FileVault disk encryption percentage unavailable for APFS volumes using diskutil

[wills11]

"diskutil apfs list" used to include the percentage for disks as they were encrypted—but apparently no longer.

I did some research and found this: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/359548/45492 which leads to a GitHub script that I can't figure out how to run. I've tried everything, including:

• fdesetup status -verbose -device <disk identifier> | grep 'Percent'
• diskutil apfs list <disk identifier> | grep Encryption

For some reason, it all works—I'll be told File Vault is "on" when it's encrypting and "off" if it's unencrypted, but the "grep" never gives me a percentage.

Does anyone know a simple way to view the encryption progress (percent) on an APFS external drive, now that it seems to have disappeared from "diskutil apfs list"?

I'd be much obliged!

 

[NoBoMac]

Just a guess here, but APFS encryption is "fast" in that it's not encrypting the drive, it encrypts when things get written to disk, iirc vs CoreStorage encrypting everything up front. So won't see the percentage value.

If converting to APFS an existing HFS+ disk/volume, then probably would see the percentage as needs to encrypt any existing data on the drive.

Re: fdesetup: might also try "fdesetup status -extended" to see what is provided there. Seem to recall that that does percentages.

 

[400]

Had an interesting to do with encryption recently. If I encrypted apfs during erase on an external spinning it was almost instant. diskutil apfs list said nothing, all done, go home.

If I encrypted a hfs with or without data it will convert to apfs for encryption and "diskutil apfs list" would show the progress. It will take time.

Seeing as I had backups it was far quicker to erase with apfs encrypted then copy the files.

 

[wills11]

Just a guess here, but APFS encryption is "fast" in that it's not encrypting the drive, it encrypts when things get written to disk, iirc vs CoreStorage encrypting everything up front. So won't see the percentage value.

If converting to APFS an existing HFS+ disk/volume, then probably would see the percentage as needs to encrypt any existing data on the drive.

Re: fdesetup: might also try "fdesetup status -extended" to see what is provided there. Seem to recall that that does percentages.

Thanks for the reply! I tried the "-extended" flag, but no dice.

I really appreciate any info about APFS encryption, and what you said makes some sense because slow write speed on a brand new drive I encrypted is actually the reason for wanting to know how far along the process was.

But I have another external drive (this one SSD), and right after I erase and format as encrypted APFS, the write speed is terrible—but if I erase and format as normal APFS, both the write and read speed are nearly double (see attached photos from today).

And if this is true—that APFS encryption only occurs while writing—then do encrypted APFS drives always have slow write speeds?

My past experience suggests otherwise: I had two identical disks, and formatted one as HFS+ unencrypted, the other as APFS encrypted. The APFS drive had terrible speeds, but I was able to check on the encryption percent, and once it was completed, speeds were identical. That said, I don't remember if it was originally an HFS+ drive which I converted to APFS encrypted (per the other reply)—but it's possible.

So it's still a bit of a mystery to me—and unclear why there's not simple, clear information out there on how exactly this all works.

Appreciatively,

W.