Cannot turn on FileVault on MacBook Air M4

FileVault is fully supported in macOS 27.0.1 on your M4 MacBook Air.

See the following from Apple: If you can’t turn on FileVault on Mac – Apple Support

It is possible to turn on FileVault with a Terminal command, though you should check the status first.

Fix FileVault Using Terminal

• Open Terminal (Spotlight search or in Applications > Utilities).
• Check your current FileVault status by typing:

fdesetup status

• Enable FileVault with your administrator credentials by typing:

sudo fdesetup enable

• Enter your Mac login password when prompted and save the generated recovery key in a secure location

It is "fde", not "fd".

Which did you try? Unix commands are a bear to recall and to type. It took me several tries to get everything right.

Check your current FileVault status by typing:

fdesetup status

Enable FileVault with your administrator credentials by typing:

sudo fdesetup enable 

Then check for a new status by again typing:

fdesetup status

Perseverance Furthers,

Michael

Thanks for your helpful advice. I followed the "If you can't..." link to Recovery mode and Disk Utility First Aid. I'd tried that before, but went ahead and ran first aid on on mac HD 3 or 4 more times in various ways until it reported the HD seemed to be ok.

Then when I tried to turn on fileVault, it failed again, but the terminal commands did turn it on!

I was reluctant to try the terminal at first, because Unix has never played well for me, but this time it was worth the try for me.

Thanks, Michael

I have an M5 Max 18/40 64GB Mac Studio running Golden Gate 27.0.1. The issue is that I cannot turn on FileVault. I have tried:

• System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> FileVault [When I toggle it "on", a few seconds later it toggles back to "off"]
• Disk Utility.app -> First Aid [Runs cleanly and reports no errors found]
• Terminal -> sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus account name [Reports Secure Token is ENABLED]
• MacOS Recovery [Installed a clean Golden Gate 27.0.1. but FileVault still will not turn "on"]
• Create a new Administration account [Tried to turn "on" FileVault using this new account but it still will not turn "on"]
• Terminal -> sudo fdsetup enable [Returned "sudo: fdsetup: command not found"]

A couple of questions:

1) What am I doing wrong that the "fdsetup" is not recognized?

2) How do I resolve this and turn FileVault "on"?

Thanks, Frank

Hi everyone, APPLE ESPECIALLY,

I’m on M2 Pro Mac mini with Golden Gate clean install. Had to do the FileVault via Terminal, received my recovery key. Guess what? Went to reset my mac password with that recovery key and didn’t work! What a surprise!

Halo_Strider wrote:

Hi everyone, APPLE ESPECIALLY,

Note that this is Apple Support Communities, not Apple Support. “We” are users like you and have no power to implement any suggestions. Apple employees are generally precluded from even reading these forums, with the exception of moderators who only monitor for compliance with the T&C.

To have Apple consider your feedback, submit it here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple