Mac Catalina - Button "Turn off Filevault" greyed out, cause unable to deactive filevault

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chankwan Author

Level 1

12 points

Mac Catalina - Button "Turn off Filevault" greyed out, cause unable to deactive filevault

Hi everyone,

Anyone here has same trouble as mine?

Accidentally lost my presentation file while working (it was saved on desktop)
Think about recover it using software.
Get stuck with the storage encryption - File Vault so I couldn't recover my ppt file as well.
I still had the FileVaul recovery key (screenshot in my photo)
But ... can't not click on the "Turn off Filevault" button to use the recovery code.
Try many method to get the button work, unsuccessful.
Re-install macOS , say no to encryption storage by FileVault.
Finish installation, restart BUT see a popup without "no" option to encrypt using file vault suggest
Accept encrypt (cause. I have no other option than YES), carefully note the recovery key.
.... bug happen again.

Screenshot attach on how to reproduce the bug.

This bug is really annoy me, cause i lost my presentation file (cost me 2 months to prepare) just 1 day before meeting with my client.

And unable disabling FileVault trouble me on restoring it. I post it here just want to make sure me & others people will never face the same issue again or as if anyone successfully fix this yet?

Best

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 15, 2020 8:56 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 18, 2020 12:08 PM in response to chankwan

Hey there chankwan,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. I understand you’re unable to turn off FileVault on your Mac. I’ll be happy to help with this.

To verify, are there any other users on your Mac that may be using FileVault? If so, log out of those users and try turning off FileVault once more:

Turn off FileVault encryption on Mac

Have you seen any alerts that encryption has been paused? If so, connect your Mac to a power source and use the steps here to complete the encryption:

Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac

Once that’s complete, attempt to turn it off once more. If you have any other issues, boot into safe mode and try turning it off there:

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

Regards.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

69,704 points

Feb 18, 2020 5:07 PM in response to chankwan

FYI, if you booted from an external drive or another computer all you should need to do to use the data recovery software is to mount the encrypted (Filevaluted) drive and pointing the data recovery software to the mounted drive.

IIRC some data recovery software may not be able to work on a drive which is in the process of being encrypted/decrypted.

You should start regular system backups so you can recover files from your backups which should be much faster and easier.

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Answer 3

chankwan Author

Level 1

12 points

Feb 19, 2020 8:40 AM in response to barberlives123

I have tried those method and ...still couldn't turn it off.

I had an appointment calling back from Customer Service (after they escalate to higher state) ... but still not yet received any call.

Currently, I'm backing up my data (take me 24 hours ... remaining 5 hours at this moment replying your comment). Let see if recovery from backup data may help in this situation. Will update!

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Answer 4

chankwan Author

Level 1

12 points

Feb 19, 2020 8:43 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

After around 2 day since I post my issues. It suppose to done with encrypting process and I suppose to be able turn it off. However, still I couldn't turn it off.

Currently, I'm backing up my data (take me 24 hours ... remaining 5 hours at this moment replying your comment). Let see if recovery from backup data may help in this situation. Will update!

Reply

Answer 5

chankwan Author

Level 1

12 points

Feb 19, 2020 8:38 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your suggest, I will do next time when I need to recovery my lost file.

For now, my concern isn't the file anymore...but turn off the whole storage encryption.

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Answer 6

Feb 18, 2020 1:41 PM in response to chankwan

Changing the setting of FileVault to on or off takes only a moment.

HOWEVER, actually performing the conversion from encrypted <--> unencrypted takes a very long time, and you can not request another change until the first one finishes. Every block on your drive (even the unused blocks) must be read in, encrypted/decrypted, then written back out.

This process plays out over several hours to a day or more. it requires you Mac stay awake and continuing the conversion in the background. Only when conversion completes can you request a different change.

(if you have accidentally succeeded in requesting a conversion, it will be working on it for the rest of the day, and into the night.)

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Mac Catalina - Button "Turn off Filevault" greyed out, cause unable to deactive filevault

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