I didnt know what filevault is and I just turned it on without knowing what it is doing. It says that it is encrypting something and its going to take 1 day???? its using a lot of power and my hdd is making anoyying crackling noises. Its not loud.. I can not turn it off.. What can I do.??
MacBook Pro
It is encrypting your entire hard drive. I have it turned on and really like it. Once it is setup I never notice it is there but if my Mac was ever lost or stolen no one would be able to get to anything on it.
I don't know if there is a way to stop it once it has started. You could go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault tab and see there is an option to cancel while it is first encrypting. If it finishes and you want to turn it off, that is also where you would do it.
There is some general information on FileVault at OS X: About FileVault 2
Thank you so much for answering, this means a lot to me! But it says that it is done in 1 - 2 days.. I can't leave my mac running for that long. And I did that, but It won't let me turn it off.
Does it slow down my mac in the long run? And my hdd is making noise... It never did it like that before, it is because of file vault??
Regarding slowing down in the long run, I can notice absolutely no difference on my mid-2012 base MacBook Air.
The HDD making noise is very likely because of the FileVault encryption process running as it has to access everything on your drive and then write it back encrypted. My Air has a SSD so I didn't hear any noise when it encrypted.
Regarding shutting down, sorry but I can't help on that as I'm in the middle of something else and can't research it right now. If you don't get an answer here you may want to contact Apple support: https://www.apple.com/support/contact/
THank you so much for helping me! I appreciate it! I was freaking out because of this but your answers called me down! I was so scared about the hdd sound but it will be fine I guess! Again, thank you!
I am sorry to bother you again with all my questions but I have one more! Is turning it off easy or do I need free disc space? I have read lots of stories about where people say that they need a lot of free disk space..
Turning it off is easy but it may take awhile. I think the disk space thing was an issue with the previous version of FileVault from several years ago. The current one is actually FileVault 2 (although you aren't likely to see the 2 anywhere) and is completely different in how it works and in the space required.
Finally had time to do a little more looking. The following indicates that you can shut down your Mac while FileVault is still encrypting. It is from http://www.macworld.com/article/1162999/complete_guide_to_filevault_2_in_lion.ht ml
Note that if you shut down before the entire drive has been encrypted, startup is still restricted, but the drive itself is not fully protected—if the drive were removed, it's possible data on the not-yet-encrypted portions could be retrieved by forensics experts or crackers. So it's a good idea to let the process finish.
Thank you SO much for taking the time to help me! Is it bad if I turn off filevault right away or should I wait a bit longer.. I am afraid with all the hdd work that I might damage it..
I'm not sure if you found a cancel option mentioned in my first post. I haven't done it myself but if there is a cancel option or if the option to turn it off is available there I think you would be OK to do that. Personally, I would leave it on -- and I mean leave it complete encrypting and then leave it on for as long as you own your Mac. For me it really is a good thing as I see no negative of having it on and if my Mac is ever lost or stolen I am protected.
I Did! I tried to stop it but filevault wouldnt allow me to do it. I got a pop up window that said I had to wait untill its fully encrypted! I can definitly see now that the filevault programme is actually a good thing. I think I might leave it on! i couldnt even remember turning filevault on, I accidently did it while installing Yosemite! But I think I will leave it on! The only thing I still dont fully understand if filevault takes up a lot of hdd space?
I don't believe it does. I've seen one reference that says it uses 650 MB in most cases. I think any references to space being a problem are with the original FileVault not the current FileVault 2 which was released with OS X Lion in 2011 and is an entirely different architecture.
The following article has some information which you may want to consider -- I have a MacBook Air with SSD and don't see performance issues -- but you may depending on the hardware you have: http://osxdaily.com/2013/05/22/filevault-disk-encryption-mac/
I Have a macbook pro mid 2012 with a 750gb hdd ! I will read the article you send me carefully! Thank you again for all the help! This means a lot 🙂
This happened to me and made my MacBook Pro mid-2012 close to unusable, what i did was turning filevault off with a terminal command.
I am surprised there is that much difference between a mid-2012 base model MacBook Air and a mid-2012 MacBook Pro. I really cannot tell that it is on.
I have no clue what reason there could be to this, but it literally made my computer unusable. Couldn't even open up a webpage in Safari.The reason might be the fact that the Air has a Flash drive/SSD and the Pro a HDD
Yosemite, Filevault, I accidently turned it on?? Help..
