
Control-click the drive on the Desktop or in a Finder window.You enable encryption on a drive very simply from the Finder: At that point, someone would need to overcome the hurdle of breaking into your running Mac.
#MACBOOK ENCRYPTION TYPE PASSWORD#
You stored the password or the drives are mounted, but your Mac is locked.You stored the password, but your Mac is powered down.You didn’t store the password for the volume or volumes and the drive is unmounted.Apple should either disable the capability or fix the problem. This likely has to do with the way in which M1 Macs boot from the system volume in Big Sur. Unfortunately, you can turn on FileVault on an external drive, but on restarting, it’s no longer recognized. However, these Macs so far cannot correctly use FileVault on an external bootable volume. Apple silicon M1 Macs: The new M1-based Macs Apple introduced in late 2020 have a Secure Enclave module, and also always encrypt the startup drive.With such models, you can also use FileVault on external bootable volumes, but FileVault handles the encryption in those cases. FileVault on a T2-equipped Mac protects a Mac’s data at a cold startup. (There’s a way to disable this, but there’s no reason to.) The Secure Enclave handles all the necessary pieces. Intel Macs with a T2 security chip: Most Intel Mac models released starting in 2018 have a T2 security chip, which is set to always encrypt the drive, even if FileVault is disabled.You can also use FileVault to encrypt and protect an external startup or bootable drive while it’s booted into macOS. Intel Macs without a T2 security chip: These older Macs, largely models introduced before 2018, use FileVault both for startup security and to handle disk encryption.How FileVault works varies based on your model of Mac: FileVault is managed via the Security & Privacy preference pane’s FileVault pane.
#MACBOOK ENCRYPTION TYPE FULL#
You can read the full details elsewhere on Macworld about the ins and outs of FileVault, but it’s a way to combine the security of account-based access with the assurance of fully encrypted data. You can encrypt a non-startup external drive’s volume on any Mac.
