FileVault problem

[tetramed]

HI, i got a problem with my FileVault-protectet "private" folder.

It is now taking up to 30 G of harddiskspace (as measured with "WhatSize") alltough it doesent contain nearly as much data. FileVault used to ask before shutdown wheter to free harddiskspace that it didnt need anymore, but that question dindtn pop up the last cuple of time.

So i guess, thats the problem.. Is there a way i can get FileVault to free unneedet HD-space? I tried system configurations but didnt find anything..

any help would be great! Thanks

 

[mad jew]

Hmm... Try turning FileVault off, logging out and then in again, and then re-enabling FileVault.

As a side note, I find FileVault is particularly buggy and a quick look 'round this forum and sites like it have many problems that are sourced from FileVault crapping out on someone. I personally think an encrypted sparse disk image for your secret data is safer, but if you insist on using FileVault then ensure everything is backed up correctly, and not encrypted by FileVault (on the backup).

 

[synth3tik]

encryption software scares me.

Two things can go wrong
A) I can forget the password.

B) The software could crap out.

But, what Mad Jew said makes sense and should fix your problem. maybe before enabling it again you could set up a back up that is not encrypted, that way if next time FileVault freaks you will know that you data is backed up away from FileVault.

 

[tetramed]

thanks madjew for your advice, i also think FileVault is a not so well thoght out piece of software..

as an example, to turn of Filevault, enough free memory to backup the whole folder is recuired (30G), but with that swollen up folder (due to the lack of freeing unused space), there is not enough space left on my 60G HD (macbook).

So.. how to turn of FileVault now? Even if I erase/export all other content on my HD it would not have enough capacitiy for that Filevault - Folder to backup...

???

 

[mad jew]

Here's how to turn it off. Use Disk Utility to create a disk image with sparse capacity and "security options" such that it's encrypted. It's safer than having FileVault running.

 

[brkirch]

Hmm... Try turning FileVault off, logging out and then in again, and then re-enabling FileVault.

As a side note, I find FileVault is particularly buggy and a quick look 'round this forum and sites like it have many problems that are sourced from FileVault crapping out on someone. I personally think an encrypted sparse disk image for your secret data is safer, but if you insist on using FileVault then ensure everything is backed up correctly, and not encrypted by FileVault (on the backup).

It seems FileVault may have creating sparse images with the older, less robust (for sparse images) encryption encoding before OS X 10.4.7. Here's an excerpt from the manual page for hdiutil:

-imagekey encrypted-encoding-version can select between version 1 and version 2 of the encrypted encoding. The framework preferences have a corresponding key to change the default for all images. Version 2 is not compatible with OS X 10.2 but is more robust for SPARSE images. Version 1 is the default for non-sparse images. As of OS X 10.4.7, sparse, encrypted images will always use version 2.

This could explain why people have had such problems with FileVault, maybe if you created your FileVault account with 10.4.7 or later it is less likely to have problems?

Anyway to manually recover space from your FileVault account, logout of it, login to another account (it must be an admin account), open the terminal, type "sudo hdiutil compact ", go back to Finder and open Users, then open the folder for the FileVault account. There should be a sparseimage file in the account folder, drag that onto the terminal window, click on the terminal window and hit return. Type in the password of the account you are logged into and hit return, then type in the password of the FileVault account and hit return.

 

[mad jew]

That's exactly right. Disabling and re-enabling FileVault should have the same effect, but your solution is neater. FWIW, I'd still avoid FileVault like the plague.