FileVault Problem

[MarkW19]

I'm having issues with FileVault on my MacBook Pro.

I have 4 user accounts, and I've successfully enabled FileVault on 3 of them, but it won't enable on my main (admin) account.

It starts encrypting, and gets about 10% in, then an error comes up saying "There was an error during encryption (an error occurred during copying), FileVault will be turned off for this account".

I'm then taken back to the login screen.

I've tried this probably 10 times, and it always does exactly the same thing. I've been on the phone to an "expert" at Apple about it, for around 2 hours, but they're completely useless.

Can anyone help?

[iBlue]

Unless your computer has very sensitive data which is at risk for being physically stolen I wouldn't use file vault. In fact, not even then. File Vault is bad! Countless problems have occurred using it and often when it wasn't even necessary.

just my two pennies though.

[MarkW19]

Unless your computer has very sensitive data which is at risk for being physically stolen I wouldn't use file vault. In fact, not even then. File Vault is bad! Countless problems have occurred using it and often when it wasn't even necessary.

just my two pennies though.

I do have sensitive data, and I use a MacBook Pro for live music, sometimes when I have no option but to leave it on stage out of my sight ("guarded" by security), so yes I do want some

I'd just like to get to the bottom of why it won't encrypt my account, but it will all the others.

Can you recommend another similar solution then (seamless, entire home dir. encrypted/decrypted automatically when logging in/out etc.)?

Thanks.

[live4ever]

You might not have enough room on your drive. How big is the admin account? I think you'll need more than double that for free space, also there might be a corrupt file. Does it always stop at 10% every time?

[chrisbeebops]

Try moving your large media files to a temporary folder outside of your home directory (another place on the drive or even on an external drive). Get your home directory to be as small as possible. Enable FileVault, and then move all of your media files back into your home directory.

[MarkW19]

You might not have enough room on your drive. How big is the admin account? I think you'll need more than double that for free space, also there might be a corrupt file. Does it always stop at 10% every time?

Yeah, it stops at the exact same point (about 10%) every time.

My admin account (home folder) is 35gb, and I have 50gb free on my hard drive.

Try moving your large media files to a temporary folder outside of your home directory (another place on the drive or even on an external drive). Get your home directory to be as small as possible. Enable FileVault, and then move all of your media files back into your home directory.

I'll give that a shot, that will mean that when I move the files back, they'll also be encrypted when I log out, won't it?

[MarkW19]

Can anyone suggest a similar alternative to FileVault?

[MarkW19]

Anyone?

A lot are saying FileVault has problems, and is basically no good - so, do you have any suggestions for something better that I can use?

I need to protect my data, as it's on a MacBook Pro, mainly used for music, which I have to leave set up on stage a lot of the time, sometimes unattended (or with a slack security guy "keeping an eye" on it), as well as using it in other potentially vulnerable situations, so I do need a decent security solution.

It's so annoying that 2 of my accounts have FileVault activated with absolutely no problems, and my refuses to encrypt all the time.

Can anyone help?

[iBlue]

I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations on other apps that will accomplish the same thing. The only suggestion I have is selecting the more sensitive data and placing it in an encrypted disk image. (you can do that in disk utility, pretty easy. password protect it, don't save password in keychain, etc) the only trouble is that you're limited to 500MB per disk image so you may need a few and it's a good idea to keep backups of them because sometimes they can become corrupt (rare, but it happens and it's not fun to lose data) I have done this for things I know I want to keep private on my computers and it works pretty well. Obviously I am unsure if this is something that could do the trick for you or not but it's a thought.

[MarkW19]

I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations on other apps that will accomplish the same thing. The only suggestion I have is selecting the more sensitive data and placing it in an encrypted disk image. (you can do that in disk utility, pretty easy. password protect it, don't save password in keychain, etc) the only trouble is that you're limited to 500MB per disk image so you may need a few and it's a good idea to keep backups of them because sometimes they can become corrupt (rare, but it happens and it's not fun to lose data) I have done this for things I know I want to keep private on my computers and it works pretty well. Obviously I am unsure if this is something that could do the trick for you or not but it's a thought.

Thanks for the reply, yeah that would be one get-around.

But, I'm also concerned about someone actually getting into my account - using Safari, all my username/passwords are auto filled in, so they don't even need to know the passwords if they have physical access. They could also see and send from my emails, etc. I'd much rather just protect the whole thing and get to the bottom of why it refuses to encrypt more than 10% of my admin account, before it displays the error!

Hmm...

[iBlue]

Understood. Sorry I don't know of a solution. I did a quick google and couldn't find a reasonable answer there either.

I'm sure you're already aware of this but just in case: When you leave the laptop unattended be sure to sign out of it or even then file vault won't be much help if it's stolen.

I hope someone comes along with better ideas than I can give on it.

[coolbits]

Make up a very strong password for your account and put "no access" permissions for other users (everybody) on your home folder.
That should be unough...

[MarkW19]

Make up a very strong password for your account and put "no access" permissions for other users (everybody) on your home folder.
That should be unough...

"Everyone" has no access on my home folder, "Staff" has rw.

I have a strong password, but I'd still feel better knowing that if my MacBook did get stolen, I'd be much better protected by having everything encrypted too...

[coolbits]

http://www.truecrypt.org/

[glasserp]

I guess one way to further protect your computer would be to set an open firmware password. It's pretty easy.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
If you're using leopard you'll have to use your install disc.

[MarkW19]

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Truecrypt looks great, but its website says it can only encrypt (entire) Windows systems, not Mac OS...

[tip]

PointSec are about to release their full disk encryption product for OSX. This is full disk encryption, including pre-boot authentication, etc. It works similarly as their Windows (as well as Linux) version. Just something to consider ...

[coolbits]

Truecrypt looks great, but its website says it can only encrypt (entire) Windows systems, not Mac OS...

I think you could create an encrypted container for your files... :)

Or even better... get an external disk and do a volume encryption... then move your files over... thats what i would do :)

[MarkW19]

PointSec are about to release their full disk encryption product for OSX. This is full disk encryption, including pre-boot authentication, etc. It works similarly as their Windows (as well as Linux) version. Just something to consider ...

Sounds interesting - any ideas when the Mac version is coming out?

[liquidous]

Make up a very strong password for your account and put "no access" permissions for other users (everybody) on your home folder.
That should be unough...


laptop case was stolen out of my car over the weekend.
and time machine backups saved me from crying after i went and bought a new machine , upon load up time machine recovered everything.

however, i was concered to find out that anyone can take a 10.5 osx disc and bypass any user account that is on the mbp. this is somewhat BS isn't it?

you would think these unix like apples would have better security. my last T61P Thinkpad had biometric, bios password, and hard drive startup password and windows password. what gives?

[coolbits]

If your laptop gets stolen for its contents (your files) then even encryption isnt unbreacable if someone wants your files badly...

Anyway i was talking about stealing files... not whole laptop...