Hello:
This thread seems to answer your question:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12949561#12949561
Barry

What happens if you Time-Machine backup an encrypted file-vault HD?

This is related to my previous post - but deserves special mention for those people who are using time-vault AND Time-Machine.
My question is this: If the backup of my Hard-drive is encrypted, and I then reinstall from backup, what will this situation likely produce?
This is what I have done. I also Archived and installed my Mac prior to installing from my Time-Machine backup.
I now have an error message that displays the following message at the login screen:
"Unable to log into the file-vault account "......." at this time. An error has occurred."
My password IS CORRECT. I have not changed it, and the log in window does accept my password, but it doesn't progress any further than the error message I gave above.
I'm wondering if the encryption process of file-vault is linked directly with the original installation I had of Mac OS-X before I Archived and installed.
Any thoughts/knowledge/Insight?? I want my old Mac back! (I don't recommend using file-vault). Any body else had this problem or can see what is happening to me here?
Thank you
Greg

I just did a backup, moved a folder with 600mb of images into a different folder, and did another backup. The free space on the backup drive dropped by the size of the folder's contents. The backup copied the files as I watched in System Preferences, and it looked like it was really copying the files to the external drive again. It looks like Time Machine isn't as smart as I hoped in this regard.
Still - I'd think the wasted space is only in the every-hour-for-the-last-24-hours bucket of Time Machine. I'm guessing the every hour backups are like a sliding window, where a backup that's 24 hours old drops out every hour rather than all the hourly backups getting wiped at midnight and starting over.
Regardless, only one version of the moved folder will eventually be stored as the daily backup for that day. I don't have proof, but that's what I think.
So, if you've moved a bunch of folders around or renamed them, the extra copies of the same exact files should drop off within 24 hours.
That's my interpretation, but I'm in no way positive!! The lengthy Ars review didn't offer an answer to this question.

Encrypted Time Machine Backups on a shared drive

Hello community,
the following situation:
I have an iMac and a MacBook Air, both running Mountain Lion.
Both use FileVault 2 encryption of the whole MacOS partition.
The iMac is connected to an external USB hard drive, which I use as Time Machine volume. I've set up Time Machine to encrypt the backups on the external volume (it took abou 2 days until the whole drive was encrypted).
So far no problems. No let's get to the tricky part.
I want to the MacBook to use the same USB drive for its Time Machine backups. However I don't want to connect the volume directly via USB. Instead I have shared the USB volume on the iMac. And now I want to use this shared drive as my backup drive in the MacBook. (Hint: I want to use the same partition both for the iMac backups as well as for the MacBook backups.)
I can mount and select the drive on the MacBook. However Time Machine on the MacBook asks me, if I want to envrypt the backups. Which of course I want to do. But the USB drive and therefore the entire mounted volume is already encrypted (from the iMac).
Now I'm scared to opt in for encryption on the MacBook because I'm afraid the MacBook will again encypt the whole volume. Will that be the case? If so, what will happen on the iMac afterwards? Or will Time Machine recognize, that the volume is already encrypted (encryption passwords are the same of course)?
Or is it not necessary to activate backup encryption on the MacBook since the drive is already encryted? Or will the MacBook somehow manage to write unencrypted backups on an encrypted volume?
I would really appreciate any help to get the backups up and running. In short: I want both Macs to backup to the same drive. And I want both to encrypt the backups (with the same password).
Regards

meistermilchreis wrote:
(Hint: I want to use the same partition both for the iMac backups as well as for the MacBook backups.)
That's usually not a good idea; for best results, they should be in separate partitions. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #4 for an explanation, and #22 for setup instructions.
I can mount and select the drive on the MacBook. However Time Machine on the MacBook asks me, if I want to envrypt the backups. Which of course I want to do. But the USB drive and therefore the entire mounted volume is already encrypted (from the iMac).
Backups made over a network are placed in a sparse bundle disk image, separate from the backups made directly. The disk image is like a disk-within-a-disk; it has it's own partition map scheme and format. So it will not be encrypted unless you tell TM to do so.
In short: I want both Macs to backup to the same drive. And I want both to encrypt the backups (with the same password).
Since the backups are separate, they must be encrypted separately. You may use the same password for both if you want.

Entering password for an encrypted time machine backup

During a recent hard disk failure. I have had to restore my system from a time machine backup.
I keep this backup on an encrytped external drive.
I booted into recovery mode, erased the drive to fix the hard disk errors (it wasn't repairable).
Then I tried to mount the encrypted drive for recovery.
Everytime I entered the password, a 50 character string with all character types it failed to unlock.
I tried the disk on another mac and it unlocked fine.
Then I noticed that the recovery mode defaults to US Input Source and I have a UK macbook (2007).
So I changed the input source to British.
Still the password doesn't work.
Then I noticed that once you click unlock the password entry box defaults to US again and doesn't let you change it.
Fortunately UK keyboard isn't very different to US and I figured out that the only difference was to use Shift 3 for # rather than option 3 that we normally use on the UK keyboard.
Is there a work around this? Is it a known issue.
Glad I don't have an arabic or russian keyboard :-)

File a bug report with Apple.

Encryption of Time Machine backup on an external hard disk

I use an external hard disk (not Time Capsule) for my Time Machine backup. How can I encrypt this external hard disk. I didn't find such a function in the Mac OS. Thanks a lot for any hint.

Click here and follow the instructions. The image's contents can't be accessed without the password, but the image file can still be deleted.
(56647)

Is possible to have a time machine backup on an external hd connected to either a primary or secondary router and not have "back to my mac" using 10.7.3?

Is possible to have a time machine backup on an external hd connected to either a primary or secondary router and not have "back to my mac" using 10.7.3?

The bottom line is that Apple does not support Time Machine backups at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme. If they don't support their own router, they certainly don't support other routers from other manufacturers.
Connect the drive directly to the Mac using either USB or FireWire.....or....use a Time Capsule. Either of these setups will be supported.
If you want to try the unsupported method(s), you can certainly do so. But, I would suggest that you have a secondary backup plan in place if this is important data that you will be backing up.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

I am using an external drive in the exact way that you described. You just keep it plugged in to the computer when you want to access the movies and files. In order to put files on it, just go to finder open up the drive under devices and drag and drop files onto the drive. It is just like using a usb drive with a terabyte of space.

Time Machine Backup - Encryption Possible Yet?

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