Will Time Machine encrypt the entire backup disk?

[Russell Bell]

I want to backup my computer to my NAS (Synology). The hard drive isn't partitioned, but I did create a separate user account for Time Machine so it does not use up all my space. If I chose to encrypt backups - will Time Machine encrypt the whole drive (which I use for other things) or just the backups?

 

[Crzyrio]

Where are you seeing this option to encrypt backups?

 

[Weaselboy]

I want to backup my computer to my NAS (Synology). The hard drive isn't partitioned, but I did create a separate user account for Time Machine so it does not use up all my space. If I chose to encrypt backups - will Time Machine encrypt the whole drive (which I use for other things) or just the backups?

No, it won't encrypt the drive at all. What TM does on a networked backup like that is it creates what is called a sparse bundle image and that sparse bundle file itself is encrypted. So the disk itself is not really encrypted at all, just the sparse bundle sitting on the disk is encrypted.
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Where are you seeing this option to encrypt backups?

If you open TM preferences and click the button to select a backup disk you will see the checkbox encryption option.

 

[Russell Bell]

No, it won't encrypt the drive at all. What TM does on a networked backup like that is it creates what is called a sparse bundle image and that sparse bundle file itself is encrypted. So the disk itself is not really encrypted at all, just the sparse bundle sitting on the disk is encrypted.

Thank you - just what I was looking for.