Can't install El Capitan b/c of Filevault Encryption?

i just tried these steps and now filevault is decoding!

1. reboot
2. reset pram with option+cmd+p+r
3. booting with cmd+r the utility disc
4. select the partition encrypted
5. click file and unlock
6. repair the partition disk
7. repair permission on partition
8. repair macintosh hd
9. select the partition encrypted
10. click file and decoding if clickable (months ago was grey and this procedure did not work!!!)

a warning told me that the decoding was started!!! I hope someone can solve the issue with this procedure!

...now I can install El Capitan 😀

I have the same problem. I can't see the File->Decoding on Yosemite in the Disk Unitily.

do you have "turn off encryption"? try this

I have the same problem and found these solutions online however after going through the steps I encountered a new problem due to my partition on the disk. So to summarise what I found out, this problem is caused by the FileVault that has detected a defect in the disk whilst encrypting it and it is now caught in a loop attempting to encrypt that section. Fixing the disk should jump the FileVAult back on track and make it able to finish encryption. so it can then be switched off.

1. Reboot your Mac and hold Command-R at the startup sound and wait until the machine moves into Recovery Mode.

2. Open Disk Utility from the menu that appears on screen.

3. Select your boot drive from the list, if you have no partitions or other disks mounted it should be obvious it is a single disk there , perhaps called Macintosh HD.

4. Unlock it if it is locked then hold Command button down while you select it again from the list on the left side.

5. Several options appear available to click now, and hopefully that main disk will show the First AID menu, in blue when selected at the top of the window and several actions for it in light grey at the bottom of the window. You can either verify for faults in the disk that are causing the FileVault to loop and never finish encrypting or to immediately repair whatever is wrong. Either way, the disk needs fixing which is what people seem to suggest is the case for the long encrypting estimates. Mine alternates between 35 and 50 days to go!

6. After you have repaired the disk, restart the disk and log in as you would normally and check again in the Security&Privacy menu from System Preferences that the FileVault encryption has picked up on the encryption and is no longer showing crazy estimates. Some people seem to manage to fix it that way.

IF STILL NOT FIXED,

Other users have suggested going back into the recovery mode again and choosing at step 2 to re-install the OS X completely, this time not allowing the FileVault to be turned on at all when prompted.

I have attempted that and got almost up to the end with the OS X re-installation when I got the following message : "The Core Storage operation is not allowed on a sparse logical volume group. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again"

Needless to say I have tried it several times and each time in the last minutes of the re-installing I got the same message, so I am stuck at another stage now.

Hopefully though, one of these previous steps will be enough to fix your disk, if you find a solution please post it.

Thanks,

Ela

I already tried these solutions and none worked.

i also tried before, but this morning all worked! try it, it's free!

did any one found any solution as mine is saying 48 days ,520 days and sometimes 6 hours ,going u and down after evry second

what to do

kindly advise best

Apple Support techs told me the only way to fix this is to wipe the hard disk and reinstall the OS. That seems pretty unacceptable to me, but showing it will take 3,980 days to complete the encryption isn't very acceptable either.

I had this issue too, and have now fixed it!

To fix it yourself, follow these steps:

1: Download El Capitan.

2: Backup your internal HDD onto an external HDD using Time Machine.

3: Reboot your Mac and enter recovery mode upon startup (Done by holding Cmd+R at reboot).

4: Open Disk Utility and ERASE your Mac's internal HDD selecting the non-encrypted option. (Mac OS Extended (Journaled))

5: Recover your system from your external HDD which you earlier backed up with Time Machine.

6: Done! Your FileVault encryption process will now be turned off and you are free to install El Capitan!

This process took me about 30-45minutes as my HDD only contained 150GB of used data, so the length of this process will vary with the quantity of data you are backing up/restoring.

I hope this fix works for you all as it did for me!

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I cannot make a Time Machine backup. Time Machine will backup 14 to 20 GB and then stop, citing an undefined error. I have discussed this thoroughly with several Apple Support Staff and they tell me they can't solve that problem, leaving me with the only option of wiping the hard disk and then reinstalling the OS and my programs, one by one.

daw247 wrote:

El Capitan is downloaded and ready to install but when I click on the hard drive it won't let me--saying my FileVault is getting encrypted. I went "system preferences" then "security & privacy" and put in security password. I clicked on "turn off FileVault" but it won't let me saying the encryption needs to be done first. The estimating time remaining is "21 hours remaining" but goes up or down by a minute, never really going down.

What is the exact error message, word for word.

Allen,

I had tried the other suggestions in this list, but yours was the only one that worked for me for my MacBook Air. The backup took about an hour.

After months of sloooowww Yosemite, a stalled filevault and tons of failed fixes from other well meaning posters. This actually WORKED! Thank you Allen.UK!!! It took a few days to back up (yes...THAT slow, plugged in, no power save mode). A few min to erase, 2 hours to recover. Filevault finally DEFEATED!!! Still slowly updating to El Capitan (might have to get some help on this one too). But...did I mention filevault is unlocked. Happy, happy, happy. Can you hear the smile? Thank you for posting this.

FileVault has corrupted your drive, I know cause it happened to me. The only thing you can do is restore the OSX by going to the Mac store or connecting it in "target" mode and restoring a "fresh" copy of OSX. Once complete, you can restore from your time machine (hopefully you backed up prior). You can restore Yosemite Time Machine backup on top of El Capitan to get all your data back. You can't restore El Capitan back onto a Yosemite install. Good luck !

My el capition installation gets indefinitely held up at the last stage of the progress bar with the message "about a second remaining"... I have wiped the entire hard drive. But there is one mounted image on utilities that I can't unmount or erase, it is called os x base systems.

Please help with this.