MP 1,1-5,1 Odd APFS encryption issue stuck at 10%

[monkeybagel]

Hi All,

I have an APFS volume named Photos (disk4s1) that will not mount, states it is locked, and is stuck at 10% encrypting. When I enter what I think is the correct password, its status changes to "Not Locked" however it is still inaccessible and will not mount, and yet continues to request the password.

In summary as of right now, the encryption process is on hold at 10%, and when provided the passphrase the only change is the status is changed to "Not Locked" but it is still unmountable. I have been adding some SSDs to the 5,1, so I wonder if the APFS containers are confused. Below is the output from diskutil apfs list:

Any ideas would be appreciated. I think they are backed up at another location, but would like to make sure before nuking it.

OS is OS X 13.6

APFS Containers (2 found)
|
+-- Container disk4 A1DE4A59-3F3E-42FF-B9E8-4F0F5EE98D3A
|   ====================================================
|   APFS Container Reference:     disk4
|   Size (Capacity Ceiling):      499898105856 B (499.9 GB)
|   Minimum Size:                 432285138944 B (432.3 GB)
|   Capacity In Use By Volumes:   418872348672 B (418.9 GB) (83.8% used)
|   Capacity Not Allocated:       81025757184 B (81.0 GB) (16.2% free)
|   |
|   +-< Physical Store disk3s2 CDE95F1F-DD6A-49DB-B827-3D20B4C276BC
|   |   -----------------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk3s2
|   |   Size:                       499898105856 B (499.9 GB)
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk4s1 85FA2D59-D5BC-3138-814E-D12F3931B5EA
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk4s1 (No specific role)
|   |   Name:                      Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               /
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         418171416576 B (418.2 GB)
|   |   FileVault:                 No
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk4s2 AA924795-D829-47AB-937F-8D4D45796334
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk4s2 (Preboot)
|   |   Name:                      Preboot (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         22835200 B (22.8 MB)
|   |   FileVault:                 No
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk4s3 8AE257B4-1FE9-48D4-899E-EFA01F0C54E7
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk4s3 (Recovery)
|   |   Name:                      Recovery (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         516636672 B (516.6 MB)
|   |   FileVault:                 No
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk4s4 65942F62-9BA1-4159-8D47-D548C2E109EF
|       ---------------------------------------------------
|       APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk4s4 (VM)
|       Name:                      VM (Case-insensitive)
|       Mount Point:               /private/var/vm
|       Capacity Consumed:         20480 B (20.5 KB)
|       FileVault:                 No
|
+-- Container disk5 446E8473-7E86-43BF-921D-D269EC709523
    ====================================================
    APFS Container Reference:     disk5
    Size (Capacity Ceiling):      545322434560 B (545.3 GB)
    Minimum Size:                 501800501248 B (501.8 GB)
    Capacity In Use By Volumes:   486274228224 B (486.3 GB) (89.2% used)
    Capacity Not Allocated:       59048206336 B (59.0 GB) (10.8% free)
    |
    +-< Physical Store disk2s3 F0392E12-EC4F-4813-949C-630C43DD5481
    |   -----------------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk2s3
    |   Size:                       545322434560 B (545.3 GB)
    |
    +-> Volume disk5s1 ED156B86-9EA0-3FFD-A17B-6AC79075328C
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk5s1 (No specific role)
    |   Name:                      Photos (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         485573386240 B (485.6 GB)
    |   Encryption Progress:       10.0% (Paused) (Locked)
    |
    +-> Volume disk5s2 DD55D97B-8FF9-4AFF-8B5A-51F152C0A076
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk5s2 (Preboot)
    |   Name:                      Preboot (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         23117824 B (23.1 MB)
    |   FileVault:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk5s3 04230FEE-B0BC-46F1-AF55-B385077BDEB5
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk5s3 (Recovery)
    |   Name:                      Recovery (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         512045056 B (512.0 MB)
    |   FileVault:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk5s4 71029C49-5995-4E0A-8374-F77827CD1779
        ---------------------------------------------------
        APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk5s4 (VM)
        Name:                      VM (Case-insensitive)
        Mount Point:               Not Mounted
        Capacity Consumed:         32768 B (32.8 KB)
        FileVault:                 No

 

[tommy chen]

there is not enough space to encrypt on the drive

 

[Flint Ironstag]

You'd be safe to perform the operation with ~500GB free space.

 

[Soba]

You'd be safe to perform the operation with ~500GB free space.

I believe this was only true in the case of Legacy Filevault (that is, when it still used disk images), but I don't believe this level of free disk space is required for the modern version of FileVault.

Even so @monkeybagel, I suspect your problem is caused by either low disk space or (less likely) some kind of disk error. I searched around and it looks like many people have had this problem, but no one was able to solve it; they all erased their disks or reloaded their systems entirely. I'm not sure there is a solution.

 

[tommy chen]

plug the drive on an different computer and recover how long it is possible