HFS-to-APFS dry run succeeded, actual conversion failed, error -69853, boot file not written

[grahamperrin]

Core Storage encrypted startup volume, upgraded to 17A264c from a pre-release build of 10.12.6. External hard disk drive, limited to USB 2.0 with a MacBookPro8,2.

After the upgrade I used Recovery OS Disk Utility to unlock the encrypted volume, then Terminal to perform a dry run of conversion to APFS. No problem with the dry run so I proceeded with a proper run.

Before conversion began:

Error -69853: boot file not written

The earliest reports of that Core Storage-related error were in 2011.

A 2014 blog post unicodemonkey's tumblr — Error: -69853: Boot file not written mentions third party drivers and the kernel extension cache. There can be no such driver issue with Recovery OS so I'll take a different approach.

I'll remove the volume from Core Storage world (turn off FileVault 2), then try Recovery OS Terminal diskutil conversion, to APFS, of the nonencrypted volume.

 

[nevheatley3]

I had to remove my boot camp partition, reboot to recovery, and do the conversion using disk utility in recovery for it to work.

 

[grahamperrin]

Did you have the same error, -69853?

Is your High Sierra startup volume encrypted with Core Storage, FileVault 2?

 

[nevheatley3]

Did you have the same error, -69853?

Is your High Sierra startup volume encrypted with Core Storage, FileVault 2?

I did have the same error, and did encrypt the volume after I finished the conversion. FYI: I went back to Sierra because of some Xcode issues and video inconsistencies.

 

[grahamperrin]

Thanks.

… did encrypt the volume after I finished the conversion. …

Was that as follows?

1. non-encrypted (or decrypted) HFS Plus
   
2. complete conversion from HFS Plus to APFS
   
3. Recovery OS
   
4. diskutil APFS encryptVolume (or use of Disk Utility) to begin encryption

 

[nevheatley3]

Thanks.



Was that as follows?

1. non-encrypted (or decrypted) HFS Plus
   
2. complete conversion from HFS Plus to APFS
   
3. Recovery OS
   
4. diskutil APFS encryptVolume (or use of Disk Utility) to begin encryption

1. encrypted HFS+ w/ Boot Camp
2. Install of High Sierra & "conversion" to APFS
3. Reboot / not converted
4. Recovery boot to convert with error received
5. Reboot to remove Boot Camp partition
6. Recovery boot to complete actual conversion
7. Reboot and added FileVault encryption