Ventura File Vault

maxmaxie wrote:

Yes - I saw that on laptops when upgrading them too. Perhaps it's something unique to the Mac Studio?

And I now read that turning it off is no big deal on a T2 Mac like you mentioned. In the old days it would take hours/days to decrypt 3.5TB of internal storage. I turned it off and there was no fanfare. Just turned off. No progress bar decrypting data...

For a T2 Mac or Apple Silicon Mac, Filevault now only adds another layer of protection by providing a password to unlock the Mac which happens almost instantaneously. See this Apple article with the relevant section highlighted:

Encrypt Mac data with FileVault - Apple Support

Note: If you have an iMac Pro or another Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip, the data on your drive is already encrypted automatically. However, turning on FileVault provides further protection by requiring your login password to decrypt your data.

Filevault on a 2018+ Mac with T2 chip or Apple Silicon Mac works completely differently than on older Macs where Filevault was actually using software to encrypt the drive data. With 2018+ Macs, Filevault is just adding an extra password to the mix...Unfortunately Apple doesn't provide any other explanation so we don't know whether this is also encrypting the encryption keys stored within the security enclave or if it is just a simple password feature.

maxmaxie wrote:

I understand how to do that. The question is WHY did MacOS turn this on without asking... and not the first time I've seen it either.

Does your Mac have any Profiles or is it a managed computer; is it your personal computer or is it an employer device?

I didn’t pay attention in Ventura, but in previous versions, if it was a MacBook, it would ask during the setup assistant with the default being on.

An Apple Silicon Mac is encrypted always. It doesn’t have a T2 chip. The Secure Enclave is part of the SoC. Turning on FileVault just sets decryption to the users instead of automatic. You should be able to disable FileVault with your admin user authentication. It will still be encrypted.

dialabrain wrote:

FWIW, FileVault is disabled by default in all versions of macOS. I can't tell you why it would be enabled in your case. Perhaps a third-party app caused the problem.

It is checked on by default in the macOS Setup Assistant on Mac computers will all-flash internal storage.

Jack

Jack-19 wrote:

It is checked on by default in the macOS Setup Assistant on Mac computers will all-flash internal storage.

I'll have to take your word for it. The last time I saw Setup Assistant was two years ago when I bought my M1 MacBook Air. If it was there, I would have disabled it.

To turn off FileVault, see: Turn off FileVault encryption on Mac - Apple Support.

If you need more help from Apple, I recommend you contact them: Apple Support.

Jack

FWIW, FileVault is disabled by default in all versions of macOS. I can't tell you why it would be enabled in your case. Perhaps a third-party app caused the problem.

No progress bar decrypting data...

Because nothing was decrypted.