File system to use with USB pen drive with encryption on a MBP M1?

[iphonefreak450]

I just ordered a Dual USB-C/USB-A pen drive for my MBP.

Under Disk Utility, I wish to encrypt the pen drive in case I need to add sensitive data on to it.

My concern or question is this.
Should I format it using APFS or the older Mac file system?

Also, maybe in case I do need to access my data from the pen drive on Windows, that’s also my question.

And please don’t recommend any 3rd party encryption tools like Veracrypt. I’m happy or prefer using the built in encryption Utility on the Mac.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I don't believe Disk Utility since Big Sur offers the HFS encrypted option any longer. Should be possible using Catalina or earlier. If you are on Catalina or earlier so have the choice, I would use HFS.

There is a suggestion in this thread for encrypting HFS using later macOS but no confirmation.

To access from Windows it would have to be exFAT which DU won't encrypt. Or use third party software eg by Paragon, on the Windows machine to read APFS or HFS+.

 

[iphonefreak450]

I have an external USB pen drive that I wish to encrypt by creating a encrypted disk image from the Disk Utility. Then dragging the data onto that encrypted disk image.

On the lower right section, if I choose to select exfat, will it be read by Windows?

 

[Honza1]

I think you "wish too much". I do not believe you can create encrypted disk on macOS (Disk Utility) and then have that decrypted and read on Windows. Both OS are using different encryption systems and are not compatible together. However, you can try and educate us if it works...
I believe, that there are dedicated USB password protected disks, which you buy with the protection, and can be read on both Windows and macOS. I do not have my own experience with these, but have seen colleagues using them.