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Will encrypted Time Machines that encounter single bit errors be entirely unreadable?

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1 answer
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When deciding on whether to store my backups encrypted or not I have to weigh the risk of potential damage of my backup drives being **stolen and readable**, and the potential damage of my backup becoming unreadable through various forms of "natural" **degradation** of the hardware and data. I want to make an informed decision but I don't even know how vulnerable the encrypted backups are to e.g. single-bit corruption compared to unencrypted ones. If I let Time Machine encrypt a backup (onto an unencrypted target APFS volume -- if these two encryption schemes happen to be distinct) **will all of the backup be inaccessible in the case of a single bit flip of the encrypted data?** I'm guessing it could be if the corruption occurs in the wrong part of the data structure, but in general, will most of its content still be readable? In other words, will it simply leave a few damaged files out of a future restore operation? Let's assume I'm using a modern Time Machine implementation of Sequoia 15.3 and the target volume is APFS. I'll add that I currently don't know if Time Machine simply uses APFS' encryption capabilities or whether it does its own thing.
Asked by Andreas (2269 rep)
Feb 10, 2025, 03:44 PM
Last activity: Mar 5, 2025, 07:56 PM