File Vault decryption problem

Hi guys,
I'm running 2013 2.6GHz i5 13' MBP on 10.9
I have trouble unlocking my 2TB WD external drive.
I have encrypted it with disk utilities when i formated it 4 months ago.
Everything worked fine up to this moment.
I cannot unlock it, but my pasword is 100% fine.
It keeps on shacking on me like the password is wrong.
I used terminal to unlock it, and it seemd like the passphrase was fine, but there is some sort of error.
MacBook-Pro-Jan:~ JRK$ diskutil cs unlockVolume 105D836C-7502-43AF-A779-88A6A2D4039D
Passphrase:
Started CoreStorage operation
Logical Volume successfully unlocked
Logical Volume successfully attached as disk2
Error: -69842: Couldn't mount disk
I have tried to unlock it on other machine running 10.8 but it kept on disregarding my passcode.
Is there a way I can have my data back?
I tried to repir the disk with diskutil, but it didn't work out.
Please help

Why do you have to turn off file vault encryption? Log into the old machine. Boot the new machine in Target Disk Mode and connect it. Copy your files to the new machine. You may have to repair permissions when you are done, but it shouldn't be too bad. Don't try to copy directly into your home directory. Copy the files to a neutral place, then log into the new machine, and copy them to where they should go.
But, before you do this, are you running file vault on your new machine? If so, stop now and turn that off. It sounds like your files are important. You don't want to trust them to FileVault.
Filevault is a clever hack - no more. It got out of control and people started putting Music libraries and iMovie productions in it and it just can't handle that.
Create an encrypted disk image on your new machine for your sensitive files. Copy all those files into that image. If the names of the files aren't sensitive, you can even create aliases to the files inside the disk image. Then, when you double-click on the alias, it will prompt you for a password, mount the disk image, and open the file.

Similar Messages

Time-Machine Backup of File-Vaulted Account - Problem?

This is the situation:
I have to install the last good backup from Time-Machine. I did this but my drive was encrypted using File-Vault.
Now I cannot get past the login to my account at startup!!!!
My password is CORRECT.
I am the only user.
The login will take my password but will not progress any further past the following error message:
"Unable to log into the File-Vault Account "....." at this time. An error has occurred."
Has anybody out there heard of this happening? Does anybody see a picture of what is going on - or what could be done?
Can I ever get back my old account (complete with emails/apps/keychain/doc etc?????!!)
Regards
Greg.

O.K - So I'm now up and running again with a new installation. The Factory default installation disk has been installed.
I still have my Time-machine backup on my portable drive. The applications folder is accesible. All of my old apps are still there even though it was an encrypted HD. However, everything else is missing! iPhoto's !!!! Work documents! movies! itunes downloads etc etc...nothing in my old home folder and personal libraries are there - just the encrypted files.
Any ideas from here?

File vault hung decrypting...

I was turning off file vault on my MacBook pro (10.7.3), and it seems to be hung. After turning off file vault it said that it was decrypting my home folder. I knew this could take some time, so I left the machine for a while.
It has now been stuck at the same screen for over 12 hours.
It says:
File Vault
Decrypting<username>'s home folder
Preparing...
What will happen if I power cycle the device? Is there a good chance of losing all my data?

Back up all data before proceeding. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select Disk Utility.
In the Disk Utility window, select the icon of the startup volume from the list on the left. It will be nested below another disk icon, usually with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar. When prompted, enter the login password of a user authorized to unlock the volume, or the alternate decryption key that was generated when you activated FileVault.
Then, from the menu bar, select
File ▹ Turn Off Encryption
Enter the password again.
You can then restart as usual, if the system is working. Decryption will be completed in the background. It may take several hours, and during that time performance will be reduced.
If you can't turn off encryption in Disk Utility because the menu item is grayed out, you'll have to erase the volume and then restore the data from a backup. Select the Erase tab, and then select
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
from the Format menu.
You can then quit to be returned to the main Recovery screen. Follow these instructions if you back up with Time Machine. If you use other backup software, follow its developer's instructions.
Don't erase the volume unless you have at least two complete, independent backups. One is not enough to be safe.

File Vault issues. How can I turn it off?

After reading all about the issues people have been having with File Vault and because the constant encrypting-decrypting is slowing down my computer, I decided to turn File Vault off.
There's just one problem. I can't. Every time I try to turn off File Vault, the computer logs off, starts the operation, then I get the following error message:
"An error occurred during decryption ( An error occurred during copying ), FileVault will be turned on for this home folder and the home folder will still be encrypted."
In seeing explanations in other discussions regarding File Vault, the first thing I noticed was that I may not have had enough space to do the decryption, so I got an external hard drive, copied the contents of each of the folders inside my encrypted hard drive to the external drive (thus decrypting them), then deleted them from the internal hard drive. Then I shut the computer down to allow File Vault to re-claim the disk space. I was ultimately able to bring the free space on my hard drive to about 195 GB, with only about 35 GB in use. I continued to get the error.
Next, I repaired permissions, then verified the disk. I found a volume structure error which could not be repaired by Disk Utility, but I had Disk Warrior, which had no problem repairing it. Unfortunately, I still get the error when trying to turn File Vault off.
At this point, it is pretty safe to assume that the initial Volume Structure error caused the File Vault decryption error, and repairing it will not fix the issue. From continued reading, it would seem the next course of action is to completely back up my home folder, install the OS fresh, then manually import the data. Is there an easy way to do this? I have a lot of installed applications and settings that I don't want to go through the trouble of re-installing and re-setting.
Would it work if I set up a new user account, manually migrated the data copied to the external drive, tested to see if the new user account was working, then deleted the encrypted one?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Would it work if I set up a new user account, manually migrated the data copied to the external drive, tested to see if the new user account was working, then deleted the encrypted one
I think that's worth trying first - you could always fall back on the OS erase and install if it doesn't work out.
I would do a GetInfo on the external drive and check the Ignore Ownership box at the bottom, in order to avoid any permission problems when copying back.

Enabling File Vault

Wow it looks like I avoided a lot of trouble with the File Vault Death problem by just doing an erase and install. However, I'm trying to enable File Vault on my newly created user account and I keep getting an error message saying that I cannot enable it because the "home folder" is not an Mac OS Extended format volume.
Now I know that's false since I made sure that the hard drive was reformatted to an Extended format volume when I installed. Anyone else having this problem? If so, has anyone figured out a solution? My only one would be to reinstall Leopard again, but I really do not want to have to do that if I can avoid it.

Could it be possible, that the GUID filesystem is responsible for this misbehaviour? I think, before I've changed the HDD in my MacBook Pro the original Apple HDD had an Apple filesystem and it was possible to enable FileVault. Now I have built in an Western Digital WDC WD2500BEVS-00UST0 and it isn't possible.
HTH and kind regards, Friedrich

File Vault problem!! Help!!

Ok I'm not entirely sure how file vault works or even what it's exact purpose is! All I know is that is seems to free up some space on my hard drive!
My problem is that my file vault doesn't seem to be working anymore. I've checked to make sure that it's turned on but after that I'm lost.
I'm running Leopard (latest version), but using Time Capsule or anything like that.
File Vault used to come up when I was turning off my Macbook off, it no longer does! I want it back!!! Help!!!

Shane,
Why would you mess with a feature without understanding what it's for? Filevault is a form of disk encryption. It protects your home folder by encrypting and decrypting the contents on the fly, as your computer needs it.
It does not "free up disk space." And if FileVault is on in system preferences, then it's working. It runs in the background, so you shouldn't see any indication that it's running as you use your computer. It should simply prompt you for a password at login, and after that, it just works.
Be forewarned: if you forget your password, your data will be unrecoverable. Be careful with FileVault.

Install new hard drive, restore from Time Machine, File Vault Problems

Hello all,
I spent way too much time on this seemingly simple task, so I thought I would share my experience with others so they can avoid some pitfalls when upgrading a hard drive in a system that uses File Vault 2 encryption. The basic goal here is to replace a drive in a system that has only one drive, and the OS is Mavericks, and then have the new drive encrypted as before.
The problem is that a Time Machine restore onto a new drive will leave that without a Recovery Partition, which is required for File Vault 2 and some other important things. So we need to build a recovery partition. There are possibly several ways to do this.
Here's what worked for me (this is compiled from many sources that I found and already closed the tabs in my browser so I can't list all my sources):
1) Make a full backup to an external hard drive using Time Machine.
2) Go into the App Store and download OS X Mavericks but dont install it (close the window when it pops up asking to continue the install). Do this even if you already have Mavericks. At this point, there will be a folder in your Applications folder called Install OS X Mavericks (or similar).
3) Insert a USB drive that is at least 8 GB and format it using Disk Utility, naming it the default "Untitled".
4) Open a terminal and type
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
5) Wait for this to finish (took me about 30 min). Eject the USB drive and power down.
6) Remove the old hard drive and set it aside. Keep it for a few weeks until you know the new drive is working as expected.
7) Install the new hard drive and insert the USB drive. Hold the option key and press the power button. Choose to boot from the USB installer.
8) Use the disk utility to erase whatever partition shipped with the new drive, replacing it with a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) system. Verify that GUID is the partition type (in Advanced options).
9) Close the disk utility and install Mavericks. This can take a long time. My new drive is an SSD, and it sat at the "1 second remaining" part for about 20 min. Let it reboot (maybe it was 2 times?) and go through the setup until it finishes the install.
10) Boot into the freshly installed OS and open a terminal and type:
diskutil list
11) If there is a partition listed as Apple_Boot Recovery HD (mine was 650 MB), then you now have a recovery partition. If not, then go into the App store and download Mavericks, but don't use the USB this time, choose to do a regular install (or reinstall to be more correct).
12) Now there will be a recovery partition on the new drive and Time Machine will not overwrite it when restoring. Power down the system.
13) Plug in the Time Machine backup drive used in step 1. Press the option key and power on. Choose to boot from the recovery partiton (Mavericks).
14) Choose to restore from Time Machine backup. Wait until it finishes and log into the old familiar account.
15) Start a terminal and verify the recovery partition is still there (type diskutil list and see that the Apple_Boot Recovery HD is there). If it's missing, choose to download Mavericks from the App Store again and run the installation from this one.
16) Once there is a Mavericks recovery partition on the restored data you can simply turn on File Vault from the System Preferences Security section. It will require a reboot and then you login and wait for it to finish.
What a major pain to go through all of this for the sake of upgrading a hard drive. This should not be anywhere near as complicated. I hope this helps others avoid the very time consuming trial and error I went through in developing this procedure.

Talked with Apple last night. Everything we did to restore lost images failed to fix the issue. I did have the images still on my camera's SD card so I was not breaking out in a cold sweat.
All Time Machine backups showed the same issue. HOWEVER, I suddenly remembered I also had a SuperDuper backup and voila. The images were there.
Moral of the story: you can't ever be too rich or have too many backups (I also have an offsite backup).

Problem with file vault

One of the desktops on my macbook 2007 steel case will not open.
The message i get on screen at login is that there is a problem with file vault.
my dissertation is on that desktop.
all other desktops/user accounts are unaffected and i have admin permissions on them
i recently upgraded to osx 10.9.4
how can i get back in?
chaiman 22

If you restored the account to which the FileVault protected Home folder belonged, then you need to log into that account and enable FileVault.
If you just need access to the data in the FV protected Home folder, then locate the sparsebundle disc image file that contains the encrypted folder. Double-click on it as if to mount it. You will then need to enter the FV password associated with the account to gain access (this is NOT the admin nor login password.)

Problem with File Vault account after restoring from Time Machine Backup

my old 13" macbook 2.4 running OS X 10.5.4 was recently stolen and I've purchased a refurbished 13" macbook pro 2.66 running OS X 10.6. On booting up for the first time I restored from my Time machine backup (via setup assistant) and opted for migration of all files, applications, user profiles etc.
My main user (with admin privileges) is normally encrypted with File Vault but when I've tried to log in it's coming up with error(3) message. any ideas as to the problem and how to fix?

Hroodbwai wrote:
I can't find it! not sure what's going on but the only folder shown is the " Shared" folder.
Did you have only the one user account? If there were others, they should also be in the "Users" folder. You probably won't have access to the files inside them, but they should be there.
From what can make out, it looks like it's not backed up any of the files for the filevault account. Can't see user folder when looking through previous backups in Time Machine galaxy view.
Are you doing that from a Finder window set to your internal HD, or your computer name? It should look something like this (with the Finder in List view):
|
|
I'd been logging out and backing up manually on a regular basis.
Scheduled backups should run normally; but they won't back up the File Vault sparse bundle, nor will any run manually.
The only time it's backed-up is when you actually log out.
You should have seen this window on logout:
|
|
followed by this one:
|
|
If you didn't see the second one, or cancelled it, the account wasn't backed-up.

File Vault encryption locked up. No progress for 24 hrs. If I restore from a non-encypted back-up will this cause problems?

Started file vault yesterday and no progress for 24 hrs. If I do a Command-R restore from a non-encrypted back-up will this cause problems?

You first must repartition and reformat the drive before restoring your backup.
Install or Reinstall OS X from Scratch
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
      the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
           because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should install the version of OS X that you had installed.

I am having a problem installing File Vault. Encryption goes halfway

I am having a problem with File Vault encryption. Halfway through encryption I receive an error message stating that there is a problem with the encryption thus halting the process. When I try to restart the process I keep receiving a messsage saying that I cannot turn on File Vault without restarting the computer giving me the impression that I will never be able to use File Vault.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Select any messages timestamped from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first. Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

2006 iMac running OS10.7.5 with File Vault problem stops boot up?

2006 iMac running OS10.7.5 with File Vault problem stops boot up? Upon login this message appears: Your home folder, which is protected by File Vault, didn't open. it needs to be repaired.
It then asks: To repair the folder and continue logging in press OK. To log in as a different user, click Cancel login.
Clicking Ok
You are unable to log in to the user account "xxxxxxxxxxx" at this time.
Logging in to this account failed because an error occurred.
When I click cancel to log in as different user I get he following message: You are unable to log in to the user account "xxxxxxxxxxx" at this time.
Logging in to this account failed because an error occurred.

This condition is quite difficult and time-consuming to recover from. If the procedure suggested here is too complicated for your experience level, get help from someone more experienced. One option is to make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store. Legacy FileVault should not be used under OS X 10.7 or later.
If you have another user account with administrator status and can do so, log in to it and skip to Step 4.
Step 1
Boot into Recovery mode. The OS X Utilities screen will appear.
Step 2
Select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. In the window that opens, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Select your boot volume if not already selected. Pull down the menu labeled Select the user account and select
System Administrator (root)
Follow the prompts to set a password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
Step 3
At the login screen, click Other... Enter "root" (without the quotes) in the Name field, and enter the password you set in Step 4 in the Password field. You should now be logged in. Do nothing while logged in as root except as indicated below.
Open the Users & Groups preference pane. Create a new user and check the box marked
Allow user to administer this computer
Restart and log in as the new user.
Step 4
Load this web page in Safari.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
sudo dscl . -delete users/fubar HomeDirectory
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the TextEdit application. Paste into the window (command-V). Substitute the short name of the FileVault user for the word "fubar".
Triple-click the edited line and again copy to the Clipboard.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window. When prompted, enter the password of the user you're logged in as.
Step 5
You should now be able to log out and log in as the FileVault user. Your files still won't be available. FileVault is inactive.
Locate the disk image file named "fubar.sparsebundle" or "fubar.sparseimage" at the top level of your home folder. Again, substitute the short user name for "fubar".
Step 6
Try to open the file. If it won't open, try to repair it in Disk Utility. If it still won't open, restore it from your most recent backup. Keep trying older backups until you find one that works. If you don't have a backup, the data is lost, perhaps beyond any hope of recovery. There's a slight chance that you might be able to repair the disk image using an expensive third-party application called "Disk Warrior."
Step 7
Copy the files from the mounted disk image to the corresponding subfolders of your home folder. The Library folder is invisible in the Finder. Open it by holding down the option key and selecting
Go ▹ Library
from the Finder menu bar. Open the copy on the disk image by selecting
Go ▹ Go to Folder
and entering
/Volumes/fubar/Library
in the text box that opens. Again, substitute the correct name for "fubar".
Log out and log back in.
If there isn't enough disk space available to complete this step, unmount the disk image, copy the disk image file to an external storage device, delete the original, and try again.
Step 8
Back up all data, then delete the disk image file.
Step 9
Delete the user you created in Step 3, if applicable.
Step 10 (optional, but recommended)
Follow the instructions in this support article under the heading "Disable the root user."

Time Machine and File Vault problems

Hi,
Since I converted to Mac more than a year ago, I turned my file vault on (although I learned in the meantime that it is not actually necessary....)
I now recently bought the time Capsule and found out that the Time Machine doesn't go well with the File Vault turned on. It does back up the home folder only when logged out and I don't get the hourly backups for single files either.
I then tried to turn File Vault off, but get the error message that I haven't got enough space on my hard disk (which I have). This message led me to this article here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1974
I am really not an expert and not too confident to play around with accounts, backups and so on, so I really don't want to go down the described route.
For me, it looks like a bug in OS X, I should be able to turn File Vault off with the click of a button. Also, why is the File Vault / Time Machine conflict nowhere mentioned ? I was playing round with TM to recover a single file, but this wasn't possible, that's why I went to explore the issue further...
I now just want to turn off File Vault and finally want to use my TC normally.
Who can help ?
Message was edited by: Mike201071

....so, it seems to work now.
I did eventually go through the routine of backing up my home folder manually on the TC, then I created a new account, copied everything back, deleted the old account, and so on, as described in the link above.
I did not turn on the File Vault, activated TM and backed the whole lot up via Ethernet, switched back to wireless and TM seems to do the trick now.
I have now access to single folders and files when I go back in time in TM, instead of the whole backup only.
This seems to be the only way TM & TC are working properly, why is this conflict between File Vault and TM nowhere mentioned ?

Problems with snow leopard and file vault

I just installed snow leopard on my macbook. When I try to log on, I get a message "your home folder is protected by file vault and didn't open, it needs to be repaired. To repair folder and continue logging in click ok." When I click ok, I get the message "You are unable to log in to the user account at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred."
How do you turn off the file vault if you can't log in? Any solutions are greatly appreciated.

Boot to safe mode by holding the Shift key on boot.
Then you can turn filevault off and reboot normally.

File Vault Won't Decrypt - operation fails in final minutes

I'm trying to turn off file vault. File vault said I didn't have enough room on my hard drive so I followed Apple's instructions to go into safe mode, make a sparse disk image on an ext drive and then drag and drop the encrypted home folder into the disk image. At the last moment I get an error code -50 which says the operation couldn't be completed b/c of an unexpected error. I've retried this on other ext. drives, USB2 and FW just to eliminate some variables. They all failed in a similar manner
Next I cloned the entire HD to the ext. Then I booted from the ext and tried to turn off file vault that way. The clone went fine, and I went through the steps to turn off file vault. File vault started to unencrypt then with about 10 min until finished I get the same -50 error.
Is there anything left to do here? Is there some file that is tripping the process up?

Try these:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1872713
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25773
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301416
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303617
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305454
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1908.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1877.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1166826&tstart=0
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050326041757989

File Vault decryption problem

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