External drives · Drive formats
Does Storage Studio work with an encrypted external drive?
Short answer: Yes. An encrypted APFS drive works normally once it's unlocked. Until it's unlocked and mounted, Storage Studio treats it as disconnected and resumes when it appears.
Yes. An encrypted APFS drive behaves like any other Mac-formatted drive once it's unlocked. Until you enter its password and it mounts, Storage Studio treats it as not connected — moved apps and folders aren't reachable and moves wait — and it picks things up again once the drive appears.
To encrypt a new drive, choose APFS (Encrypted) when erasing it in Disk Utility, or right-click the drive in Finder and choose Encrypt. If you want it to unlock automatically, tick the option to remember the password in your keychain when macOS asks.