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Brand new MacBook Pro and FileVault Encryption

Marcellus

Marcellus

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2011
65
5
Branford, CT
I am totally new to Mac computers, as I have only owned and used PC's. So
I literally turned on my new MacBook Pro 13 in. w/retina display this afternoon and followed the set up process on the screen. I agreed to FileVault encryption because I thought it would add another layer of security. At one point, I saw a message that said, "FileVault encryption paused. Plug in power adaptor to resume encryption." Well, the power adaptor is plugged in. In fact, it's green so the Mac is fully charged. Why would encryption still be paused if the power is plugged in? What can I do about it? Should I just turn off FileVault for now and resume set up? Thank you.
 
shbumc said:
Disable it and you Mac will get a lot faster.
Click to expand...

No it won't. Yes there's a performance penalty for FV, but its not all that much. Barely noticeable, in return your data is protected in case the the laptop is stolen.
 
shbumc said:
Disable it and you Mac will get a lot faster.
Click to expand...

The MacBook will not allow me to disable it. When I tried to turn off FileVault, a message pops up that says, "FileVault is encrypting your files. Wait until it's finish." There is no other option but to click "OK."
 
shbumc said:
Disable it and you Mac will get a lot faster.
Click to expand...

These days, the SSD controller does it for you on the fly. Almost no CPU usage or loss of speed.

----------
Marcellus said:
The MacBook will not allow me to disable it. When I tried to turn off FileVault, a message pops up that says, "FileVault is encrypting your files. Wait until it's finish." There is no other option but to click "OK."
Click to expand...

Just let it work. Leave it on overnight. It is encrypting every file one by one.
 
Problem solved! I brought the Mac to the Apple Store today for my first One-to-One training session. They wiped it clean and installed the latest operating system, which doesn't include the option of FileVault encryption. They said that FileVault has caused many problems so it was removed from the most recent Yosemite OS.
 
Marcellus said:
Problem solved! I brought the Mac to the Apple Store today for my first One-to-One training session. They wiped it clean and installed the latest operating system, which doesn't include the option of FileVault encryption. They said that FileVault has caused many problems so it was removed from the most recent Yosemite OS.
Click to expand...

Yosemite 10.10.2 is the most recent release, as far as I am aware of, and FileVault 2 is still an option.

Look in Preferences > Security > FileVault. It should be there. If not, what version of Yosemite are you running?
 
Others may chime in but I have had a little more experience with this same issue because I've exchanged my rMBP 3 times in the past 2 weeks.

All 3 gave me the power adapter ordeal. I immediatley reformatted and reinstalled Yosemite from internet recovery with all 3 laptops, all 3 times FileVault was successful to finish once I did that.

Trick seems to be to immediatley reinstall OS X unless you want to gamble with the factory install.

Seems to be a lot of faulty installs going around, this is a very popular topic around the boards.

So pretty much take laptop out of box, turn on, and immediately hold CMD+R and reinstall.
 
Marcellus said:
They said that FileVault has caused many problems so it was removed from the most recent Yosemite OS.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I'm on Yosemite, I have File Vault 2 enabled an I'm not experiencing any issues. Its a personal presence thing, but I prefer protecting my data - if the laptop is ever stolen the thief will have access to all your files, which in my case is my taxes, personal documents, bank information etc. I'd rather not have that sort of data easily accessible.
 
I second this. No issues with mine either. However, I do suggest a conservative approach with doing any such major system changes. Get used to your new MB, get all of your profile items organized, get several time machine backups on an external disk then you can do FileVault.


maflynn said:
FWIW, I'm on Yosemite, I have File Vault 2 enabled an I'm not experiencing any issues. Its a personal presence thing, but I prefer protecting my data - if the laptop is ever stolen the thief will have access to all your files, which in my case is my taxes, personal documents, bank information etc. I'd rather not have that sort of data easily accessible.
Click to expand...
 
I dislike how the FDE is implemented though. I prefer the Bitlocker method where it asks for your DISK & USER password
 
Marcellus said:
Problem solved! I brought the Mac to the Apple Store today for my first One-to-One training session. They wiped it clean and installed the latest operating system, which doesn't include the option of FileVault encryption. They said that FileVault has caused many problems so it was removed from the most recent Yosemite OS.
Click to expand...

It is still there and the Apple Store employee is misinformed.

Just from reading the forums here, it appears the users having trouble are those that turned FV2 on as part of setup and not after setup and from within a logged in account. I have not seen users having troubles turning FV2 on after system setup.

If you have data on there you care at all about securing, I would turn on FV2 from the Security & Privacy pane in System Prefs. Just make sure you are on AC power and leave it like that until it is done.
 
I had this problem on my brand new rMBP. I have mentioned it on another thread.

But quickly when turning on the brand new machine for the first time it would during in set up, ask if you wanted to encrypt your hd. Choosing 'Yes' is what has caused the problem for many. If you encrypt your hd, the 'Mac' will give you a code to unlock it, should you wish to do so in the future. In my case I was never given a code at set up and it could not finish the process and I had the same message as the OP.

This has been a common problem for many new owners. Tech support told me that the best solution was to reinstall Yosemite and start from new.

After I did this I then went into 'System Preferences' and chose to encrypt my hd it worked perfectly, after it was nice enough to give me a code to unlock it again should I wish in the future :)
 
Marcellus said:
Problem solved! I brought the Mac to the Apple Store today for my first One-to-One training session. They wiped it clean and installed the latest operating system, which doesn't include the option of FileVault encryption. They said that FileVault has caused many problems so it was removed from the most recent Yosemite OS.
Click to expand...

not true...it's a core feature

glad you fixed the issue though
 
I had this problem and was preparing to reinstall everything when someone posted the easier answer today on the Apple Support community. Use Command +R to repair both disks (you will need to unlock the encrypted one but repair both disks - not the OS disk just the two Mactinosh HD disks.) Shutdown and reset SMC (hold down shift ctrl option then press and hold down power for 20 seconds). Wait a few seconds now restart with power attached. Open up the file vault settings in preferences and you will see it finish up the process - now you can turn it off or leave it running. I will add I have upgraded to 10.10.2 so I am not sure if you need to do that for this to work but nobody on the support community seemed to mention it.
 
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