Level 1 (4 points)

FileVault running causing the prompt to enter password twice?

My computer wants me to renter my password right after I just entered it. I understand it might be because I have fire vault running? How do I know if I am running filevault?

Senior with a MacBook pro.

And I am no pro.

Posted on Oct 11, 2026 11:37 AM

4 replies

HWTech

Level 9 (78,350 points)

Oct 12, 2026 10:19 AM in response to Arm-Hammer923

If you are running macOS 26.6 Tahoe as your signature mentions, then you can easily turn FileVault off, then back on to have the FileVault password & your macOS user account get back in sync so only one login is required....make sure to allow any other macOS user accounts to be enabled if they need to be able to unlock FileVault during boot. This process should be very quick since you are only changing the need to provide a password....you are not decrypting & re-encrypting the drive.

For people with older models 2017 & earlier which are not T2 Macs, this is not recommended since it would take time to decrypt the drive & even more time to encrypt it again. For those older systems with older versions of macOS prior to macOS 12, it is easier to just use the change password option in the "FileVault" System Preferences (go to the other tab there for an option to change the password....you can use the same existing password...it will recombine the FileVault password with your login password.

For any macOS 12+ on the non-T2 Macs....I don't know if the same is possible with the new System Settings interface....there may be another way to re-link them, but I never had to do it on with those versions of macOS.