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NeXTLoop · Oct 30, 2003, 12:56 PM

On the Apple Discussion Boards, as well as MacFixIt, people are reporting major problems with FileVault. It seems that individuals who have restarted a number of times, and let FileVault reclaim lost space are reporting, at times, major data loss. Their also having problems with preferences not sticking.

Has anyone else experienced this? I've been running it for several days with no problems. Of course, I only restart for system updates.

Eriamjh · Oct 30, 2003, 01:01 PM

Don't use it. It's not done yet.

wintermute1 · Oct 30, 2003, 08:22 PM

I foolishly applied filevault to my user account.
I haven't had any problems, but after reading about others experiences I tried to switch it off.

Half way through the de-encrypting process the system basically stopped functioning -- though it was still responsive (i.e., the mouse still moved.)

Even pressing cancel didn't work.

I ended up having to pull the battery out of my powerbook (15" Al, 1 Ghz) and reboot the machine.

So, i am stuck with filevault, and no way to remove it.

Definitely not ready for prime time.

Boondoggle · Oct 30, 2003, 08:33 PM

I have had ZERO problems on 2 machines, Pismo and iMacDV 400

Mr. G4 · Nov 2, 2003, 02:30 PM

First I didn't have any problem.
Then I start to notice that Safari didn't load my default homepage, I'd figured that might be my preference got corruptd...so changed it back. Then start to read about the problem and trying to turn it off but panther cannot do it. Also, all my iPhoto collection are corrupted and cannot see any pictures.

Does any one experience the same problem and what could be the fix.

If you haven't turn filevault on, just don't do it.

iDORK · Nov 2, 2003, 02:54 PM

Originally posted by NeXTLoop:
On the Apple Discussion Boards, as well as MacFixIt, people are reporting major problems with FileVault. It seems that individuals who have restarted a number of times, and let FileVault reclaim lost space are reporting, at times, major data loss. Their also having problems with preferences not sticking.

Has anyone else experienced this? I've been running it for several days with no problems. Of course, I only restart for system updates.

Yes! The only problem I am encountering is my preferences are NOT sticking.

People who have it set on and tried to set it off, you recommend NOT turning it off correct?

mcsjgs · Nov 2, 2003, 03:05 PM

Originally posted by NeXTLoop:
On the Apple Discussion Boards, as well as MacFixIt, people are reporting major problems with FileVault. It seems that individuals who have restarted a number of times, and let FileVault reclaim lost space are reporting, at times, major data loss. Their also having problems with preferences not sticking.

Has anyone else experienced this? I've been running it for several days with no problems. Of course, I only restart for system updates.

I set File Vault on after installing 10.3. It worked fine for a week. Then after doing a "reclaiming disk space" operation, I lost all my Itunes playlists, dock and preferences. Turned it off for all user accounts thereafter. Not ready for prime time.

snerdini · Nov 2, 2003, 11:13 PM

Wow, glad I read this. I was going to enable this on my iBook, but now I'm holding off.

Mr. G4 · Nov 3, 2003, 02:39 AM

Originally posted by iDORK:
Yes! The only problem I am encountering is my preferences are NOT sticking.

People who have it set on and tried to set it off, you recommend NOT turning it off correct?

I turned FV on both on my desktop and PB...the PB is brand new so my home directory is not that big so I was able to turn it back off without any broblem, while on my desktop the home directory is about 5 Gig on a 30 Gig partition, and I have about 15 Gig free space...it's impossible to turn it off, it would try to do it up to 95% and it would say an error occured and FV will not turn off.

sodamnregistered2 · Nov 3, 2003, 03:01 AM

FileCrypt ?

ja · Nov 3, 2003, 09:12 AM

a long overdue feature but still not ready
another thread

step · Nov 3, 2003, 09:59 AM

corrupted alot of my art, all backed up stuff, but nasty anyway.
copy your stuff out of the vault (to the shared folder'll do) delete it from your "vaulted" account so it's got as little in it as possible, and then turn that sukka OFF!
in my oppinion it's the 'recover unused space' routine that's dodgy, regular sparse disk images seem reliable enough when created by disk utility...and it may or may not be coincidence that only pictures with custom icons were affected (meaning they all had resource forks)

nsxpower · 11:27 AM

Originally posted by step:
corrupted alot of my art, all backed up stuff, but nasty anyway.
copy your stuff out of the vault (to the shared folder'll do) delete it from your "vaulted" account so it's got as little in it as possible, and then turn that sukka OFF!
in my oppinion it's the 'recover unused space' routine that's dodgy, regular sparse disk images seem reliable enough when created by disk utility...and it may or may not be coincidence that only pictures with custom icons were affected (meaning they all had resource forks)

When I first saw 'Your home folder is using to much space', I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry. The whole routine scared me to death ... I actually let it do the "recovery" twice. So, I am keeping my "Jaguar Home Folder" backup around for a while longer, cuz now I need to check all my photos whether they got corrupted ... and thats A LOT (~ 10Gb).

What types of files were affected JPEG / TIFF / Canon RAW? Were these custom icons created by GC / PS or some other application?

The reason I turned off File Vault was because it hogs disk space and made a lot of operations SLOW:

- Copying about 10Gb from FW400 7200rpm HD directly to the home folder felt like I was using USB 1.1 ... about 40-fscking-minutes (according to Copy dialog, I might have fallen asleep sometime inbetween). I know its encrypting on-the-fly, but on the fly in my book does not mean I can cook and eat a meal while its doing it.

- Copying from DVDs to the home folder is SLOW ... I didn't bother to look and went out for a coffee.

- Rebuilding thumbnails in iView Media Pro 1.5.7 on about 1000 Canon RAW files was SLOW ... Saving the rebuilt catalog took longer then expected too.

- iTunes kept pausing for a second or two between songs ... while the HD chucked at it ....

- Makes your Home folder about 2-3Gb larger then it actually is and slowly eats more and more ... WTF? I mean I actually saw it go through 200-400 Mb while IDLE? Weird.

All that after a clean install of Panther on a 1Ghz TiBook w/ 512Mb of RAM (hell, read the sig) ... I suspect the slow laptop HD is partially responsible for the slowness, but we don't all have dual 2Ghz PowerMac G5s w/ Ultra SCSI RAID 1 arrays ...

Anyways, I'm keeping it off and hope nothing got corrupted last night. I feel Apple should put a USE AT YOUR OWN RISK advisory out there.

PS

Why didn't Apple make a File Vault Folder in you home directory or let the user pick which folder to encrypt? I mean what the use in encrypting my mp3s?

step · Nov 3, 2003, 11:53 AM

What types of files were affected JPEG / TIFF / Canon RAW? Were these custom icons created by GC / PS or some other application?
[/B]

jpegs and psd's that were saved with no icons, i added 'em later with pic2icon or quickimage.
because file vault encrypts the whole directory it includes your caches too (good for security, but they bloat the disk image quite a bit)

frankly i'd keep my mp3's in shared, unless they're super illegal

Rychiar · Nov 3, 2003, 12:11 PM

i dont know why anyone would even use filevault unless ther super paranoid. i wouldnt chance it

nsxpower · Nov 3, 2003, 12:14 PM

Originally posted by step:
jpegs and psd's that were saved with no icons, i added 'em later with pic2icon or quickimage.
because file vault encrypts the whole directory it includes your caches too (good for security, but they bloat the disk image quite a bit)

frankly i'd keep my mp3's in shared, unless they're super illegal

Thanks for the info. I used to use pic2icon under Jaguar sometime ago, so I guess I'll be checking my files today. Regardless, I'm keeping my Jaguar backups ... just in case I miss corrupted files or run into problems later on.

I use a TiBook and it is the only computer in the house. I keep a dummy account for testing purposes only (so basically a single user machine all the time, unless someone comes to visit and wants to use my computer), so no sharing involved. Keeping everything in my Home folder makes for easier backups, especially if you use LaCie SilverKeeper ... I would need to create two different rules that can't be executed at the same time ... PITA, but its FREE!

Rychiar · Nov 3, 2003, 12:19 PM

i dont know why anyone would even use filevault unless ther super paranoid. i wouldnt chance it

nsxpower · Nov 3, 2003, 12:25 PM

Originally posted by Rychiar:
i dont know why anyone would even use filevault unless ther super paranoid. i wouldnt chance it

If your computer is just a home machine used to browse the internet / read e-mail with no heavely private information stored on it, there is ABSOLUTELY NO reason to use FV at this stage. Although, keep in mind that even very little information can be harmfull. For example, your hotmail passwd + username = identity fraud, worse if you use MSN wallet or something etc. Also, what are the chances that an average user is using the same password for everything? Very high wouldn't you say?

If you keep your bookeeping, accounting, business related documents (i.e. contracts drafts), P&C faxes/e-mails, photos of personal nature ... you want FV.

I use PGP Disk and/or Encrypted DMGs for all of the above, but it is a bit of a PITA. A working FV would not stop me from using Encrypted DMGs / PGP Disk for really private stuff ...

But I'm not paranoid