Unwanted FileVault disk encryption on external hard drive

Question

After returning home from a week away &amp; turning on my iMac, I now can&#x27;t access my external hard drive.It&#x27;s a 1TB Western Digital My Book Essential.I&#x27;ve tried ALL of my passwords.. including old passwords from a decade ago.EVERYTHING is on there.. tens of thousands of family/holiday/motorbike photos, old university work, films, music etc..I contacted WD and they said &#x27;From the screenshot attached, I can see that the drive is locked by File Vault disk encryption by MAC which means there is nothing we can do from our end, I will advise you contact Apple for support.&#x27;What can I do..?!Thank you.Message was edited by: Matchless1958

Loner T · Answer

Has this disk been moved between Macs? Was FileVault2 enabled on this disk?

Matchless1958 · Answer

No, it&#x27;s only ever been used with this iMac.I&#x27;ve not heard of FireVault2 so I&#x27;ll say no.I&#x27;ve added a screenshot of the two windows.

Loner T · Answer

From OSX Terminal, can you post the output of the following commands?diskutil listdiskutil cs list

Matchless1958 · Answer

Lukes-iMac:~ LukeTurner$ diskutil list/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1   2:                  Apple_HFS Untitled                999.3 GB   disk0s2   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3/dev/disk1 (external, physical):   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *999.5 GB   disk1   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1   2:          Apple_CoreStorage My Book                 999.2 GB   disk1s2   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk1s3/dev/disk3 (external, physical):   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:        CD_partition_scheme                        *804.4 MB   disk3   1:     Apple_partition_scheme                         700.4 MB   disk3s0   2:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk3s0s1   3:                  Apple_HFS WD SmartWare            274.9 MB   disk3s0s2Offline                                 Logical Volume My Book on disk1s2                                 BEE4D9CD-46D4-4039-892F-BB28F0B64EA9                                 Locked EncryptedLukes-iMac:~ LukeTurner$

Matchless1958 · Answer

Last login: Wed Oct 12 20:56:44 on ttys000Lukes-iMac:~ LukeTurner$ diskutil cs listCoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)|+-- Logical Volume Group 1D3E582B-889C-47F5-A926-A202C1770F53    &#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;    Name:         My Book    Status:       Online    Size:         999157620736 B (999.2 GB)    Free Space:   18964480 B (19.0 MB)    |    +-&lt; Physical Volume 081525F5-0CDB-412E-9581-CEE690092589    |   ----------------------------------------------------    |   Index:    0    |   Disk:     disk1s2    |   Status:   Online    |   Size:     999157620736 B (999.2 GB)    |    +-&gt; Logical Volume Family CF05F8A0-8968-43F5-8269-D8B5DBBECD63        ----------------------------------------------------------        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS        Encryption Status:       Locked        Conversion Status:       Complete        High Level Queries:      Fully Secure        |                        Passphrase Required        |                        Accepts New Users        |                        Has Visible Users        |                        Has Volume Key        |        +-&gt; Logical Volume BEE4D9CD-46D4-4039-892F-BB28F0B64EA9            ---------------------------------------------------            Disk:                  -none-            Status:                Locked            Size (Total):          998786334720 B (998.8 GB)

Loner T · Answer

Did someone else have access to your Mac when you were away? Was it encrypted by someone in your household, accidentally or otherwise? Without a passphrase, you will need to take it to the closest Apple store.This link describes the method generally used to encrypt disks on OSX.Also, you can try to turn off FileVault2 using Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support and provide an administrative password to disable FV2.

Matchless1958 · Answer

I live with my girlfriend &amp; we were both away together so there&#x27;s absolutely no way someone else accessed it.I&#x27;ll give turning off FireVault2 a go &amp; see where that gets me.Thank you. I appreciate your help.

Matchless1958 · Answer

It appears my FireVault isn&#x27;t on though? The prompt under &#x27;Security &amp; Privacy&#x27; says &#x27;Turn On FireVault...&#x27;

Loner T · Answer

Right-click on the whole/outermost encrypted disk, and check for a Decrypt option.

Matchless1958 · Answer

Where am I looking for that? Under &#x27;Security &amp; Privacy&#x27; or Disk Utility? The icon of the external hard drive in question doesn&#x27;t even appear on my desktop at the moment.

Loner T · Answer

If you do not see the disk on your desktop, enable Hard Disks under Finder -&gt; Preferences. Do you see the volume/disk on your Desktop?

Matchless1958 · Answer

It&#x27;s an external disk. The external disk box is ticked as I can see my USB that&#x27;s plugged in but no 1TB hard drive.

Loner T · Answer

Since the disk showed up correctly in diskutil cs list output, we can use it interactively in Terminal.Rundiskutil cs decryptLV BEE4D9CD-46D4-4039-892F-BB28F0B64EA9 -stdinpassphraseYou will be prompted for a password. First use your standard password that you use for login. Try other passwords that you have used.Does anyone have remote access to your Mac?

Matchless1958 · Answer

Last login: Wed Oct 12 20:58:28 on ttys000Lukes-iMac:~ LukeTurner$ diskutil cs decryptLV BEE4D9CD-46D4-4039-892F-BB28F0B64EA9 -stdinpassphraseThe Core Storage Logical Volume must be unlockedLukes-iMac:~ LukeTurner$

Matchless1958 · Answer

Nobody. It&#x27;s a personal iMac that&#x27;s used just by me.I&#x27;ve just noticed on System Preferences that there&#x27;s something called &#x27;FUSE for macOS&#x27;. I&#x27;ve no idea what that is? I certainly don&#x27;t remember downloading anything with that name for any reason. Clicking it opens another window that states it&#x27;s not installed.