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Backing up an SD card with my normal Timemachine back up

Avatar Richard I
I am experimenting offloading some files onto a permanently inserted SD card.

However, I cannot seem to get Timemachine to back it up along with the rest of the mac.

Is this because SD cards are not considered to be 'real' external drives, or is it because it is currently formatted in ExFAT format?

A clue is that it appears in the Timemachine options window, but is greyed out.
Thanks
Richard

Re: Backing up an SD card with my normal Timemachine back up

Avatar Euan Williams
It's the ex-FAT format.

Re: Backing up an SD card with my normal Timemachine back up

Avatar Richard I
Thanks! Yes, that was it... it is now Mac OS extended (journaled) and TM backs it up nicely

A supplemental question: I would like to encrypt the SD card. The help page says:

" In the Finder on your Mac, open a window, then Control-click the item you want to encrypt in the sidebar.

Choose Encrypt [item name] from the shortcut menu.

Create a password for the disk and click Encrypt Disk."

However, there is no encrypt option!

Any ideas?

Re: Backing up an SD card with my normal Timemachine back up

Avatar Richard I
Finally sussed how to encrypt an SD card!

This link is a good reference: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/encrypt-a-usb-stick-macos-mojave/

The key info I missed was:
In the Disk Utility toolbar, click the View button and select Show All Devices
Select your USB flash drive in the sidebar by clicking its top-level device name (i.e. not the volume name that's listed beneath it).
Click the Erase button in the toolbar.
Give the USB flash drive a name.
Next, click the Scheme dropdown menu and select GUID Partition Map.
Now click the Format dropdown menu and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted).
etc, etc

(very unintuitive!)

Re: Backing up an SD card with my normal Timemachine back up

Avatar Euan Williams
Yes, the Disk Utility Devices menu, often missed. Time perhaps for a general user confession?

"We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us."
BCP 1662

Guidness gracious me :) Mac decade resolution: Backup, Backup, Backup... (fades into echo)...
 
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