File vault process/interruption

If file vault is interrupted (computer turned off) is the data lost?

Depends on many factors.
How mych free space do you have on what size drive?
Try a Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

Similar Messages

I cannot find my saved text edit documents after interrupting file vault, where did they go?

Was file vault able to back up even though it was interrupted? Where does it go? Can I restore my computer to where it was before I tried using filevault? I think I have backed up my computer with iCloud previously.

Is FileVault on or off?
Do you have any backups besides what is being backed up to iCloud?

Are my File Vault encrypted files backed up with Time Machine still useful?

The background:
My iMac G5 crashed. It all started one and a half years ago when my screen popped and the frequent hard shutdowns pobably damaged my HDD (the one elegant solution Windows have is the Windows button: press + 'u' + return = proper shutdown). After that episode I bought an external drive and started a Time Machine backup routine. What I did not realize, was the issues surrounding the use of TM with a File Vault encrypted system. In 2007 when I bought my G5, I poked around, getting myself familiarized in Mac OS X and found this thing called File Vault. It looked like something useful and I started using it. Later I upgraded my OS and after my screen problem, decided to make use of Time Machine. The one problem with Mac OS X is the ease of use. It's so easy that Apple probably cannot foresee all the dumb things we users are going to do with it, including a warning to first time TM users who have their system already encrypted with FV. Now, after searching the forums, I see the problems and the warnings. If someone use TM and then decide to use FV, a warning pops up, but not the other way around! At least, I never saw it coming. If there is such a warning, I probably did not read it - as I say, it all happens so easy and work so well, it's easy to use a Mac without reading the instructions. Yes, I did some dumb things, but that's probably because I'm not so dumb; too relaxed, yes. At least, so it seems to me : )
My problem:
Two weeks ago, my G5 suddenly started giving problems. Out of the blue I couldn't open Adobe Bridge. At first I thought it was a software problem and tried re-installing Bridge and searched the Adobe forums for a solution. After a long struggle trying different solutions, I eventually booted with my install disk and with Disk Utility found that there is a problem with my internal HDD. Only then it dawned on me that my problem is far more serious than a software problem but by then it was too late. I couldn't repair the HDD with DU and got an instruction to restore my system with a backup. No problem! I hooked up my external HD and pressed the button. The restoration took over 12 hours to complete. That in itself showed my that I have a big problem, but I did not dare interrupt the process. In the end I got a window with a 'Restart System' button. All I got from that was a white screen with a spinning wheel and that's where I am now. Needless to say, my G5 is now getting repaired.
My solution:
I have to keep going so I used my savings to buy another Mac. I have my backups, so I'll just do a Migration and keep working. Or so I thought. When I tried it, it obviously failed because I sit with encrypted backups that would only restore to the original machine - which crashed! After reading about it on the forums, it dawned on me that it is, most probably, a futile exercise. My backups are, most probably, no backups at all, because I also did not realize that I had to 'log out' of my FV to get TM to properly backup my files! In never dawned on me that I should log out! I have one machine at home and have no particular reason to log out at all!
My question:
Am I wasting my time with the 'backups' I have? Should I wait for my G5 to get back from the shop and see if they are useful, of should I just move on and try to live the rest of my life without all the electronic data I lost?

Gorrelduik wrote:
But they missed one situation: if Time Machine is set up, but auto backups are turned OFF, there's no message. If you turn it back on, there's no message then, either.
. . . and that's exactly my MO! I still don't have auto backup turned on. If it's better to use auto backup I'll do it, but to my mind it's better not to have both my computer and my backup disk on all the time. What happens when there is a power failure or lightning strike and both are on and both get damaged? My MO is to make a manual backup once a day and then put the external HDD away.
That's one of the reasons not to rely on a single backup, no matter where it is or how it was made. All hardware fails, sooner or later, no backup app is perfect, and things like lightning, fire, flood, and theft happen, too.
With a desktop Mac (and a U.P.S. system that both the Mac and External HD are on), you can let TM do it's hourly backups (although that won't help a lot with the current incarnation of File Vault), then keep secondary backups on a separate HD, perhaps a portable one, with a different app. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for some suggestions.
I have thought of doing another weekly backup on a different external HD that I keep at the office, but I'm still procrastinating that one. Now that I think about it, does Time Machine cater for that: having two backup routines on two different HDD's?
You can do that, but you must tell Time Machine each time you want to "swap" drives. But each will be complete and independent.

File vault problem

I recently ran file vault for my computer. I didn't realize that I had interrupted the process and I am now completely locked out. I know that I need the software disc, but I am currently deployed and do not have the disc. Any other solutions?

What do you mean by "completely locked out"?
Does this mean that the system is acting like your password doesn't work?
Does your machine lock up when you try to login?
Is your machine setup for multiple users?
Unfortunately, it sounds like you may have corrupted the sparseimage as it was being created. This may result in permanent file loss.
Here's something you can try:
Try to mount your hard disk from another computer. See if you can browse your home folder. If you can see your files, you can try to create a new user account and copy your files to the new account.
I hope this helps.

Can't log in / supposedly file-vault

I have a power mac, which I recently updated to Lion. I've never used a password before and yet after an unusual abortive boot (unusual boot-sequence which hanged, which I had to hard-reset) I now get a login screen, which since I've never had a login in the first place, I can't get past (tried apple-ID for instance, to no avail).
I did the usual disk scans from recovery mode (which showed no problems), so I eventually ended up having to bring it in to the local apple-reseller (no 'official' apple-stores here). He says I've enabled file-vault and that he can't get to it without the username and password.
Now I can't for the life of me figure out how this could be, and file-vault isn't exactly the kind of thing you can enable accidentally. There was a progress indicator on the unusual boot, which might kind of support this idea (of an encryption process), but otherwise I'm worried that it might not necessarily be the problem.
I've had a search around, and I can't find any similar problems, so I'm just wondering if anybody on here might know if either:
File Vault can somehow become automatically enabled or ...
... some other automatic activity that could somehow bring this situation about
I want to satisfy myself that this is indeed the problem, and if so how could it have come about, so for instance I don't end up doing it again!
Update: From discussions elsewhere, it seems likely that the login screen I am seeing does correspond to a File-vault enabled login, so I guess all that remains is to discover how this could have happened in the first place ... and to determine if it is recoverable!

Have a look at > A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Dennis

What happens if you Time-Machine backup an encrypted file-vault HD?

This is related to my previous post - but deserves special mention for those people who are using time-vault AND Time-Machine.
My question is this: If the backup of my Hard-drive is encrypted, and I then reinstall from backup, what will this situation likely produce?
This is what I have done. I also Archived and installed my Mac prior to installing from my Time-Machine backup.
I now have an error message that displays the following message at the login screen:
"Unable to log into the file-vault account "......." at this time. An error has occurred."
My password IS CORRECT. I have not changed it, and the log in window does accept my password, but it doesn't progress any further than the error message I gave above.
I'm wondering if the encryption process of file-vault is linked directly with the original installation I had of Mac OS-X before I Archived and installed.
Any thoughts/knowledge/Insight?? I want my old Mac back! (I don't recommend using file-vault). Any body else had this problem or can see what is happening to me here?
Thank you
Greg

I just did a backup, moved a folder with 600mb of images into a different folder, and did another backup. The free space on the backup drive dropped by the size of the folder's contents. The backup copied the files as I watched in System Preferences, and it looked like it was really copying the files to the external drive again. It looks like Time Machine isn't as smart as I hoped in this regard.
Still - I'd think the wasted space is only in the every-hour-for-the-last-24-hours bucket of Time Machine. I'm guessing the every hour backups are like a sliding window, where a backup that's 24 hours old drops out every hour rather than all the hourly backups getting wiped at midnight and starting over.
Regardless, only one version of the moved folder will eventually be stored as the daily backup for that day. I don't have proof, but that's what I think.
So, if you've moved a bunch of folders around or renamed them, the extra copies of the same exact files should drop off within 24 hours.
That's my interpretation, but I'm in no way positive!! The lengthy Ars review didn't offer an answer to this question.

Recovery Partition mandatory for File Vault and unencrypted TM Backup?

I recently had to setup my Macbook Pro from scratch meaning erasing the whole disk and start from there.
The update to Lion took already place a while ago and I had File Vault active. After making a last backup using
TM I erased the disk and all partitions including Recovery partition and used the Leopard system DVD to boot
the machine.
From there I used the restore function to restore my TM backup to the MacBook. However, as the drive was
not partioned and not formated, I had to do this manually. Apparently, the recovery process via TM does not include
that. After system recovery, I booted from the Macbook and all apps and configuration seemed ok.
I was a little surprised to see that I was able to do this recovery without being asked for ID and password of the user's File Vault access
or the File Vault recovery key. All I needed was the TM ID and password (which is different from the owners ID and password)
I am not sure if this is supposed to work like this but I looks rather easy to gain access to application an data of another user if that
is all it takes?
Now booting Lion again, I checked File Vault and noticed it was disabled although it was enabled for quite a while and long time
before I took the latest backup. I could not turn it on, after providing a recovery key and asking me wether I wanted to write it down
or safe it with Apple which I declined I wanted to reboot the notebook to start encryption but stopped saying my partition or volume
would not support File Vault. This was GUID and MacOS Extended Journal partition and volume which to my knowledge would
certainly support File Vault. In fact this is basically what I had before when File Vault was turned on and running.
I called Apple support a few times. The second agent told me that it does not work because there is not recovery partition on my
system but there was when I took the latest backup and I do have other means to get the recovery screen. Anyway it seems that
File Vault required a local Recovery partition and I was wondering if anyone can tell me why this dependency exist. If I write down the
recovery key, why would I need it to be stored on my disk as well?
Also, if anyone has an idea if there is a way of creating a local recovery partition without having to go through the lenghty process of installing
Leopard then upgrade to Lion and install all the apps and configure the OS again, would be great? I assume when I am back on Lion and use the TM
backup for recovery, I probably end up with having the Recovery partition deleted and start from scratch again.
I am a little concerned about the fact that it seems so easy to gain access to a protected backup and that the TM restore process does not include
restoring partition and volumes as well. Who knows how many other dependencies exist and users have to reinstall their system again after recovery.
I was following the recovery instruction of Apple but perhaps someone knows a better way to do this?

Just an update, I went ahead and installed Lion again over the existing TM restored installation using the Lion Update file and at least File Vault is working. Interestingly, I still do not have a Recover partition so obviously something new for Apple Support to learn.

Time Machine and File Vault question

I just completed a clean install of OS x mavericks and then used my time machine back up to restore the mac.
The whole process was confusing for many reasons and I just want to get some clarification/verification on my next actions.
When I enter time machine preferences and click select disk. It gives me two choices. One in the group Back Up Disks and One in available disks. The confusing I have is that it is the same external hd. So which should I pick if I want to keep my original time machine backups?
The other question I have is, this whole journey started with me wanting to turn on file vault. I am using a late 2012 Mac Mini updated to Mavericks came with Mountain Lion.
Should I be able to use both an encrypted time machine (external hd) and file vault?
Thanks for the help.

The difference is that do yo want to combine the backus you made before with the previous backups (group Back Up Disks) or start a whole new backup (available disks). Either option will retain the previous backups unless you overtly delete them. I would select that later to start a new set of backups.
See the following for using FileaFault with Time Machine
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/46833/with-file-vault-on-are-time-machi ne-backups-encrypted
http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Enable+FileVault+(whole+disk+enc ryption)+on+Time+Machine+backup+drives+on+OS+X+10.9

How do I turn off file vault when my hard drive is full?

I am trying to migrate all my files onto a new MacBook Pro but my current computer has file vault turned on. To turn it off and decrypt my user home folder I need more space on my hard drive. I have tried cloning my MBP onto a larger external drive and starting up from there but every time I try to shut off file vault I get an error after about a half hour of the process.
What should I try next?

Hi Jeremy,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If 10.7.0 or later...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.

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 and Firewall?

I have a new macbook pro. Should I turn on File Vault and Firewall?

The purpose of FileVault is to protect your files from being read by someone who has physical access to the computer. If you need or want that protection, you should enable it.
The application firewall blocks incoming network traffic, regardless of origin, on a per-application basis. Typically, it would be configured to allow only applications digitally signed by Apple to listen on the network. It does not block outgoing traffic, nor can it distinguish between different sources of incoming traffic. It is not, as some people seem to believe, a malware filter.
So for example, suppose you enable file sharing, and allow access by guests to certain folders. You want people on your local network to be able to access those files without having to enter a password. When configured as stated above, the firewall will allow that. Your router will prevent outsiders from accessing the files, whether the application firewall is on or not. But if your computer is portable and you connect it to an untrusted network such as a public hotspot, the firewall will still allow access to anyone, which is not what you want.
Now suppose you unknowingly install a trojan that steals your data and uploads it to a remote server. The firewall, no matter how it's configured, will not block that outgoing traffic. It does nothing to protect you from that threat.
Another scenario: Your web browser is compromised by a trojan. The trojan redirects all your web traffic to a bogus server. The firewall does nothing to protect you from this threat.
A final scenario: You're running a public web server. Your router forwards TCP connection requests on port 80 to your Mac, and the connections are accepted by the built-in web server, which is signed by Apple. The application firewall, still configured as above, allows this to happen. Now you download a different trojan, one that tries to hijack port 80 and replace the built-in web server. The good news here is that the firewall does protect you; it blocks incoming connections to the trojan and alerts you. The bad news is that you've been rooted. The attacker who can do all this can just as easily disable the firewall, in which case it doesn't protect you after all.
It might make a bit of sense to use the firewall if you're running trusted services on an unprivileged port; that is, a port numbered higher than 1023. Those ports can be bound by a process with no special privileges.
Here is a more realistic scenario in which you should enable the firewall. Your portable Mac has several sharing services enabled. You want those services to be available to others on a home or office network. When you're on those networks, the firewall should be off. When you move to an untrusted network, you can either turn off all the services, or enable the firewall to block them. Blocking is easier: one configuration change instead of several.

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.

Pseudo driver: Failed to process interrupt

I wrote a very basic, hardware-less device driver. It is similar to the ramdisk example. I'm using 64-bit Solaris 8. The device name is "pkb" and the file pkb.conf (in /usr/kernel/drv/) has the following line:
name="pkb" parent="pseudo" instance=0;
When I execute add_drv -i "pkb" /usr/kernel/drv/sparcv9/pkb I get the following error message on the console:
unix: WARNING: Failed to process interrupt for pkb0 due to down-rev of nexus driver pseudo0
The device does however get an entry the /dev directory (/dev/pkb -> ../devices/pseudo/pkb@0:pkb)
When I execute an open() and then an ioctl() on this new device, ioctl returns a -1 yet the operation appears to work (I get the value I requested). errno = 3 after ioctl() fails. Subsequent ioctl()s do not work at all and errno = 22;
So, after spending many days on the web AND paying for Sun support, I fail to find a reference to the message "unix: WARNING: Failed to process interrupt ...."
Any ideas?

Hi,
Changes were made in Solaris 8 to the way bus nexus drivers process addition of interrupt handlers on sun4u. Consequently there is a check in the code to ensure the version of the nexus driver being called is at the correct level. If its not, you get the message you report.
The pseudo nexus driver doesnt support interrupts, and the check fails.
(If you like playing with kadb, the message comes from within i_ddi_intr_ctlops, which is called by (i_) ddi_add_intr.)
Have you checked the return status from ddi_add_intr? Normally if this fails you driver should then fail the attach, returning DDI_FAILURE.
To test an interrupt handler, you'll need to write a driver for a piece of hardware.
Its not obvious to me what your ioctl routine is doing. Can you post the code for it?
Hope that helps a bit.
Ralph
SUN Developer Technical Support

TC Won't Back Up Due to File Vault Encryption

I have just set up my Time Capsule to do a first back up using Time Machine however the back up won't work due to the drive being encrypted due to File Vault being switched on. When I switch File Vault off in Preferences an error message appears stating that I have insufficient space on my Disk to enable File Vault to be switched off and that I need to free up 138GB. It goes on to say that I should empty the trash and delete unwanted files. I have done this but I'm no where near freeing up 138GB The whole of the HDD is 250GB therefore I'm not sure I can delete such a huge amount of data without deleting something important by mistake.
Can any one help?

Thank you for your explanation. Well, I will decide later today (it is now 2:43 Sunday ayem) whether I will unlock FileVault. I am not convinced of its usefulness to me in my own home environment. I fortunately just purchased a WD Firewire drive (One TB) and have room to copy some of my files so FV can do its unlocking. I trust that then I will be able to use - not Time Capsule - but Time Machine (love those names). I discovered - through exploration of the WD backup volume - that earlier formatting of the WD drive left me with really very little backed up on the FW volume. And none of my precious Apple Lossless audio files! Having then reformatted the volume with Disk Utility, I began to backup until I received the alert about FV. So glad to find out here on this Apple site about the problems with FileVault, and some opinions about the utility of Time Machine. Personally, for those like me who may really need true archives of previous work, Time Machine is excellent, although I must note that the workarounds needed to get what I want from it are sometimes nothing short of onerous. I am learning more daily, and if history is my guide, that process will continue to the end of my days! Thanks so much for the help provided.

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.

File vault process/interruption

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