FileVault blocking macOS Updates and Time Machine Backups

Hi,


8-weeks ago I enabled FileVault on iMac Late 2013 with macOS 10.15.7. It took a few days, however it showed to have completed the encryption.


Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault indicates "FileVault is turned on for the disk" and "a recovery key has been set". "Turn Off FileVault..." is grayed out (with locked or unlocked "make changes"), which I read seems to have happened to others.


I am unable to install MacOS updates and also make Time Machine backups. I am also unable to re-install macOS from Recovery because it shows disk is busy with encryption. The time machine error is "Time Machine did not back up because FileVault was encrypting or decrypting a disk. Backups will resume once FileVault finishes." The update errors are requesting that I use disk utility to reformat as APFS, however I confirm all drives are APFS (see details below).


I have tried Disk Utility > First Aid in both standard and recovery (command+R) modes on both HD and HD Data volumes, Container, and Fusion Drive. I have tried this many times- never finding any error reports. Both HD and Data Volumes show "APFS (Encrypted)".


Terminal > "fdesetup status" indicates FileVault is On.

Terminal > "diskutil apfs list" indicates Data and System disks are FileVault Yes (Unlocked). Preboot, Recovery, and VM disks are File Vault No. (see details below)


After 8-weeks, I can't believe it still needs time to complete. All indications are encryption is done. Is there a way to check another way (e.g. terminal, console logs, etc.) to give a clue what might be hung up?


I appreciate any help.



Details


OurDocuments@Macintosh-2 ~ % diskutil apfs list

APFS Container (1 found)

|

+-- Container disk2

====================================================

APFS Container Reference: disk2 (Fusion)

Size (Capacity Ceiling): 1121118199808 B (1.1 TB)

Capacity In Use By Volumes: 1075276959744 B (1.1 TB) (95.9% used)

Capacity Not Allocated: 45841240064 B (45.8 GB) (4.1% free)

|

+-< Physical Store disk1s2

| -----------------------------------------------------------

| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk1s2 (Secondary, Designated Aux Use)

| Size: 999995129856 B (1000.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Store disk0s2

| -----------------------------------------------------------

| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk0s2 (Main, "Faster" Disk Use)

| Size: 121123069952 B (121.1 GB)

|

+-> Volume disk2s1

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk2s1 (Data)

| Name: Macintosh HD - Data (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Data

| Capacity Consumed: 1045556420608 B (1.0 TB)

| FileVault: Yes (Unlocked)

|

+-> Volume disk2s2

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk2s2 (Preboot)

| Name: Preboot (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: Not Mounted

| Capacity Consumed: 154042368 B (154.0 MB)

| FileVault: No

|

+-> Volume disk2s3

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk2s3 (Recovery)

| Name: Recovery (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: Not Mounted

| Capacity Consumed: 528961536 B (529.0 MB)

| FileVault: No

|

+-> Volume disk2s4

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk2s4 (VM)

| Name: VM (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: /private/var/vm

| Capacity Consumed: 8598589440 B (8.6 GB)

| FileVault: No

|

+-> Volume disk2s5

---------------------------------------------------

APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk2s5 (System)

Name: Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)

Mount Point: /

Capacity Consumed: 11549794304 B (11.5 GB)

FileVault: Yes (Unlocked)




iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 27, 2021 7:31 PM

Reply

Similar questions

3 replies

Feb 27, 2021 7:56 PM in response to HumbleMacUser

One other finding after looking into system.log for fdesetup...


Feb 27 21:14:16 Macintosh-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.fdesetup.2119): Failed to bootstrap path: path = /usr/bin/fdesetup, error = 2: No such file or directory


Not sure if this gives any clues. I do see that Exit Code = 2 for fdestup is "FileVault appears to be On but Busy." if it is related.


I believe this is the eventual error after initiating Time Machine "Back Up Now".


Thanks



Feb 27, 2021 8:33 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi, thank you for the quick reply.


"diskutil cs list" does not seem applicable- or at least does not return a result. i had pasted the results from "diskutil apfs list" in the original post, which seem to indicate the encryption is completed.


"fdesetup status" is still showing just "FileVault is On." (same as before). My understanding is this would have an additional line "Encryption in progress: Percent Completed = x" if it was still actually in progress.


This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

FileVault blocking macOS Updates and Time Machine Backups

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.