The most frustrating thing is that Apple can’t give you even an approximate estimate. If FileVault is enabled later, the speed of encryption depends on the size of the drive and can range from 20 minutes to 5-6 hours. With older MacBooks, it takes less than 10 minutes to enable if the disk is almost empty. On a brand new MacBook (with T2 security chip), the process is instantaneous. How long it takes to enable/disable FileVault MacBook Pro 13-inch 2020 TouchBar, 16GB RAM.MacBook Pro 15-inch 2016 TouchBar, 16GB RAM.Then I erased the disk and reinstall OS, so around 10GB of space was used. First, I had it with 87GB used space on 121GB disk. MacBook Pro 13-inch early 2015, 8GB RAM.With MBA I performed two tests: one with OS Yosemite 10.10.5 and another with Mojave 10.14.5. MacBook Air 13-inch early 2014, 4GB RAM.The Macintosh HD drive size is 180Gb because the rest of the drive is under Bootcamp. To find out whether FileVault slows down Macs and how long encryption and decryption processes take, I tested the FileVault on 5 different Macs with the following configurations: The Impact of FileVault on Mac Performace FileVault can help prevent unauthorized access to your data and protect against data loss or theft.Īnd now, let’s go over the basics. When FileVault is enabled, all data on the drive is encrypted and can only be accessed with the correct login password or recovery key. So I answered the following: Is Mac Filevault Necessary?įileVault is a disk encryption feature in macOS that protects the data on your Mac by encrypting the hard drive. What happens if he forgets the password or recovery key?Īnd, also he wasn’t sure that FileVault was really needed.I asked him why he didn’t want to enable encryption, and he named three things he was concerned about. Once he realized what he did, he called in me in panic and asked what his options were. He bought a refurbished MacBook, and when he was setting things up, he checked the box that turns on the FileVault.

Yesterday my friend called me and asked me how to stop FileVault on Mac.

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File vault mac