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I don't see any way or reference on how to decrypt an encrypted drive.

I don't see any way or reference on how to decrypt an encrypted drive.

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.14

Posted on Feb 17, 2020 10:42 AM

Reply
12 replies

Feb 18, 2020 6:01 AM in response to mistralski

FileVault status can be obtained via an Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal session

fdesetup status

    FileVault is On.

    Encryption in progress: Percent completed = 44.48

diskutil cs list | grep 'Conversion Progress'

    Conversion Progress:   44%

    Conversion Progress:   Optimizing 48%


FileVault disable in the middle of encrypting via an Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal session

sudo fdesetup disable

Password: <your admin password, then Return key; it will not echo, but it will be read>

Feb 18, 2020 7:06 AM in response to mistralski

mistralski wrote:

I finally managed to decrypt the drives. I found an obscure reference to booting with the "R" option - then the File Vault program brought up the decrypt option. However, I could not find a way to select a drive - it only decrypts the boot drive. Dreadful - took me days screwing around - something that should have been obvious!!!


You can see Volume UUID of all volumes if you use the terminal method, copy and paste:


diskutil info -all


https://osxdaily.com/2016/10/25/decrypt-external-drive-mac/


https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-encrypt-decrypt-and-recover-mac-hard-drive/

Feb 18, 2020 7:15 AM in response to mistralski

mistralski wrote:

These two drives have been encrypted for years, so your reply doesn't apply.


Were these drives encrypted with some application other than FileVault?

If so, you will need to address this issue with that application.

If not, then by virtue of turning FileVault off, the drives should automatically be decrypted by the OS without further intervention by you.

Have you been using them during these years?


I don't see any way or reference on how to decrypt an encrypted drive.

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