Time Machine not fully encrypted. Is it safe to use?

Question

I'm going to format my iMac today and I've just backed up to an external drive using Time Machine.

But I am using encrypted backup, so Time Machine needs to encrypt the whole drive (after it has backed up). Right now, it says "Encrypting.... 35%". So it will take a long time.

Can I safely format now and still use the Time Machine backup, even though it's not fully encrypted? I mean, will it work the same way as if it was encrypted?

Answer 1

Ideally, the CoreStorage encryption should continue after you reconnect the Time Machine drive after your format. But practically, it's a risk that you shouldn't take unless you have other backups to recover from (like a SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner bootable clone).