Restoring a filevault encrypted time machine backup to a new machine and new SSD - problems

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Level 1

4 points

Restoring a filevault encrypted time machine backup to a new machine and new SSD - problems

Hi all, I am hoping someone out there can help me out.

Summary:

After restoring a Time Machine backup to a new computer and new SSD, the computer works but asks for a password for the "Data" partition.

Detail:

I have a Late 2013 MacBook Pro 15inch with a 250GB SSD, running Catalina 10.15.7.
The SSD is encrypted with FileVault (APFS Encrypted).
Looking in Disk Utility (DU), it shows the following setup:

I have picked up a nice Mid 2012 MacBook Pro 13inch, also with a 250GB SSD.
I wanted to backup/restore from the MBP15 to the MBP13 using Time Machine, and as such, I connected a 500GB external USB drive to the MBP15 and did a time machine backup to it.
Plugging the same ext USB time machine back up into the MBP13, I went through the standard fresh MacOS installation process until I got to the point where it asked me to "Transfer information to this Mac" - I selected the first option "From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or Startup disk"
I selected the ext USB Time Machine drive and it did its thing and restored to the computer
The process ended and the MBP13 fired up *almost* identically to the MBP15.
The 1st difference I noted was that the initial boot-up screen (the screen where your user image icon is shown and where you enter your password ) was white. I could still log in with my normal password, and once logged in, the normal Catalina MacOS background was displayed. On the MBP15, the Catalina MacOS background is shown at the screen where you log in as well as after you have logged in.
The 2nd (and main) difference is that once logged in, the MBP13 now asks for a password to the "data" volume, whereas on the MBP15 it does/did not. I have tried all of my known passwords, and none of them is correct. I can select cancel and obviously, it goes away, and thus far, everything appears to be working fine. It clearly isn't the same as the MBP15 so I am wondering why?
Here is a DU screengrab showing the same 2 partitions but also 2 apparently similar shaded out (unmounted) partitions:

So, kind people, although I could continue with it is as it is, I would prefer to have an identical setup to my MBP15 (before I wipe that device).

Can anyone suggest where I have gone wrong, and ideally, how to resolve this?

Thanks in advance,

-LMG

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 17, 2021 6:32 AM

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Answer 1

lmg-tetrex Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 17, 2021 11:29 AM in response to lmg-tetrex

So, since I couldn't make it any worse, I decided to have a play with a few things on the MBP13.

Firstly, I tried changing the names of the mounted partitions. Given all four of the partitions had effectively the same name, I wanted to see if that made any difference.
Changed the names, rebooted, and the same password request popped up - but displaying the original partition names - interesting. I concluded that it is trying to mount those greyed out partitions.
The next step was to see if deleting them via Disk Utility would make any difference.
I fully expected my removal of the unmounted partitions to hose the MBP13 requiring a full restore, however, I was wrong. It fixed the problem and removed the popup asking for a password. Result!

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