If so, you will want to opt for a third-party encryption solution. You may need to access your data from a Windows PC or a Linux machine. This means that the USB storage device is not in the proper format to use the baked-in macOS encryption. Note: If you do not see the Encrypt option when you right-click the thumb drive.

Keep in mind, there is no way to reset this password To access the thumb drive, you only need to input the password that you created earlier This will be used to open the thumb drive If this option is not present, see 'Note' below Click on Encrypt > Storage Drive Name.Right-click on the thumb drive in the left sidebar.Plug your thumb drive or generic mass storage medium into your Mac.You will not be able to access the data with Windows or Linux.

Note: Using Finder to encrypt will restrict the usage to macOS only. With macOS Mojave, you can easily encrypt and decrypt generic mass storage devices using Finder. Use 'Finder' to encrypt USB drives on MacBook. MacOS has built in USB encryption features, which lets you encrypt and decrypt USB drives and other storage media. Read our full Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 80 review (opens in new tab). It’s expensive by storage standards, but the VP80ES is a solid attempt at providing an easy-to-use, transportable and secure repository. Out of the box, it comes with a soft carry pouch and two cables for USB-A and USB-C connections.

The storage component is an SSD, although this drive can only achieve reading and writing of around 250MB/s over a USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection. And, the drive will erase the contents if too many passwords are incorrectly entered. Kingston designed it to cope with various potential attacks, including BadUSB and even physical intrusion into the mechanism. Secure encrypted storage devices once required software to be installed to provide a means to input the decryption key, but the Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 80 circumvents the need for that with an inbuilt touch screen.Īvailable in 480GB, 960GB and 1920GB capacities, the VP80ES, as it's also known, sports FIPS 197 certified security and a Common Criteria EAL5+ certified secure microprocessor.

Encrypt usb drive mac