change password on encrypted drive

[mace-bluebird]

How can I change password on encrypted external hard drive on big sur? My "change password" menu item in Disk Utility is greyed out.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The first question is, do you know the password that was used for the external drive?

If so, follow these instructions.

If you don't know the password, that's a totally different conversation.

 

[mace-bluebird]

Yes, I know the password.
Looked at the page you suggested by #8 (select "Change Password" from the File Menu) is greyed out on my Disk Utility menu.

 

[chscag]

Did you see the instructions about having to erase the drive first?

I believe in order to change the password, you must first copy all your data from the external hard drive to another drive, then erase the drive. After that you can assign a new password.

And,

Welcome to our forums.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

OK, I ran a quick test so that I could tell you what I saw.

I used a USB flash drive and plugged it in. In Disk Utility, choose "Show All Devices" and selected the drive (and not the existing partitions). I then erased it and chose APFS (Encrypted) as the format type and GUID Partition Map and set a password.

On a subsequent removal and insertion of the USB drive, I was prompted for the password to be able successfully mount the drive.

I went back to Disk Utility and when I selected the drive (as before), the Change Password option is grayed out. However, as the instructions said, I selected the specific volume and now Change Password was enabled. So ensure that you are selecting the correct thing.