Backups & restore points · Encryption and passphrases
What makes a good backup passphrase?
Short answer: Make it long and unique — a short sentence of unrelated words works well — never reused, and store it in a password manager or on paper away from the Mac. There's no reset if it's lost.
Long, unique and written down somewhere safe. Storage Studio needs at least 8 characters, but longer is much better — a short sentence of unrelated words is easy to remember and hard to guess.
Good habits: - Don't reuse a password from any other account. - Store it in a password manager, or on paper kept away from the Mac. - Avoid anything you might type slightly differently later, like varying capitals or punctuation.
Remember there is no reset: a lost passphrase means that cloud backup can't be opened.