Unexpected FileVault activation after macOS Tahoe upgrade on Mac Studio

Mr Douglas / Barney-15E:

Something not clear to me from Apple’s articles … and something not available to me as I’m still limited to an Intel T1 Mac …

… when FV is turned “On” (after it being off), is the user still presented with a choice to either “Save Recovery Key to iCloud” or “Save Manually / Locally” ?

Thanks, that helps. I interpret it (for Apple Silicon) as no FV uses just a hardware key, FV uses a more complex key based on hardware and the login password. The latter seems (to me) to be more secure, at least technically…practically it’s probably irrelevant almost all of the time. If Apple is activating it by default then that also suggests it offers increased security. Fine by me, I was already using FV so I see no need to stop at this point.

Chattanoogan wrote:

Mr Douglas / Barney-15E:

Something not clear to me from Apple’s articles … and something not available to me as I’m still limited to an Intel T1 Mac …

re: Macs with T1 chip 2016 and 2017

I do not know of a Mac that use a T1 chip to run the macOS 26...(?)

seems self explanatory, Save Recovery Key to iCloud or Save Locally

ref: Protect data on your Mac with FileVault - Apple Support

ref: Intro to FileVault - Apple Support

[Edited by Moderator]

I tend to agree w/ your assessment.

BUT … how is your FV Recovery Key backed-up ?

If you selected “save locally” make SURE you REALLY have it.

At the risk of exposing my OCD-side, I validate mine quarterly.

That validation process initially revealed that the code I thought was the FV Recovery Code for 5 years … wasn’t. 😳

No, you can’t just turn it off. The switch doesn’t work. Note says file vault can’t be enabled (even though it is on by default) because automatic login is enabled. But the automatic login note says it cannot be enabled because FileVault is enabled. No work around that I can find.

That is correct … I’m running a “well loved” 2017 MBP “marooned” at Ventura.

So it works the same way … thank you.

I have attempted to deactivate on a fresh install. After the usual hurdles, the button just bounces blue again

I just upgraded to Tahoe and the same thing happened - it activated FileVault without asking. This had the bad (to me) side effect that it disabled auto-login. Apple needs to fix this.