how to use mac os disk utility for encryption

The feature is particularly good if you’re a MacBook user that regularly takes your laptop on the move where there’s a greater chance of it becoming lost or misplaced.įileVault offers peace of mind and that counts for a lot. If you’re concerned about the privacy of your files and user data, and your computer contains information that shouldn’t be seen without authorized access, you should absolutely use FileVault disk encryption. Thankfully, 2003 was a long time ago and now, with FileVault 2, you can expect full-disk encryption and the ability to use the Find My Mac feature to wipe your drive remotely if ever your system falls into suspect hands. The functionality was poor, the implementation was shoddy, and only the home directory could be encrypted. But to say it wasn’t very good would be an understatement. From then on, any new and changed data will be automatically locked down and password protected on boot to prevent unauthorized access.įileVault was originally introduced to Mac back in 2003 on OS X 10.3 Panther. Once FileVault is enabled on your Mac, all existing data will be encrypted. It's designed to encrypt your Mac's hard drive and all of the files located on the drive using 128-bit AES encryption with a 256-bit key. What is FileVault?įileVault is macOS’s built-in disk encryption feature. But feel free to sing the words as you read them and dance along at the same time. This won’t be a literal song and dance, unfortunately, (we don’t have the natural rhythm) but we will tell you all you need to know about FileVault, as well as how and why you should use it.

Apple has never really made a big song and dance about how the feature protects your data or why you should bother with it, so we’re going to do it instead. But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.įeatures described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X.įileVault is one of those Mac features that you know is there but are never really sure what it’s there for. So here's a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article.

How to use mac os disk utility for encryption