Securing an external SSD

[Richallum]

I’ve got a new Samsung SSD (external) to store old data on. Can someone help me with the best way to encrypt and secure/password protect it please?

[Richallum]

A bit more info: I’ve tried using the Disk Utility method (Encrypt and protect a storage device with a password in Disk Utility on Mac – Apple Support (UK)) but I don’t get the option to choose the scheme as shown below:

I just get this:

I also don’t get the option to encrypt in Finder if I use control and click on the drive in the sidebar.

[pantulis]

I believe encryption is not available in ExFAT filesystems, have you tried formatting it with APFS format? (also consider that you would not be able to read it on a Windows or Linux machine)

[Richallum]

The only file format options I get in Disk Utility are:

I’m not worried about only using on macOS.

[dario]

View > Show all devices (Disk Utility shows only volumes by default), delete the current exFAT partition, and create an APFS container on the device first (you can then have a single APFS volume or multiple volumes within the container).

[Slickster]

May I also add, when formatting with APFS, you can choose to have it encrypted which will require you to generate a password. This will resolve your initial request of encryption and password utilization.

[Richallum]

Thanks both. That worked.