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Question

FileVault enabling issues

  • September 15, 2015
  • 6 replies
  • 33 views

roiegat
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So during our build process we like to activate file vault at the end of the build process. I have a package that makes sure the recovery partition is there...creates the users that are needed for FileVault. Then I run the following command to enable the FileVault:

sudo fdesetup enable -inputlist < <path to plist>

This worked great for about 5-6 months and now I'm starting to get reports that some newer machines, and even some way old machine ares are not getting FileVault turned on. Looking at the log files they all have the same error in common:

"a problem occurred while trying to enable Filevault. (-69853)"

Some of the newer machine we do a wipe and load and sometimes resolves the issue. Some of the older machines we just refreshed with new ones. But this error seems to be haunting me. I can't find anything in a google search on that particular error message, much less how to fix it.

I've even tried going in via terminal and doing the commands manually, even just trying to enable FileVault using:

sudo fdesetup enable

Nothing is working and always spitting out the same error message. So I come to you lovely folks to see if you've seen this error before and have any magic methods of getting around it.

6 replies

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  • New Contributor
  • November 14, 2017

I'm with the same issue. But I'm trying a different way:

fdesetup enable add -usertoadd username -keychain /Path/to/file.keychain

I've refactored the recovery partition, deleted the .keychain file and copy again from a working machine, but no success.


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  • Valued Contributor
  • November 17, 2017

@caio.ferreira https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/26108/users-added-to-file-vault-but-don-t-show-up-to-unlock-it

that help?


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  • New Contributor
  • November 22, 2017

Hello @jalcorn

Thank you for answer. The issue that I experiencing is different.

I cannot turn on the FileVault. When I trying for the GUI, I get the error

"Filevault can not be activated: file not saved"

and using command line the error is:

Error: A problem occurred while trying to enable FileVault. (-69853)

At this momment, I am solving it imaging the machines, but this is a workaround.


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  • Contributor
  • November 27, 2017

...


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  • Valued Contributor
  • November 28, 2017

@caio.ferreira what happens if you try to turn it on from a new user?


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  • Valued Contributor
  • November 28, 2017

@caio.ferreira Just to help rule out. Creating a new user will make sure that new user has a secure token. So if they can't turn file vault on something is crazy with the OS