FileVault stuck on "Encryption Paused"

I am having the same issue one week old MBP. Not having any other symptoms, seems to be working fine. Something to have everyone check, I ran a diagnostic yesterday and it came back with only one issue, power supply showing a fault. My thinking is that the software is not allowing this because of power supply reporting an error. Have phone support appointment tonight will see what they say.

I have this problem on a brand new Macbook Pro Retina Display 2.8GHz 1GB SSD running Yosemite 10.10.1. I have tried everything suggested in this thread and have spent hours on the phone to Apple Support (mostly in queues) who just asked me to do the usual resets. My File Vault screen is identical to that posted by d0ri0 on Oct 27. The completion bar is at the end but not finished. The Mac seems to be performing unaffected by this issue but I am unable to turn off encryption or move forward with its completion. Surely Apple you must be able to help us please? When I get time I will join another Apple Support queue and see if I can get anywhere but I really am beginning to wonder about Apple support.

Hedgewig, this comment probably should be filed in the dumb category, but I'll try it anyway. Did you unlock the lock in the lower left in the System Preferences>Security & Privacy>FileVault window? I've been stuck like lots of others, but just recently tried unlocking the lock (again) and now "Turn off FileVault" is now active (not greyed out). I haven't turned FileVault off yet because I'm afraid of unintended consequences and I'm waiting for an Apple fix. Anyway, maybe you can now turn off Filevault if you try again with the lock unlocked. Just a thought...again, perhaps a dumb one.

When I unlock the lock, "Turn Off FileVault" is active but when I click on it I get the following error message:

"FileVault is encrypting the data on your disk. Wait until your disk is fully encrypted before turning off FileVault."

Dear zinnjd,

I had faced the same problem when i bought my brand new mac. It was stuck and said " Encryption paused. Plug the power adapter to continue". I went through all the forums i could find at that time and tried everything. Nothing worked.

Atlaast, i took my mac to the apple service centre and they just erased my disk and re-installed a fresh copy of yosemite for me.

Regards.

Ok my quick story...

I purchased a brand new 15" RMBP last week. Started it up, selected FileVault as part of the OS X first run screens, boom! the "connect power..." problem that I didn't notice until after transferring about 200gb of various stuff and downloading the entire adobe suite...yay.

I tried the "Clear PRAM->Command R-> Unlock Disk-> Repair Permissions (Partition)->Repair Disk (Partition)->Repair Disk (Disk) 'solution' (Thanks Scafede) and managed to get it to encrypt after a short wait but it went back to "connect power..." when it started optimising. I'm maybe not as patient as some because after trying the 'solution' twice more I opted to backup to our other thunderbolt mac (which didn't take all that long), restore and NOT enable file vault as part of the first run.

Today I went to turn on file vault (because I actually enjoy the security of encrypting clients files etc.) and got the "connect power". ***!

Tried the 'solution' again twice and nothing, not even after waiting an hour or so for it to start. Then it occurred to me that I was running in clamshell mode so I opened the mac (left the monitor plugged in), re-ran the 'solution', and it has actually started encrypting again.

Now perhaps it was third time lucky with the 'solution', or maybe it's also a issue with clamshell mode.

Hopefully this info helps someone avoid the hassle of a restore, if in fact the steps I took produced anything except a random result!

Cheers

Silicont you inspired me to try Scafede's solution for the 20th+ time, but alas still the problem persists. It seems there are variables and randomness involved in the problem and the solution. <sigh>

I just tried to turn on File Vault on a brand new MacBook Air that I'm setting up for my sister-in-law. I started the encryption on battery and when prompted to plug it in, I did so. It ran all the way into "optimizing" and then stalled with the message to plug it in...which of course it is! I've tried rebooting and disconnecting/reconnecting to power. I'll submit the bug report as recommended in two posts above and see where we go from here. It seems really silly that we'd have a serious bug like this remaining in Yosemite a few months after the general release. It was pre-installed on this Air and I made sure to apply all updates (only one) prior to doing anything else.

Argh.

Carmen160 ,

your our not alone in this as you can see, there seems to be many different levels of effect some more impacting then others, I had the same issue with my brand new Pro Book 2 months ago, I discussed with Apple and they are well aware said they are working on patch/update, the key thing is this .... " are you experiencing any degradation or noticible Impact to your system" ..... I have not experienced any impact at all, ether performance or functionality .... So I personally are wait for the fix ... Others have been successful in this forum with various implementactions of a get around..... Some have just taken their machine back to An Apple Store and had the Yosemite reinstalled by Apple with out encryption checked off .... That's how I see this after reading all the posts herein ......

Thank you, Fred. I read all of the posts and came to the same conclusion. This brand new MacBook Air seems to be working fine otherwise, so I'm leaving it alone and I'll give it to my sister-in-law as planned. It is disappointing and disconcerting.

Ancient Geek (in Carmen160 clothing...)

An update on my situation. Since I am entitled to 90 days of Apple Care Support with my new MBP Retina, I tried again to contact the technical support line today. After spending 20 mins in a queue I was pleased to be looked after by a patient and helpful person. He took me through all the usual routines - reset the SMC, reset PRAM, and he asked me to perform a process very similar to Scafede's. Nothing worked - Encryption remained paused. His conclusion was it was likely a bug in the installation process of OSX and suggested I do a Time Machine backup and then erase the main partition and reinstall OSX. I decided to try this. I also decided I would enable FileVault Encryption again in the installation. I watched anxiously and patiently as the process neared completion. I am happy to report that encryption completed successfully, so those of you who have been unsure of trying this - perhaps this will encourage you.

I have been a windows / android user from the beginning. About a month ago I got an iPhone 6 Plus and have liked it so much I decided to buy a MacBook Pro 15 with retina display. Yesterday evening I took it out of the box and powered it up using the default settings. As has been previously discussed here, the FileVault is on by default. You have to uncheck it during setup to avoid it. Needless to say, I encountered the same hangup everyone else has. I stayed up most of the night trying every suggestion mentioned in this thread. Nothing worked. Chat support was unavailable. My support request had me choose a time for a support specialist to call me back. The earliest available is this afternoon. I bit the bullet and erased the startup disk and reinstalled the OSX this morning. It was about a 45 minute process. During setup I made certain to uncheck the FileVault option. All appears well now. I must admit, with all of the praise I've heard over many years about all things Apple, this incident was a real blow to my confidence. How on earth could something this significant not be addressed in some way by now? I never thought I would ever drop $2,700 for a laptop in my life. Let alone stay up most of the night and half the next day trying to resolve an issue created by a bug inherent in the default settings of the setup routine. Just unbelievable.

Hedgewig,

Did you do the Time Machine backup onto the internal HD, or an external drive? Would you mind providing a more detailed list of steps?

It seems that you're saying that I can -- from this paused encryption state -- create my first ever Time Machine backup. Then I can wipe the drive and use that backup to restore my files, but it won't bring back the broken FileVault problem. Is that correct?

I am also seeing this on a brand new MacBook Pro. On start up I decided to enable FileVault and now it's stuck with the message about needing the power connected. I've tried the different recommendations. I did kick-start it by booting into recovery mode and checking the volume, etc., but I also managed to get it to temporarily start by rebooting. In the end it goes back to being paused. Performance is not impacted.

Someone mentioned doing running diagnostics and seeing a report that the power supply was faulty. How do I do that? I'd love to see what comes up.

I would like to know what shows up also, I'm the one who found that mine shows a problem with the power supply. This is how you run the hardware diagnostic, shut down your Mac, now push the power button and press and hold the "d" key until it powers up and show the diagnostic screen. You can find the complete instructions searching for Apple hardware test.