Suggestions
Review System Preferences
Create another user.
Log in as that user.
Use the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences. In the FileVault tab, click Enable Users… then in the sheet, ensure that all required users are enabled.
Hint
System Preferences may show that FileVault is enabled, with a recovery key, when there is encryption with Core Storage, but neither FileVault 2 nor a recovery key. I reported this bug to Apple a while ago.
Similarly, but not the same bug:
- I assume that System Preferences may show FileVault disabled on a system where most elements of FileVault are enabled.
Thorough application of Disk Utility
Ensure that the utility is applied:
- to the logical volume group, which appears to contain the logical volume.
(Where Core Storage is used, Disk Utility in 10.8 can not show the physical disk.)
If you select the LV alone, then verification will omit the partition map.
Observations
Conversion Status: Failed
If encryption was applied when the volume was created (typically: erasure with Disk Utility) then:
- there was no conversion forward
- conversion backward can not begin.
Conversion Direction: backward
This implies that:
- recently, conversion backward did begin
- previously, the logical volume was the result of conversion forward (not the result of erasure with Disk Utility).
diskutil coreStorage encryptVolume 4FDED44E-EC4B-4B11-9FF5-9C958BD8CEAB
That could apply if logical volume 4FDED44E-EC4B-4B11-9FF5-9C958BD8CEAB was not encrypted.
As the LV is already encrypted, the response from diskutil
is correct.
The question in Apple Support Communities
From the opening poster:
Does the resolution there in ASC, the bounty here in Ask Different, mean that Dennis continues to seek a more detailed answer, a better resolution?
Code -69755
-69755 appears in another discussion:
Interpreting the failure
Pessimistically but realistically:
- a failure to convert – with conversion of nothing – may indicate media failure, possibly in or around the area occupied by the extents file.
Best Answer
It should work, but if you use SuperDuper! a workaround is necessary:
I backed up my main system volume (hereinafter referred to as "System") to the unencrypted! backup volume (hereinafter referred to as "SystemBackup"). After rebooting to SystemBackup i tried to encrypt the volume SystemBackup, which wasn't successful, because the Recovery HD on the backup disk is missing. SuperDuper! only creates a copy of the system volume.
In my second/third attempt i used CarbonCopyCloner. In contrary to SuperDuper! CCC creates a backup, which usually includes the Recovery HD:
Even after completely deleting my main disk (File Vault volume & Recovery HD) to simulate a disk failure, i have been able to boot to my system backup volume.
Don't encrypt the backup volume in the Finder (e.g. control-click on the the volume) before or after backing up your main volume!
An important note from the CCC knowledge base:
Mac firmware cannot "see" FileVault-protected volumes larger than 2.2 TB when the disk is attached via USB. If attaching the disk to your Mac via Firewire or Thunderbolt is not an option, create a 2TB partition at the beginning of the external disk to work around this limitation.