Filevault encryption is stuck

Thanks. It tells me the process isn't moving. It keeps going between "Failed" and 20%. This seems to indicate there is some truth to what I have read in other articles that if the process encounters a disk error, it gets stuck in an endless loop. I guess I'll have to wipe my drive now?

I've been experimenting this week, reinstalling macOS in different ways and then turning on FileVault. Each time I've tried this the encryption process has been extremely slow -- to the point where I tried running memtest86+ to see if I had some bad RAM (apparently I don't). I've also run Disk Utility on the HDD repeatedly. It's supposedly fine.

Currently, after 20 hours of encryption (mid-2011 27" iMac with 1TB HDD, core i7, 16GB RAM, High Sierra fresh install), I'm up to about 25 percent done.

So, infinite patience certainly helps.

With previous versions of macOS, I would have expected FileVault encryption, even on a large spinning disk, to take a few hours. Something about High Sierra's implementation of FileVault definitely needs improvement. (I'm tempted to just put Linux on this old box. I could have it installed, updated, and running on a fully encrypted disk in 30 minutes -- which makes the FileVault slowness so perplexing.)

What would be nice, given all the threads about this exact subject on discussions.apple.com and elsewhere, would be a definitive word from an Apple engineer telling us that they have identified this problem (extraordinarily slow FileVault conversion) and are working on a fix. We all just seem to be spinning our wheels here.

Back up all data before proceeding. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select Disk Utility. In the Disk Utility window, select the icon of the startup volume from the list on the left. Then, from the menu bar, select

File ▹ Turn Off Encryption

Enter the login password of a user authorized to unlock the volume, or the alternate decryption key that was generated when you activated FileVault.

You can then restart as usual, if the system is working. Decryption will be completed in the background. It may take several hours, and during that time performance will be reduced.

Thank you for providing a solution--I'm also experiencing this same exact problem. I have a Macbook Air Mid 2011, running Yosemite 10.10.1

However, in Recovery mode, OS X Utilities, I'm finding that the Turn Off Encryption command in the File menu is disabled (greyed out). So, I cannot activate it. I do have the startup volume selected, and the volume is unlocked. Any suggestions why this is disabled?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

You need to reboot your Mac to Recovery Mode by holding the Command-R keys down when you hear the boot chimes. Then go to Disk Utility and select your boot drive, followed by choosing the option to unlock the drive from the File menu. When unlocked, go to the First Aid tab and use the "Repair Disk" button there to repair your drive. Do the same for the boot drive device (the item above your boot volume name in the sidebar), which will check and repair the drive's partition scheme. When this is done, reboot your system and see if the stuck encryption progress will continue.

Topher,

Thank you for your advice! I followed it precisely, repairing both the for both the drive and the drive device (both were ok). Unfortunately, FileVault encryption is still hanging. I'd be grateful for any further suggestions.

I've never had a single problem with my machine before this. Installation of Yosemite was uneventful outside of this problem. Boy, am I sorry I chose to activate FileVault. Here's a screenshot in case it helps. (The process bar will complete, and then reset to this ~80% level indefinitely.)

I'm having the same issue. Anyone else could figure how to stop that encyption? it's been encrypting over a week now....stuck at 72%

I'm experiencing the same thing, I stupidly clicked yes to file vault and now in over a week it hasn't encrypted anything and keeps estimating a time and has not encrypting anything at all, the most I got from it is that it will take 60 days. Sometimes periodically it will show a full bar but other than that it has done nothing. My mac is so slow its ridiculous. Somebody please help!!!

I have the same problem too, it ***** up my power badly.

Also, the problem is still there after repairing the disk in recovery mode.

Any other suggestion to help? Admin please?

And this is my screen shot:

I have the same problem, it has been going for four days now. I also have a mid 2011 MacBook Air, which seems to be common in this thread. Any help would be appreciated.

Does this article help?

<http://osxdaily.com/2017/02/08/view-filevault-progress-mac>

i am stuck on 9%...

another command to check the progress is:

$ fdesetup status FileVault is On. Encryption in progress: Percent completed = 9

after a full day it went up to 10% so i guess it might be a matter of infinite patience...

I have a 500gig SSD and it has taken 7 days to complete. If I would of know this I would of never turned it on.

it slowed my computer to a crawl for the last 7 days.