FileVault is blocking Time Machine backups

Question

FileVault is blocking Time Machine backups

My Time Machine backups are failing with the message:

"Time Machine did not back up because FileVault was encrypting or decrypting a disk. Backups will resume once FileVault finishes."

When I go to the FileVault section of System Preferences, it says that FileVault is turned on, but the button to turn it off is grayed out.

I'm on Catalina 10.15.6 and Time Machine backups had been working fine for man years until they stopped a few weeks ago. My iMac also has a Fusion Drive.

I tried booting in Safe Mode -- no change.

I also ran Disk Repair on all volumes and it says they are fine.

I'd like to just reinstall macOS, but since my disk is encrypted I can only do that if I erase my whole disk. And I can't do that, since I can't make a backup to restore from. Catch 22.

I did notice that if I go to the FileVault preferences right after booting, it says that FileVault has 2 hours of encryption left. But then that message disappears after about 10 seconds and it says that FieVault is on. But the button to turn off FileVault remains disabled.

From Terminal:

$ fdesetup status
FileVault is On.

But also

sudo fdesetup disable
FileVault was not disabled (-69595).

I looked through the Console logs, but don't see anything relevant.

I also tried deleting everything on my FileVault server (a Synology NAS). I started new backups from scratch, but the same problem occurs. My other Macs are backing up to the NAS just fine.

It seems like the issue is with my Mac and not with the Time Machine server.

Any ideas on how to get out of this situation? Thank you

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 20, 2020 5:11 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 22, 2020 12:27 PM in response to tonari-no-totoro

This question has been superseded by this other one with more details on FileVault: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251832746

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Answer 2

Sep 20, 2020 5:13 PM in response to tonari-no-totoro

Here's a screen shot of my FileVault preferences:

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Answer 3

Sep 21, 2020 7:12 PM in response to tonari-no-totoro

I also noticed that each time I restart my Mac, FileVault says that it is only at 5%. But then, after a short delay, that message disappears.

In Terminal it looks like this. After each restart:

$ fdesetup status -verbose
fdesetup: device path = /
FileVault is On.
Encryption in progress: Percent completed = 5

And then, shortly afterwards, I see this:

$ fdesetup status -verbose
fdesetup: device path = /
FileVault is On.

After restarting, it goes back to the first message for a while. So I don't think it really is done -- more like it had an error.

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FileVault is blocking Time Machine backups

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