Time Capsule Time Machine

[Luba]

For Time Machine backups I'm using Time Capsule, but under “Disk Utility” I'm seeing the following:

Time Machine Backups

Disk Image Volume • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

BUT . . . under the “Time Machine” app, I'm seeing the following:

Xxx GB of 2 TB available, encrypted

so it looks like the Time Machine backups which are sparse bundles are encrypted??

But how do I encrypt the overall disk inside Time Capsule? Normally, I would do this by going into Finder and right-click "encrypt disk" or in Disk Utility and format it with "encryption", but we are supposed to manage Time Capsule's disk using Airport Utility, according to Apple. I didn't format 'Time Machine Backups' to "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)", I must assume Airport Utility did this when I used Airport Utility to set up ("format") Time Capsule's disk.

 

[Weaselboy]

so it looks like the Time Machine backups which are sparse bundles are encrypted??

This is correct. The TC disk is not encrypted. The backup data is stored inside an encrypted sparse bundle image on the TC disk.

 

[Luba]

This is correct. The TC disk is not encrypted. The backup data is stored inside an encrypted sparse bundle image on the TC disk.

Thanks for the info.

Is there a way to encrypt the TC disk? Would this extra layer of encryption make my Time Machine backups more secure?

Is the encryption on the sparse bundle image just as good as whole disk encryption?

 

[Weaselboy]

There is no way to encrypt the TC disk itself and the sparse bundle encryption is sufficient IMO.

 

[Luba]

There is no way to encrypt the TC disk itself and the sparse bundle encryption is sufficient IMO.

Yeah, I feel sparse bundle encryption is sufficient. I don't know enough to really evaluate, but I remember old Apple magazine articles about older macOSes extolling the sparse bundle encryption feature probably because FileVault at that time wasn't good so encryption per file was the only way to go if you wanted to encrypt something.

But I vaguely remember that we could encrypt the TC disk itself on older macOSes, maybe by using Disk Utility?? But now Apple wants us to manage TC only by Airport Utility and the ability to encrypt the whole TC disk is not available on Airport Utility.

 

[Weaselboy]

But I vaguely remember that we could encrypt the TC disk itself on older macOSes, maybe by using Disk Utility?? But now Apple wants us to manage TC only by Airport Utility and the ability to encrypt the whole TC disk is not available on Airport Utility.

It won't work... I have seen threads where people removed the TC disk and attached it to a Mac then formatted to encrypted format. Then as soon as you put it back inside the TC, it formats it back to plain HFS+ like it apparently requires.