Mac Encryption Compresses File Sizes? (Also any easier way to transfer and compare?)

[ChpStcks]

Came back to OS after being on Windows for almost a decade.. I had a microSD that had bitlocker so I bought two more microSD to transfer and convert to macOS encryption.

So I transferred from bitlocked microsd to blank microsd, after the transfer was complete ~160gb I checked both properties and both had the same amount of files and used capacity, down to the kb. I then encrypt another blank microsd using APFS (Encrypted) via disk utility and transferred all the files from the newly (non encrypted) microsd to the AFPS mac encrypted microsd.

After all the files were transferred I had to go folder by folder to Get Info (is there an easier way to just select all folders and compare?) and noticed that even though both have the same exact amount of files ~35,000, the file sizes between both of the SDs are off by almost 4gb?

Both microSDs are exactly same brand and capacity (Samsung 256gb). Does MAC OS compress files during encryption or something?

 

[chabig]

APFS does not compress files. I suspect the difference you see is simply due to the structure of the file system. It could also be that the file size reporting is different between Windows and Mac. It's really not very much different.

 

[planteater]

ChronoSync for macOS is reasonably priced and will do the compare based on any number of file attributes you choose. I purchased it for similar types of copy activities.

An encrypted and a non encrypted file system, or APFS to other file system will likely produce different overall usage calculations. Only test copies can show you the delta. You didn’t mention the other sides file system.

But regardless, it might be best to get a compare tool if the data is important.

 

[ChpStcks]

ChronoSync for macOS is reasonably priced and will do the compare based on any number of file attributes you choose. I purchased it for similar types of copy activities.

An encrypted and a non encrypted file system, or APFS to other file system will likely produce different overall usage calculations. Only test copies can show you the delta. You didn’t mention the other sides file system.

But regardless, it might be best to get a compare tool if the data is important.

the new (recently blank) sd is in exFAT, should I have formatted it to APFS before transferring from bitlocker?

 

[ChpStcks]

APFS does not compress files. I suspect the difference you see is simply due to the structure of the file system. It could also be that the file size reporting is different between Windows and Mac. It's really not very much different.

But the file size was also reported on the mac; the non encrypted SD so a much higher file size when Getting Info on mac