You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount "...

Question

I know there are various posts already out there on remedies for recovering your data stored on a FileVault account when you receive the following message at the login screen; *"You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount " at this time"*, but this genuinely worked for me despite AppleCare providing absolutely no assistance whatsoever. In fact, if I had followed their advise I'd be inconsolable right now having wiped my MacBook Pro and contemplating the prospect of rewriting my two essays due in 3 days time!
I, in a moment of shear stupidity, decided to move the sparsebundle file in my one and only account to trash. Thinking nothing of my foolish actions I shut down for the evening without a care in the world. The next day I started up my computer as usual, and as usual I was prompted at the login screen for my password. I entered the correct password, but was alarmed to see the message above flash before my eyes. Without boring you all with what I did over the weekend waiting for AppleCare to open again on Monday morning. Anyway, this post is specifically for people who have put the sparsebundle of their FileVault-enabled account in the trash (NOT anything else!) without emptying it, of course! The other prerequisite is that you must REMEMBER YOUR FILEVAULT ACCOUNT PASSWORD!
1. Firstly, you must insert *Disc 1 of the Mac OS X Install* discs.
2. Restart your computer holding down the letter S (make sure you are holding this down BEFORE the start up noise sounds)
3. Select the appropriate language and continue to the next screen (DO NOT go past the next screen, the WELCOME screen)
4. At the grey bar at the top, under Utilities, select *Reset Password*
5. Select the Administrator/Root account and proceed to change the password of this account to test
6. Confirm the password by reentering it and click Save
7. Restart your computer and at the login screen you should now be able to select an account named Other
8. The username for this account is root and the password is test (the password you entered earlier)
9. Using Finder, locate the Terminal utility, which can be found in *Applications --> Utilities*
10. Enter the following, ignoring the bold of course (pay attention to lower cases AND spaces!): *defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE*
11. Hit Enter
12. On the next line, enter: *killall Finder*
13. Hit Enter again
14. Type: exit on the next line and close Terminal
15. This has enabled the hidden files on your computer to be visible
16. You then need to locate the sparsebundle file in the trash of your usual account folder (it could be 501, so search for that too) whilst logged in to the administrator account
17. Once you have found it, click *Go to Folder* under Go in the grey bar and type /Users/
18. Create a *new folder* at this location with a new username
19. Move the sparsebundle from its present location to the folder you have just created
20. Click Get Info on the new folder, and at the very bottom click *Apply to enclosed items*
21. In *System Preferences --> Accounts*, create a new user with EXACTLY the same name as the folder you created (eg. Folder name = burtreynolds, new user = burtreynolds)
22. A window should appear if you have done the above correctly stating *A folder in Users folder already has same name, would you like to use it?*
22. Click OK
23. Click *Show All* at the top of the Accounts window
24. Restart your system and log in to the new account you have created
25. The sparsebundle should now be visible
26. Double-click on the sparsebundle, it will prompt you to enter a password
27. Enter the password of your former account (if you have genuinely forgotten this password, I honestly can't help any further at this point)
28. If the password is correct, the sparsebundle will automatically mount and you will have access to all the files
29. NEVER EVER USE FILEVAULT AGAIN AND BACK UP ALL DATA YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!
The above worked for me, and to say I'm mildly annoyed with AppleCare is, well, putting it mildly really!

Answer 1

I know there are various posts already out there on remedies for recovering your data stored on a FileVault account when you receive the following message at the login screen; *"You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount " at this time"*, but this genuinely worked for me despite AppleCare providing absolutely no assistance whatsoever. In fact, if I had followed their advise I'd be inconsolable right now having wiped my MacBook Pro and contemplating the prospect of rewriting my two essays due in 3 days time!
I, in a moment of shear stupidity, decided to move the sparsebundle file in my one and only account to trash. Thinking nothing of my foolish actions I shut down for the evening without a care in the world. The next day I started up my computer as usual, and as usual I was prompted at the login screen for my password. I entered the correct password, but was alarmed to see the message above flash before my eyes. Without boring you all with what I did over the weekend waiting for AppleCare to open again on Monday morning. Anyway, this post is specifically for people who have put the sparsebundle of their FileVault-enabled account in the trash (NOT anything else!) without emptying it, of course! The other prerequisite is that you must REMEMBER YOUR FILEVAULT ACCOUNT PASSWORD!
1. Firstly, you must insert *Disc 1 of the Mac OS X Install* discs.
2. Restart your computer holding down the letter S (make sure you are holding this down BEFORE the start up noise sounds)
3. Select the appropriate language and continue to the next screen (DO NOT go past the next screen, the WELCOME screen)
4. At the grey bar at the top, under Utilities, select *Reset Password*
5. Select the Administrator/Root account and proceed to change the password of this account to test
6. Confirm the password by reentering it and click Save
7. Restart your computer and at the login screen you should now be able to select an account named Other
8. The username for this account is root and the password is test (the password you entered earlier)
9. Using Finder, locate the Terminal utility, which can be found in *Applications --> Utilities*
10. Enter the following, ignoring the bold of course (pay attention to lower cases AND spaces!): *defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE*
11. Hit Enter
12. On the next line, enter: *killall Finder*
13. Hit Enter again
14. Type: exit on the next line and close Terminal
15. This has enabled the hidden files on your computer to be visible
16. You then need to locate the sparsebundle file in the trash of your usual account folder (it could be 501, so search for that too) whilst logged in to the administrator account
17. Once you have found it, click *Go to Folder* under Go in the grey bar and type /Users/
18. Create a *new folder* at this location with a new username
19. Move the sparsebundle from its present location to the folder you have just created
20. Click Get Info on the new folder, and at the very bottom click *Apply to enclosed items*
21. In *System Preferences --> Accounts*, create a new user with EXACTLY the same name as the folder you created (eg. Folder name = burtreynolds, new user = burtreynolds)
22. A window should appear if you have done the above correctly stating *A folder in Users folder already has same name, would you like to use it?*
22. Click OK
23. Click *Show All* at the top of the Accounts window
24. Restart your system and log in to the new account you have created
25. The sparsebundle should now be visible
26. Double-click on the sparsebundle, it will prompt you to enter a password
27. Enter the password of your former account (if you have genuinely forgotten this password, I honestly can't help any further at this point)
28. If the password is correct, the sparsebundle will automatically mount and you will have access to all the files
29. NEVER EVER USE FILEVAULT AGAIN AND BACK UP ALL DATA YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!
The above worked for me, and to say I'm mildly annoyed with AppleCare is, well, putting it mildly really!