MacOS – FileVault Stuck on Pause

encryptionfilevaultmacosrecovery

I just got a new 13" rMBP with Yosemite installed. I chose to enable FileVault when I set the machine up.

Now, several days later, an app called "Reverting from FileVault" shows on the list of apps consuming a lot of energy. [Edit: this app no longer shows up; everything else in this post is still true.]

I check FileVault in System Preferences, and it says "Encryption paused," followed by "Connect power adapter to resume encryption." Connecting the power adapter makes no difference, even though the machine recognizes that it's charging.

I've found several threads describing this problem, but no solutions.

I've tried resetting the SMC, clearing the PRAM, going into Recovery Mode, repairing the disk and repairing permissions. Nothing has worked. I can't stop FileVault from Terminal, and when I try to enable it, it says it's already on:

$ fdesetup status
FileVault is On.
Encryption in progress: Pending

$ sudo fdesetup disable
Password:
Enter a password for '/':
...

$ fdesetup status
FileVault is On.
Encryption in progress: Pending

$ sudo fdesetup enable
Error: FileVault is already On.

Here is the output of diskutil cs list:

$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 25ED6E9D-5D22-4846-9C2A-2698F58A1159
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    Free Space:   0 B (0 B)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 32AF849E-36C7-4587-AF3E-3BEC1D517A69
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family F3D38571-E46C-4A52-9C1A-71B9737E0A79
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Conversion Status:       Converting
        Conversion Direction:    forward
        Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     Yes
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 4362CD83-5AAB-4DA5-BD4E-17BC5CCAEB49
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          249820610560 B (249.8 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   Paused
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

When I search Console for corestorage, I get many entries like the following:

12/13/14 8:41:45.067 PM corestoraged[155]: 0x7fff78553300 resumeBackgroundConversion: background conversion started/resumed for lv 4362CD83-5AAB-4DA5-BD4E-17BC5CCAEB49.

And others like this:

12/13/14 8:41:45.000 PM kernel[0]: CoreStorageLogical::resumeBackgroundTransform: thread already running

Any suggestions? The machine is brand new, so there isn't a HUGE amount of data on it (nor are there any Time Machine backups), but I'd like to avoid having to wipe the drive.

If there's nothing I can do, does Apple have a history of issuing hotfixes for issues like this?

Best Answer

I asked after this while attending WWDC 2015 and was told that the "Encryption Paused" issue was addressed in 10.10.3.

The root cause was a problem with resizing the CoreStorage volume during the encryption process. When the CoreStorage volume was unable to grow, the encryption was paused and could not resume until the resize issue was addressed.

To fix this issue:

  1. Update your Mac to 10.10.3 or boot from an alternate drive which is running 10.10.3.
  2. Unlock the encrypted drive if necessary
  3. Open Terminal

  4. Run the following command to get your Mac's disk identifier:

    diskutil list

  5. Once you have the disk identifier information, run the following command with root privileges:

    fsck_cs -y disk_identifier_goes_here

  6. fsck_cs should repair the CoreStorage volume and address the resizing issue. As part of the output, it should show that encryption is resuming.

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