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User profile for user: arhawkx
arhawkx Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Login password and FileVault recovery key not working?!

I put my MBP to sleep the other night before going to sleep. Woke up to login with Touch ID as normal but noticed or wants me to type my password in so I assumed there was some automatic update that caused it to reboot or whatever. Next thing you know my password is not being accepted? Kept trying and double checking that I am using the right keyboard input (U.S.) till it locked me out. Worse yet, I reboot to recovery options and can’t even reset my account using my FileVault recovery key that I was given when initially setting up my new machine just a few months ago. Apple support has basically said they don’t know what happened and one of them suggested my only option is to reset my Mac and lose all my data which is ridiculous. I’ve never seen something like this happen with any other OS sinceI decided to switch to Mac a few months ago. And I know for a fact that the FileVault recovery key I’ve attempted to enter several times (that locked me out as well now) is CORRECT as I literally have the picture I took of it displayed when I initially set up my device.



I hope I can figure out what in the world happened here and am not just forced to wipe my entire device because of a bizarre issue like this…


Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Oct 27, 2024 9:29 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,284 points

Posted on Oct 29, 2024 9:40 AM

Ever since Apple introduced the secure enclave chip beginning with the T2 chip on the 2018 Intel Macs I have seen authentication issues with some of my organization's 2018+ Macs. The security enclave chip controls security & authentication so if anything goes wrong, it goes wrong big time. In fact I even found some bugs at least with the T2 security chip on the 2018-2020 Intel Macs. I also saw an odd Filevault related issue with I believe an M-series Mac. Unless you have a second macOS admin user account that can be used to authenticate, then your options are extremely limited.


You can try performing a DFU firmware Revive to reset the security enclave chip.


Without Filevault enabled you could try reinstalling macOS over top of itself. However, with Filevault enabled, you would need to install macOS to a new APFS volume (not sure you can add it with Filevault enabled), or you can install macOS to an external USB3 SSD. Maybe by booting from an external macOS boot drive you will be able to get more details which could help you (doubtful, but it is much easier than working from Recovery Mode).


People should always have frequent and regular backups of their computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contain important & unique data. There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all the hardware, software, and security changes.


FYI, even if you did not have Filevault enabled, if the security enclave chip could not authenticate, then you would still have mostly the same problem although it may allow you to a few more options to access the data from Recovery Mode or an external boot drive....putting your data at more risk if the laptop was stolen.

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,284 points

Oct 29, 2024 9:40 AM in response to arhawkx

Ever since Apple introduced the secure enclave chip beginning with the T2 chip on the 2018 Intel Macs I have seen authentication issues with some of my organization's 2018+ Macs. The security enclave chip controls security & authentication so if anything goes wrong, it goes wrong big time. In fact I even found some bugs at least with the T2 security chip on the 2018-2020 Intel Macs. I also saw an odd Filevault related issue with I believe an M-series Mac. Unless you have a second macOS admin user account that can be used to authenticate, then your options are extremely limited.


You can try performing a DFU firmware Revive to reset the security enclave chip.


Without Filevault enabled you could try reinstalling macOS over top of itself. However, with Filevault enabled, you would need to install macOS to a new APFS volume (not sure you can add it with Filevault enabled), or you can install macOS to an external USB3 SSD. Maybe by booting from an external macOS boot drive you will be able to get more details which could help you (doubtful, but it is much easier than working from Recovery Mode).


People should always have frequent and regular backups of their computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contain important & unique data. There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all the hardware, software, and security changes.


FYI, even if you did not have Filevault enabled, if the security enclave chip could not authenticate, then you would still have mostly the same problem although it may allow you to a few more options to access the data from Recovery Mode or an external boot drive....putting your data at more risk if the laptop was stolen.

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Login password and FileVault recovery key not working?!

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