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I am going to big travel trip with my Mac and I have think that turn on FileVault will be a good decision, for the case if may MacBooks was stolen.

I have found the stories (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8301725, https://mybyways.com/blog/macos-filevault-and-sierra-update-get-stuck-when-running-concurrently) that sometimes updating the Mac OS can be broken if I have FileVault turned on due to errors in updating software. In the travel I will not have the ability reinstall my MacBook, so may be it will be better to not install Mac OS updates during the trip.

May be there is something else what I need to know if I am going to turn on FileVault. Some to doand not to do.

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  • It would be useful to know if the machine(s) you wish to use FileVault with have a T2 chip or not. What model MacBook(s) are we talking about?
    – Scott Earle
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 9:41
  • @ScottEarle , MacBook Pro (bought new two years ago). But I have old MacBook Air too. Why it is important? Performance or something else ?
    – ceth
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 9:50
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    It's important because if you have a T2 chip, turning on FileVault takes effectively no time (or very very little time, anyway). But without, it takes hours to complete the encryption process
    – Scott Earle
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 9:53

2 Answers 2

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Be sure to write down your password and recovery password on a piece of paper and keep in a safe place.

Be sure to have your data backed up before you leave. Using filevault reduces or eliminates your chance of third party data recovery apps succeeding ( like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotoRec ). Hence, you need to up your backup game.

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  • I'd recommend backing up before even starting FileVault. I don't think there's a significant risk that something will go wrong turning on FV, but just in case...
    – Gordon Davisson
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 21:47
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Both of the posts you've mentioned relate to scenarios where users tried to upgrade the OS while the initial encryption process was still running. I've set up several Macs with Filevault in the past years and never had (or heard of) such issues during normal operations. The encryption process even handles sleeps and restarts easily.

But if you want to be on the safe side on this, start the encryption process now and keep your Mac running to ensure that it completes before you leave.

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