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FileVault is Apples biggest fail

Nonamegary

Nonamegary

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2018
4
1
I am stuck on the FileVault decryption becoming unresponsive. I noticed Abelton starting to tell me to f-off, then Logic Pro, so I started undoing the things I had done inside the preferences. I finally found out after 3 days of online references, I found the stubborn decryption the system is supposedly going through is the cause of the computer being useless.

Well after forums and using the terminal, I found this:

I used at 6am: sudo /usr/bin/fdesetup status the result was 87.22%
Leave it on all day
Come home from work, test it 87.22, so then put disable instead of status and I get, “ FileVault is already off”

Before I nuke the drive, does anyone have advise on how to proceed?

Update: after using the disabled code, and restarting 2 times, I noticed that the utility monitor was registering activity again. So given that the process probably corrupted the OS I’m going to use the recovery option and then the reinstall. Hopefully, that finally ends the dance of fire vault.

Update: hdd got the nuke. My conclusion is, don’t bother with firevault unless you only use your system for mediocre activities, and if you should find yourself using it and regretting it, consider the fact that iaw most complaints is that your system is going to fail and you will have to erase the drive.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
I don’t us FileVault, but I have in the past. If you have a ssd there will be no noticeable performance hit. I would not turn it on with a mechanical drive. That’s not to say people don’t have issues, however doing some digging there’s usually more to the story than people let on, like the computer was shut down during the encryption or decryption process or something along those lines.
 
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No problems here. I recently did a clean install and it took about 24 hours to complete. I have also seen it complete in 2 hours for me. Others have said it has taken them a week. I have never heard the system was unusable during the encryption process. I’m guessing you lost patience and tried to kill it in some unorthodox way. I don’t even know it’s on. Certainly not Apples biggest fail.
 
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I think one single experience is a little insufficient to draw a conclusion such as “FileVault is Apple biggest fail and isn’t worth using”. I have had some problems with it myself, but more a combination of issues (Apple’s fail, certainly) than it being fundamentally rubbish.

The first problem was I let the Mac restart to upgrade MacOS whilst FV was still encrypting in the background. This resulted in the OS becoming unbootable and I had to reinstall. Clearly this is either a bug whereby the upgrade should complete even when FV encryption is ongoing, or if it’s not meant to do so then it shouldn’t install updates while an encryption is ongoing.

Next time I set up FileVault it just took bloody ages. This was on a do-it-yourself Fusion Drive I created with the iMac’s original 1TB HDD and a 128GB SSD I installed, using a 9 year old quad core i5 with 16GB of RAM. I appreciate that’s not the fastest machine imaginable, but there was bugger all on the drive, just the OS. It took about 32 hours.

@OP. Did you try ‘fdesetup start’ after it said it was already off?
 
No
mazz0 said:
I think one single experience is a little insufficient to draw a conclusion such as “FileVault is Apple biggest fail and isn’t worth using”. I have had some problems with it myself, but more a combination of issues (Apple’s fail, certainly) than it being fundamentally rubbish.

The first problem was I let the Mac restart to upgrade MacOS whilst FV was still encrypting in the background. This resulted in the OS becoming unbootable and I had to reinstall. Clearly this is either a bug whereby the upgrade should complete even when FV encryption is ongoing, or if it’s not meant to do so then it shouldn’t install updates while an encryption is ongoing.

Next time I set up FileVault it just took bloody ages. This was on a do-it-yourself Fusion Drive I created with the iMac’s original 1TB HDD and a 128GB SSD I installed, using a 9 year old quad core i5 with 16GB of RAM. I appreciate that’s not the fastest machine imaginable, but there was bugger all on the drive, just the OS. It took about 32 hours.

@OP. Did you try ‘fdesetup start’ after it said it was already off?
Click to expand...

No I didn’t try that. It is isn’t a huge problem having to reinstall, it’s actually helpful in the end.

The comment above about more to the story is for sure correct.
 
Nonamegary said:
I am stuck on the FileVault decryption becoming unresponsive. I noticed Abelton starting to tell me to f-off, then Logic Pro, so I started undoing the things I had done inside the preferences. I finally found out after 3 days of online references, I found the stubborn decryption the system is supposedly going through is the cause of the computer being useless.

Well after forums and using the terminal, I found this:

I used at 6am: sudo /usr/bin/fdesetup status the result was 87.22%
Leave it on all day
Come home from work, test it 87.22, so then put disable instead of status and I get, “ FileVault is already off”

Before I nuke the drive, does anyone have advise on how to proceed?

Update: after using the disabled code, and restarting 2 times, I noticed that the utility monitor was registering activity again. So given that the process probably corrupted the OS I’m going to use the recovery option and then the reinstall. Hopefully, that finally ends the dance of fire vault.

Update: hdd got the nuke. My conclusion is, don’t bother with firevault unless you only use your system for mediocre activities, and if you should find yourself using it and regretting it, consider the fact that iaw most complaints is that your system is going to fail and you will have to erase the drive.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Been using it for years, never had an issue. I believe it is on by default these days with a new SSD based Mac. Backups, multiple types (TimeMachine, iCloud, Backblaze...etc) are always your friend in a time of need.
[doublepost=1525147868][/doublepost]
mazz0 said:
This was on a do-it-yourself Fusion Drive I created with the iMac’s original 1TB HDD and a 128GB SSD I installed, using a 9 year old quad core i5 with 16GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

Honestly I would expect it to fail with that FrakenHack setup.
 
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Nonamegary said:
The comment above about more to the story is for sure correct.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there usually is some user interference that bricks FV. When it is encrypting, it should not allow you to update the OS. Also, cancelling it mid stream can also take a while to undo. I do know that FV is not very good at telling you what it is doing accurately. People lose patience and often think it is hung up, again, because where it is at is often misleading or gives no indication. Like I said, I am guessing you may have done some of this, which is no excuse, it should enable and disable a bit smoother.

Never enable it during a clean install. Say no. Then after the clean install, update the OS though the App Store. I would then wait for Photo's, Mail and other tasks to finish indexing. This could take another day. After that, turn it on and it should encrypt pretty quickly.
 
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