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Last Post
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Nov 23, 2007 6:17 AM
by: Allamistakeo
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Posts:
17
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Aug 9, 2006
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Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 11:09 AM
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Turned on file vault a few months ago. Can't be too safe you know. Computer began running erratically. Many many odd things began to happen. iphoto could not find any of my 8000 photos. (photos are still on my hard drive though), Mail keeps making me re-establish mail as if I am a first time user, ical repeatedly dumps everything, items show up on my dock that weren't there before, items missing from the dock, lost all 200 of my bookmarks in Safari, all my system preferences are constantly being reset.
Called Apple support. He told me that I shouldn't have turned on file vault. Should only be used by government types. (my opinion is it shouldn't be used by anyone other than those who have a desparate desire to reload all of their software and OS) So we tried to turn off file vault. At that time there was 18 gigs free. File vault says there is not enough room to turn off. Apple rep tells me to buy an external hard drive to copy everything over and then reinstall the OS and all of my software and then bring over my files from the external hard drive. (Sound good so far?) I can't wait to start this process as I have loads of free time and nothing better to do with my life anyway! Oh, and I made an appt with an Apple Genius at the Genius bar at the Biltmore in Phoenix. He told me that I needed to do the same thing. When he tried to turn off file vault, it showed, for some reason, that now only 3 gigs were free. File vault said that if there was only 1kb more free space it could be turned off. So we deleted about a 130 MB of data, and file vault still came up with the same msg. So, after being told that apple does not provide this service and that I would have to fix this problem on my own, I walked out of the store with a brand new Iomega 160GB external hard drive and $160 less in my wallet, all the while veins bulging from my neck, blood pressure shooting through the roof and anger levels normally reserved for things like pay cuts and lost pensions. . So... now I am about to begin my wonderful adventure. First question I have is...If I transfer everything on my computer over to the Iomega while file vault is turned on, how will that effect the files that I bring back over to the Mac that now has file vault turned off? Do I have to bring back the files and programs, one by one by one, or is there a way to restore the entire thing with one operation? Will I get back my iphoto photo albums and all of my slideshows ? (I'm on my knees praying on this one)
Anyway, thanks for listening and for any help , or suggestions you may have and if I may say to others out there... never, ever, ever turn on file vault
P.S. I was a long time windows user, switched to Mac about a year and a half ago. Fell blissfully in love...until now. What made me switch to a Mac was the day that I was re-installed my operating system on my PC for the 6th time in 2 months. I've come full circle.
MacBook Pro 15"
Mac OS X (10.4.7)
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Posts:
12
Registered:
Feb 27, 2007
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 12:09 PM
in response to: captainphx
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Geez, reading this scared me as I use F.Vault all the time and have never had an issue (knock on wood). Good luck try not to get too soured on Mac/Apples 
eMac
Mac OS X (10.4.8)
800MHz, 512 MB, G4
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Posts:
23,274
From:
San Diego, CA
Registered:
May 8, 2005
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 12:25 PM
in response to: mj007
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Have you ever tried to disable it? Search these forums for filevault and file vault, then see the other horror stories. Unless you have your user's folder backed up to another volume/partition/disk, IMHO, you're flirting with the scary stuff.
G4 450 MP Gigabit 1.5 GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
6,320
Registered:
Nov 22, 2005
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 12:32 PM
in response to: baltwo
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I completely agree. I always tell people the same thing. Unfortunately, I usually only get the chance when they've posted a question about a problem they encountered. By then, it is too late. All their data is gone.
The only time I would use Filevault is if I have a good, unencrypted copy in a computer at home and I'm taking my laptop on some fun backpacking trip. They could steal the laptop, but they wouldn't get the data.
Since I'm not on some fun overseas trip with a spare Macbook, I just keep my sensitive files in an encrypted disk image with aliases pointing inside the image.
MacBook
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
1.83Ghz/2GB Ram/80 HD +iMac G4 800
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Posts:
23,274
From:
San Diego, CA
Registered:
May 8, 2005
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 12:44 PM
in response to: etresoft
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I just keep my sensitive files in an encrypted disk image with aliases pointing inside the image.
Just ensure that you have an unencrypted copy elsewhere; otherwise, your solution has the same problem as using FileVault.
G4 450 MP Gigabit 1.5 GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
6,320
Registered:
Nov 22, 2005
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 12:58 PM
in response to: baltwo
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No, not the same problem. I can keep lots of redundant copies of this image file. It is small and will fit on a CD or flash drive. I think I've even uploaded it a couple of times. I don't access the image that often and I certainly don't do things like run iTunes, iMovie, or anything else that accesses data in a home directory. It would be a hassle if I lost the file(s), but it wouldn't be catastrophic.
You should only encrypt data if you really don't want anyone to see it. That is an important distinction. If I can't see the files either, the encryption still holds. If you are encrypting for any other reason, or if it is really important that you not lose the data, that isn't a case for encryption.
I'll give Apple some credit. It is a slick solution and works about 95% of the time. But when it fails, it fails spectacularly.
MacBook
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
1.83Ghz/2GB Ram/80 HD +iMac G4 800
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Posts:
44
From:
The South
Registered:
Jun 18, 2007
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 20, 2007 2:11 PM
in response to: mj007
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Geez, reading this scared me as I use F.Vault all the time and have never had an issue (knock on wood). Good luck try not to get too soured on Mac/Apples
It encrypts/decrypts files in your Home folder on the fly. Really, really overkill. It can lead to massive data corruption and can end up hosing your install so bad an Erase and Install is your only way out. Do yourself a favor, turn it off.
15" MacBook Pro 2.16Ghz/2GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
iMac G4, iBook G4, iBook G3 (Blueberry Clamshell), 5th gen 30GB iPod, 8GB iPhone
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Posts:
7
From:
somerset
Registered:
Sep 2, 2007
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 24, 2007 1:34 AM
in response to: captainphx
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I've been experiencing the same issues as you, Captainphx. I didn't know File Vault was the problem until I found your post, so thanks for putting it up - really helpful. Have you found a way of recovering the photo albums and slides?
imac G5
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
17
Registered:
Aug 9, 2006
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 26, 2007 4:45 PM
in response to: proller
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Well, computer is now running with file vault off. Life is way too busy for me to do all this computer repair... so I took it to an authorized Mac repair place. They copied my hard drive over to the new external drive that I bought. Turned off file vault and copied it back...at least that's how I understand it. Unfortunatly I lost all of my iphoto albums and slide show (I had many, many of them) but I did not lose my 10,000 photos. Organization of the photos all messed up now, though. I am now starting th slow process of remaking all of my albums and slide shows amongst other things that I lost.
MacBook Pro 15"
Mac OS X (10.4.7)
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Posts:
23,274
From:
San Diego, CA
Registered:
May 8, 2005
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Sep 26, 2007 5:17 PM
in response to: captainphx
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Sorry to hear that you're missing the albums and slideshows. Try this. Boot the machine with your ext HD and see if those are residing on it.
G4 450 MP Gigabit 1.5 GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
141
Registered:
Mar 2, 2006
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Nov 17, 2007 12:59 PM
in response to: captainphx
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I recognize now that perhaps "all" of my problems on my new MBP have been because of FileVault.
Like you, I now do not have enough room to turn off FV.
My MBP will not recognize my e-drive any longer either. The e-disk hums as if it's mounted, but I see—nothing!
If the machine can't see the back-up drive, how can I copy my data?
I know what you mean about the Apple "geniuses"—Often they are as clueless as the rest of us. Only they get paid for it. 
Anyone have any ideas as to how to I can get my data off the MBP?
MB Pro 2.33 GHz, IC 2 Duo, 3 GB MHz DDR2 SDRAM, Bus 667 MHz, Drive 185 gigs; 23"
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
MacBook: 2.16 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 160 gig drive
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Posts:
5
From:
Baltimore, MD, USA
Registered:
Nov 23, 2007
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Nov 22, 2007 11:29 PM
in response to: captainphx
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you would think, seeing how this is obviously a known bug, that apple would do a better job of explaining the setbacks of using FileVault. unfortunately, most of us "common people" aren't privy to this type of information until it's too late..as we're relentlessly searching forum posts at 2am because our 2 week old computer is riddled with error messages.
to my recollection, i never even activated FileVault. as i recall, i first noticed it when i installed Tiger, so i just wrote it off as a new feature. in fact, it ran successfully until i transfered all of my data from my old PowerBook over to my new iMac and then updated to Leopard. now, out of my remaining 233GB available, it's telling me i have less than 1GB left in my home folder. and, as everyone else has been saying, trying to just simply turn FileVault off is futile. it seems that no matter what you're going to get some sort of contradictory error message. for instance, i've only used 37GB of space in my home folder, yet when i go to turn FileVault off it tells me that i need to delete 41GB before i can turn it off. interesting.
fortunately i already have a 500GB external drive that i've since backed the entire contents of my HD onto. however, i'm curious, as captainphx's question from his initial thread went unanswered..if i copy these (encrypted) files over to my external drive, do a clean install of the OS, ensure that FileVault is turned OFF, then copy the files back to my iMac, will there be complications?
i'm going to attempt to call apple support tomorrow, so hopefully i can get this resolved. i'll follow up with the results of that discussion. if apple's not going to make this information readily available then, by god, i will.
24" iMac :: 2.4GHz :: 4GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.5.1)
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Posts:
225
Registered:
Dec 23, 2005
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Re: Turning off File Vault
Posted:
Nov 23, 2007 6:14 AM
in response to: Teknomad
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Hi guys,
I've tried to turn off FileVault too, and I got a error message telling me that this operation required over 4TB of free space on my hard drive (4TB are about 4'000 GB, by the way).
So, I created a new user with FileVault disabled, and moved the stuff from the old account to the new one.
But you don't need a new external hard drive to do that!!! :S
Logged in as the old user, simply move the files into a place on your hard drive that is accessible to the new user, for instance, /Users/Shared. Then, logged in as the new user, change the owner of all these files, and move them in your home folder where you want them to be.
There is one trick, however: you can't move too many files at the same time, because when you move files out of a FileVault-encrypted folder, the space they used to take is not freed until you log out of the account. So, move as much as you can in one go, then log out to free the disk space, and log back in to continue.
When migrating to a new account, I suggest you have a look at this short thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5935003#5935003
Good luck
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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