Do You Use FileVault?

[Traverse]

I just wanted to ask how many "power" users use FileVault 2. (I say power because I know if you are a member of this forum than you probably are more tech savy/interested than the general public)

I used it the minute Lion came out, but I wonder if it is more trouble than it is worth. I don't really notice a slowdown but I worry about other issues.

For example, when I set up a new Mac I couldn't use Migration Assistant to transfer my old user because then I couldn't enable FV on the new computer. I had to make a new user and manual drag and drop my old Home folder contents and manually re-set my various system and app preferences. This is a glaring issue that I can't believe Apple left undressed.

Also, I wonder if enabling FV while you have one OS X partition will cause issue with other partitions created later.

Are you using it? Do you think it increases the potential for issues down the road?
I haven't enabled it yet on my rMBP since it causes issues with Time Machine...

 

[2984839]

Last time I was using OS X I had it enabled and had no issues. I don't trust it too much, but it seems to work well.

 

[Traverse]

Does anyone know if FV causes issues with Time Machine.

 

[Weaselboy]

I just wanted to ask how many "power" users use FileVault 2. (I say power because I know if you are a member of this forum than you probably are more tech savy/interested than the general public)

I used it the minute Lion came out, but I wonder if it is more trouble than it is worth. I don't really notice a slowdown but I worry about other issues.

For example, when I set up a new Mac I couldn't use Migration Assistant to transfer my old user because then I couldn't enable FV on the new computer. I had to make a new user and manual drag and drop my old Home folder contents and manually re-set my various system and app preferences. This is a glaring issue that I can't believe Apple left undressed.

Also, I wonder if enabling FV while you have one OS X partition will cause issue with other partitions created later.

Are you using it? Do you think it increases the potential for issues down the road?
I haven't enabled it yet on my rMBP since it causes issues with Time Machine...

I use it and it is one of the first things I do on a new Mac. Only trouble I ever had was there was a firmware update about a year ago that would not install with FV on, so I had to turn off FV then apply the update then turn FV back on. Other users at the time reported the same thing. Firmware updates since then I have not had this problem, so it looks like Apple fixed it.

I have used Migration Assistant with FV on and it worked fine. What trouble did you have?

Having FV on will prevent you from resizing the main partition like you normally can. So what you need to do is shrink the main partition first, then turn on FV, and after that you can add and remove other partitions in that free space just like you normally would.

Does anyone know if FV causes issues with Time Machine.

It causes no issues at all with Time Machine that I have ever seen. What is the issue you heard about?

 

[Traverse]

I use it and it is one of the first things I do on a new Mac. Only trouble I ever had was there was a firmware update about a year ago that would not install with FV on, so I had to turn off FV then apply the update then turn FV back on. Other users at the time reported the same thing. Firmware updates since then I have not had this problem, so it looks like Apple fixed it.

I have used Migration Assistant with FV on and it worked fine. What trouble did you have?

Having FV on will prevent you from resizing the main partition like you normally can. So what you need to do is shrink the main partition first, then turn on FV, and after that you can add and remove other partitions in that free space just like you normally would.


It causes no issues at all with Time Machine that I have ever seen. What is the issue you heard about?

When I replaced my old computers HDD with a SSD I had a Mavericks boot drive and formatted the drive after installation. Everything went fine, but when I tried to enable FV I got this:

FileVault Failed: Unable to create a new Core Storage logical volume group.

And you responded to me in that thread and said: "I think you may have gotten crossed up there when you imported that user account with FV already on. I bet it did not add that user to the allowed users able to open FV."

 

[Weaselboy]

And you responded to me in that thread and said: "I think you may have gotten crossed up there when you imported that user account with FV already on. I bet it did not add that user to the allowed users able to open FV."

Ah... I see what you mean. I thought you meant you had trouble importing old data to a new out of the box Mac using MA with FV on the old machine, because I have done that and it works fine.

 

[Traverse]

Ah... I see what you mean. I thought you meant you had trouble importing old data to a new out of the box Mac using MA with FV on the old machine, because I have done that and it works fine.

No, data is fine, but the straight forward user import doesn't work like it should.

But at least my new Mac has USB 3.0. It used to take 4 hours to backup and import data, now it takes like an hour and a half!

 

[Traverse]

I use it and it is one of the first things I do on a new Mac. Only trouble I ever had was there was a firmware update about a year ago that would not install with FV on, so I had to turn off FV then apply the update then turn FV back on. Other users at the time reported the same thing. Firmware updates since then I have not had this problem, so it looks like Apple fixed it.

I have used Migration Assistant with FV on and it worked fine. What trouble did you have?

Having FV on will prevent you from resizing the main partition like you normally can. So what you need to do is shrink the main partition first, then turn on FV, and after that you can add and remove other partitions in that free space just like you normally would.



It causes no issues at all with Time Machine that I have ever seen. What is the issue you heard about?

I can create other partitions after FV is enable correct? I've done this in the past. I want to create a temporary partition for testing purposes, but I will delete in a few weeks and want that space back. Can't I enable FV with my main partition, then partition a second drive and delete when i'm done? I don't want to loose a portion of my space.

 

[Weaselboy]

No, data is fine, but the straight forward user import doesn't work like it should.

But at least my new Mac has USB 3.0. It used to take 4 hours to backup and import data, now it takes like an hour and a half!

It does work fine and will import an account and all the data if you do it as part of a new system setup. The issue you had was because you set the machine up and turned on FV then after that tried to use Migration Assistant as I recall, and that won't work properly.

I can create other partitions after FV is enable correct? I've done this in the past. I want to create a temporary partition for testing purposes, but I will delete in a few weeks and want that space back. Can't I enable FV with my main partition, then partition a second drive and delete when i'm done? I don't want to loose a portion of my space.

If there is free space on the drive after FV is on, you can do whatever you want with it... add and resize or remove those partitions however you want. But once FV is on the partition it sits on is not resizable.

 

[Traverse]

It does work fine and will import an account and all the data if you do it as part of a new system setup. The issue you had was because you set the machine up and turned on FV then after that tried to use Migration Assistant as I recall, and that won't work properly.



If there is free space on the drive after FV is on, you can do whatever you want with it... add and resize or remove those partitions however you want. But once FV is on the partition it sits on is not resizable.

Okay, thank you for helping me out!

What was weird was that I connect my Time Machine during initial setup, but it was recognized. It's time to make a new one anyway.

Thanks again!

 

[maflynn]

I use it, because I don't want my data exposed and accessible if my laptop is stolen.