Q: FileVault stuck on "Encryption Paused"

I have submitted this as a Bug Report to Apple: #18700027 "FileVault encryption paused and will not restart".

Could the other folk in this thread please also submit it to https://bugreport.apple.com/ : hopefully it will get resolved soon! 

Have the same problem!

add me to the list of exact same problem!

Is my disk encrypted even tho I am getting this message?

Also my Mac Pro does not seem to want to sleep automatically (energy settings are default), I wonder if it has to do anything to do with this....

Mine finally sent into Apple Authorized repair center.

When Trying to Install the OS X back, it couldn't detect my disk anymore, there is no longer a disk I could select.

Trying to Erase the partition also the same, the option was all greyed out, and nothing I could do.

Tried doing Internet Recovery resulted with the same symptoms finally I gave up and sent it to the shop.

I hope you guys have better luck than me.

Once all repaired, I will try installing Yosemite again without FilaVault.

Hey,

Had exact same issue, after filevault got stuck i tried restating and mac will not boot up now, tried disk recovery utilities but OS X is also not re-installing. Only thing am worried about is my data. I don't have a backup. Can anyone of you please suggest a way to get my data back before erasing the disk and re-installing.

My situation is even worse. Whenever I connect my Macbook to power cable and the Filevault encryption says it's in process but it actually stuck, no move at all. The worse thing is it causes the system to freeze so I now have to run on battery, if I plug in the power cable, the system hangs. It's so annoying.

I also submitted this bug. Hopefully Apple will look into this issue.

i have the same problem and my mac is running slow any time i plug it inn, but when on battery its normal! help!!!

I have the same problem as the two people above, after upgrading to Yosemite - it hangs or won't boot when the magsafe power adapter is connected. If the MBP is running on battery it will boot fine and operates normally.

I have a mid 2012 15" MacBook Pro, I upgraded to Yosemite and chose the default setting to use FileVault 2 Encryption. The installation seemed to go well and when I checked the privacy and security settings after installation I could see that FileVault was starting to encrypt my drive (I have a 750gb hybrid hard drive).

However when I restarted the system I started to have problems (please bear in mind that the encryption process was reporting 2 days to completion - this is a background process that is supposed to allow interruption) Then my MBP wouldn't boot at all, it would just hang on the progress bar after I'd entered my password. This was only with the power adapter connected. If I disconnected the power adapter it would boot normally. If I connected the MagSafe adapter once the system has booted the beach ball of doom appeared and the whole thing locked up. I did try launch the activity monitor (and then applied power) but I couldn't glean anything useful.

I have now had to resort to a fresh install of Yosemite with  FileVault turned off. I had to erase my main partition to do this. initial testing showed that it was operating normally with the power adapter connected after the fresh install - I'm sure FileVault is the cause.

My theory is that there is a bug in the encryption process which means it can get stuck or stops working correctly - The encryption process will only run when the external power source is applied and this is when I was having trouble. So this seems to match my symptoms. I presume the encryption process attempts to resume at boot or I f there is power connected.

I'm now in the process of running a 20 hour restore over ethernet from my time machine backup.   Fingers crossed. I would give FilwVault 2 a miss.

Right, Filevault 2 is the cause. Just to update, after almost spending the whole Saturday dealing with this (trying to reset PRAM several times, looking for ways to decrypt...). Finally It magically started decrypting process and finished successfully. I don't really know how that happened. I tried to turn it off through Disk Utility and I got the same message saying I have to wait until the encrypting finished to turn it off but somehow it still sends the process to decrypting .

It didn't take me a second thought to turn off Filevault after the decrypting done. Now my Macbook is back to normal phew...

@Whooosh12: Your situation was exactly the same as mine and so was your theory

I have been dealing with pretty much the same problem since the 16th. My MBP was stuck encrypting after being prompted to enable FileVault just after my upgrade to Yosemite.  After 2 days it looked like it was about to be finished, but then got stuck "Estimating Time Remaining" with less than a millimeter of the progress bar left. 

I spent all of yesterday troubleshooting with all the steps everyone has already mentioned.  I even played around with Parallels a little to make sure there wasn't some issue there.  Finally, using battery power I opened disk utility. Selected my drive, then clicked File, and then Decrypt Drive (may have actually been Turn Off Encryption), MBP immediately started decrypting the drive.  Here's to hoping after that completes in a few hours all will back to normal. 

Hope this helps.

I did my 6hrs restore from Time Machine and crashed at 80%.

2nd try Another 8hr restore successfully but the booting only stuck at Apple logo.

3rd installing the OS X Mavericks again and successful. I am now able to boot up with personal files and software looks in tact. Except my outlook database among with other settings Needs resetting.

Now downloading Yosemite again and this time will pass the FileVault.

Another one here to chime in on issues with FileVault and Yosemite. I had a complicating issue, I think, with Norton Security (provided by comcast) that is not compatible with Yosemite. The system was extremely sluggish..taking 10-20 min just to bring up a window, much less using an app. After 2 full days of messing with the issue, I finally booted into safe mode, removed Norton, and reinstalled Yosemite. I still can't turn off FV, but at least the system is semi usable. The other thing I noticed is I've lost my speakers (MacBook Pro, Late 2011)

BTW, I couldn't enter a bug report as it wouldn't recognize my Apple ID.

I have found a solution. To forcefully disable Filevault, you have to go to the Terminal application and enter the sudo command "sudo fdesetup disable. I suggest backing up all your data beforehand. Once it has disabled, the encrypting bar should move a bit ahead. The lagging of my computer soon after the Yosemite update was most likely due to the Filevault, as once I entered the command, it stopped lagging. I am planning on downgrading to Mavericks until this issue is formally fixed. Before I entered the command, the progress was at 26%, but after entering the command, it became 76% and is moving quite fast.

Update: Although the command does not disable FileVault if the encryption process is on prior to the command execution, it resets it. Basically kickstarting the process once more. I am currently at 90% encryption based off of the information from the "diskutil cs list" command. I have no idea what will happen after the encryption is complete, but the command does work.

Hope this helps.

~ Hik

Source: http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/managing-mavericks-filevault-2-with- fdesetup/

The command was a commonly used command. Didn't think it'll work in this situation though.

Pretty much the same thing happened to me on a late-2013 MacBook Air. Installed Yosemite as an App download over Mavericks. Everything else seems to be fine although I haven't tried my external drive with the TM backup -- probably won't until I know it won't be screwed up.

Haven't previously used FileVault in 6+ years of owning Macs but naively agreed to use it during the Yosemite set-up. Big mistake. From what I can tell, my "fatal" error was not leaving the MacBook plugged in while FileVault ran through its initial encryption routine. Apparently, there's no easy way to fix this mistake or reverse the process & opt out of FileVault but then, on the other hand, a big kick in the kiester to Apple for NOT warning people during setup that (1) encryption takes X amount of time, and that (2) the power cord needs to be plugged in for that whole time. Did, however, say NO to FileVault when doing a Yosemite install + set-up on my late-2013 iMac. All is well there.

I've been on Chat with Applecare today and they couldn't resolve it immediately. They've escalated it to engineers and upper level techs & I am to get at least an update tomorrow via phone call. Will post back to relate what happens and if a solution is provided.

Thanks to all who've posted solutions here - it may be I'll have to use one or more of them!

ETA: the link to bug reports wouldn't recognize my Apple ID either -- maybe this is only for developers or beta-users? Submitted a comment to feedback as well as my Applecare request, so hopefully there will be some action on this bug.