Encrypted external volume keeps asking key

[laurihoefs]

Hi.

I have a 15" rMBP running Mountain Lion 10.8.4 and a FileVault 2 encryption set up. I also have an external WD MyBook 2TB USB3 drive, which is split into two volumes, both encrypted.

I'm having a minor issue when mounting the volumes on the external drive. For some reason after the volumes are already mounted, I get a popup requesting the encryption key of one of the partitions. This happens AFTER the volumes are mounted with their respective keys already read from the keychain where they are stored. What's even more strange, is that if I try to enter the key of the volume (which I absolutely know to be correct) it keeps rejecting it. But I can access the data on the volume fine, so I can just ignore the dialog and press cancel, and everything is fine again until next reboot.

I already checked the keychain, and removed the stored keys, re-entered them when I mounted the volumes, and again stored them to the keychain. But it still keeps asking the extra key.

I also checked the conversion status of both partitions, and they were reported as complete. Checking the volumes with Disk Utility also found no problems.

Does anyone have any idea, why this could happen?

 

[Weaselboy]

Could it be that the externals are automatically unmounting?

When this happens, try doing shift-command-g in Finder then enter /Volumes to see if they show as mounted.

 

[laurihoefs]

Could it be that the externals are automatically unmounting?

When this happens, try doing shift-command-g in Finder then enter /Volumes to see if they show as mounted.

Well, the problem was fixed for a while by erasing the volume in question, but now the issue is back, slightly different though.

Now the volume does not mount before I cancel the dialog that asks for the key. After canceling the first dialog it gets the key from the keyring and mounts the volume. Before erasing the volume the nonfunctional dialog popped up only after both volumes on the disk were already mounted, now it pops up between mounting the two volumes.

edit: This happens every time I reboot the machine, but very rarely if I've just unmounted the external volumes without rebooting.

 

[twilsonco]

I've been having the EXACT same problem. Also on 15" MBPr here and ALSO with WD My Passport 2GB USB 3.0 drive. I have two of these drives and have been experiencing the problem on both of them.

My problem is still of the type you first explained.

Unfortunately, since we're on the same machine with the same external HDD and same software, this doesn't offer any real insight as to where the problem lies.

Anyone with different mac or hdd care to comment on their own version of this problem?

Also my neck hurts...

 

[rhett7660]

Well, the problem was fixed for a while by erasing the volume in question, but now the issue is back, slightly different though.

Now the volume does not mount before I cancel the dialog that asks for the key. After canceling the first dialog it gets the key from the keyring and mounts the volume. Before erasing the volume the nonfunctional dialog popped up only after both volumes on the disk were already mounted, now it pops up between mounting the two volumes.

edit: This happens every time I reboot the machine, but very rarely if I've just unmounted the external volumes without rebooting.

Is there a check box to remember in keyring? It stands to reason it will need to mount the drive every time your reboot the machine.

I know with my setup, I have a NAS box that has permissions and user pw that I store in the keychain. So when I boot my computer up it automatically mounts the HD and then enables access do to the saved username and pw in the keychain.

When you say pops up between mounting the two drives, you are saying:

Mounts disk 1 requests key (pw key?) then once that drive is mounted or not mounted

Attempts to mount disk 2, does the same thing, asks for key etc and then it will mount or won't mount.

Correct.

Do you ever switch which port these drives are connected to?

Example:

Day 1 - usb port 1 drive 1
Day 1 - usb port 2 drive 2

Day 2 - usb port 1 drive 2
Day 2 - usb port 2 drive 1

 

[laurihoefs]

There are two encrypted volumes on one disk, not two disks.

The correct keys are stored in the keyring. I've removed the keys and stored them again (by checking the 'Store in keyring' box). The dialogs that ask for the actual keys work, and after the keys are stored, those dialogs no longer pop up, just like they shouldn't. But there's a third dialog that pops up for an unknown reason.

The extra dialog that pops up does not do anything. If I enter the key I know to be correct (and is already stored in keychain), nothing happens. If I press 'Cancel' the volume is mounted like no dialog was ever there.

In my case the erraneous extra key dialog originally popped up after both volumes were already mounted. Both had their keys stored in the keyring. It did not matter if I cancelled the dialog or left it open, I could access both volumes normally either way.

After erasing the other volume on the disk and reformatting it, the extra key dialog now pops up between mounting the volumes. The second volume is now mounted only if I cancel the dialog.

This does not happen every time the volumes are mounted, only after a reboot. If I leave the drive connected and don't unmount the volumes before the reboot, then the dialog won't pop up. It happens with both USB ports. And it happens in OS X 10.8.4, 10.8.5 and 10.9.

It's really fascinating that twilsonco has exactly the same problem with exactly the same hardware

 

[rhett7660]

There are two encrypted volumes on one disk, not two disks.

The correct keys are stored in the keyring. I've removed the keys and stored them again (by checking the 'Store in keyring' box). The dialogs that ask for the actual keys work, and after the keys are stored, those dialogs no longer pop up, just like they shouldn't. But there's a third dialog that pops up for an unknown reason.

The extra dialog that pops up does not do anything. If I enter the key I know to be correct (and is already stored in keychain), nothing happens. If I press 'Cancel' the volume is mounted like no dialog was ever there.

In my case the erraneous extra key dialog originally popped up after both volumes were already mounted. Both had their keys stored in the keyring. It did not matter if I cancelled the dialog or left it open, I could access both volumes normally either way.

After erasing the other volume on the disk and reformatting it, the extra key dialog now pops up between mounting the volumes. The second volume is now mounted only if I cancel the dialog.

This does not happen every time the volumes are mounted, only after a reboot. If I leave the drive connected and don't unmount the volumes before the reboot, then the dialog won't pop up. It happens with both USB ports. And it happens in OS X 10.8.4, 10.8.5 and 10.9.

It's really fascinating that twilsonco has exactly the same problem with exactly the same hardware

Sorry I misunderstood. Gotcha now. Hmmmmm. This is interesting.

 

[laurihoefs]

Sorry I misunderstood. Gotcha now.

No wonder you did, my original post was a bit of a mess, and the second one made it even more confusing... Probably only twilsonco understood it, having experienced the issue first hand

Hmmmmm. This is interesting.

It certainly is.

I currently have no way to test the disk on another computer, the ones available to me run OS X 10.4 and 10.6, neither of which support volumes encrypted with 10.7 or later.

 

[Lyrrad]

I'm also having this issue. I also have a WD 2TB MyBook External drive and a 15" rMBP running 10.8.4, though I'm also having the issue on a 2010 11" MBA.

My drive has 4 encrypted partitions.

Asks for encryption key even though it correctly mounts the drive.

Does anyone have ideas? I didn't find any other threads relating to this issue.

 

[rkbca1]

Asks for encryption key even though it correctly mounts the drive.

FWIW, I am also having the same problem:

2011 iMac, OS X 10.8.5

Two different Mercury On-The-Go 1TB portable drive each with four encrypted partitions and each with the problem. The extraneous encryption key prompts are relatively new. I think it started happening with the OS X 10.8.3 update but am not 100% sure about that. In any case, these same drives did not have the problem with earlier 10.8.x updates or 10.7.

Multiple encrypted volumes on a single external drive seems to be the common factor.

Bob

 

[mgmhunt]

"try to enter the key of the volume (which I absolutely know to be correct) it keeps rejecting it. But I can access the data on the volume fine, so I can just ignore the dialog and press cancel, and everything is fine again until next reboot."

"Multiple encrypted volumes on a single external drive seems to be the common factor."

yep same problem here. No solutions as yet, freaking me out though.

 

[laurihoefs]

Well, 10.9.1 is out, and the mystery still remains.

 

[backstr]

I'm having the same issue. I have three partitions (one bootable) on an external filevault 2 encrypted drive. Two of the partitions mount using the password from key chain, then I get the dialog asking for a password for one of the already mounted partitions.

Only other odd thing I see is the following console log:

12/29/13 10:57:32.790 AM diskmanagementd[6297]: mount blocked by dissenter PID=0 (unknown) status=0xf8da0002 log=kDAReturnBusy message=(null)

After canceling the dialog, the third, bootable, partition mounts:

12/29/13 10:58:28.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: mounted MacBook Pro Clone on device disk5

 

[dr.joolz]

I have the same on Maverick too and 3 encrypted drives including a time capsule. Every time I boot, it asks for all 3 passwords, but even if I get them right they will not accept the password. However cancelling the dialogs will still give me access to the drives and files with no problems...

I found that if I delete the entries in Keychain, and reboot, it will ask for the passwords again and will accept the correct password (and save the passwords). This will work for a short while, and after a few reboots it will start asking again and not accept the correct passwords but will allow access even I cancel...

This is obviously a serious bug and I'm puzzled how bad QA has become these days at Apple, I see loads of bugs here and there and on my iPad and iPhone. My iPhone 4 after upgrading to 6.1.3 and later 7, will not see Wifi anywhere 6 feet away from the router whilst all my other devices work fine, even the same iPhone before the upgrade would work outside of the house. This has been an age old problem and I'm surprised to see that iOS7 did not address such a fundamental problem. I myself and a few others I know on forums have abandoned iPhone just because of that...

 

[calabi]

Hello chaps,

I'm having exactly the same issue here. Event with the latest update to Mavericks 10.9.2.

It's not really causing me any issues but it's worrying that it's prompting and not accepting the expected password to unlock the drive? Probably just a weird bug..

Have you any of you managed to find a solution to this?

C

 

[yimmay]

Hi guys,

Same issue here using 2TB WD My Book Essential. Encrypted 1.5TB partition for CrashPlan local backup and 500GB TimeMachine encrypted partition. I had to actually delete my entire keychain and start fresh - just removing the entries for these drives wasn't enough.

The issue seems to be fixed now. Encryption keys are correctly stored in the keychain and I don't get asked every time the drive mounts. Perfecto!

I deleted everything in /Users/James/Library/Keychains then restarted. It's not too bad if you're using iCloud keychain which stores most stuff. The local things you'll need to re-enter (including your encryption keys).

Let me know if this works for you guys as well.

Cheers.

 

[calabi]

Hi guys,

Same issue here using 2TB WD My Book Essential. Encrypted 1.5TB partition for CrashPlan local backup and 500GB TimeMachine encrypted partition. I had to actually delete my entire keychain and start fresh - just removing the entries for these drives wasn't enough.

The issue seems to be fixed now. Encryption keys are correctly stored in the keychain and I don't get asked every time the drive mounts. Perfecto!

I deleted everything in /Users/James/Library/Keychains then restarted. It's not too bad if you're using iCloud keychain which stores most stuff. The local things you'll need to re-enter (including your encryption keys).

Let me know if this works for you guys as well.

Cheers.

Hello yimmay, I'm wondering if the problem is still solved since you did this fix? I'll give it a go if it's still working for you.

 

[subjonas]

Can anyone confirm yimmay’s fix?
I have the same issue with being repeatedly asked for the encrypted drive’s password on reboot even though it’s stored I keychain, and even though it appears the drive already mounted and I have access to its contents.
The bigger annoyance is that it won’t let my other two external drives mount until I dismiss the password request dialogue.