There are several ways to lock down your Mac, in order to prevent third-parties from either accessing your data, or using your system for purposes you do not intend. Since your Mac consists of several layers of hardware and software, each can be secured with a password; however, there are times when you may have forgotten your password. In these instances, you will likely be locked out; however, in most cases you should be able to recover your system. Continue reading
Tag Archives: FileVault
Mac not booting or display not working? Here is how to get your files.
In order to access the files on your Mac you will usually need to have a functioning version of OS X, along with a working display so you can interact with your system. From here, you can either use file sharing on the local network to access your data, or copy your data to external drives. However, if your Mac will not boot, or its display is not working properly, then you still may be able to get your data off of it. Continue reading
Fix OS X hanging at bootup after installing 10.10.3
After installing OS X 10.10.3, you will find your Mac undergo the standard restart that is part of the update process, but then see it hang up as OS X loads, leaving you with a gray screen. This is likely happening because because of some changes made to Apple’s FileVault full disk encryption routine.
Along with the 10.10.3 update, Apple issued an update for the OS X Recovery system in Yosemite, which will adjust some of the contents of the hidden recovery partition. This partition is used for unlocking your boot drive at startup, and it appears a problem with the update for some people has caused the drive to improperly unlock the drive. Continue reading
Fix double login prompts on your Mac
When booting your Mac you should only need to supply your username and password once in order to log in. However, there may be times upon cold-booting your Mac where you enter your password at the login prompt, but after the system shows a gray boot screen as expected, it displays your login window again. This problem does not affect the functionality of your Mac, and is only a minor hiccup in how FileVault disk encryption is set up on your system. Continue reading
How to bypass FileVault when you restart your Mac
When you enable FiieVault on your Mac, you greatly enhance its security by encrypting all of its drive contents. This approach makes it exceptionally difficult for any data on the drive to be recovered; however, it does require that whenever you restart your Mac, you provide the password of an account that is authorized for unlocking the drive. Unfortunately, since the OS cannot boot until you provide this password, then this effectively locks out your ability to use your Mac, including accessing it remotely. Continue reading
Fix your Mac stuck on encrypting with FileVault
Apple’s FileVault disk encryption option in OS X is a security feature that is highly recommended, especially for portable systems that can be easily stolen. The feature is easy to set up in the Security system preferences, after which the system should take up to a few hours to encrypt the drive, depending on the size and type of drive being used. This should be relatively straightforward; however, in some cases the encryption may get stuck and show a progress bar that will not advance, even after days of waiting. Continue reading
FileVault bug makes Yosemite pause or hang at login
After having upgraded to OS X Yosemite, a number of people have found their Macs now take a relatively long time to log in. While powering on the system will reveal the login screen almost immediately, after supplying an account password the system will show a progress bar and hang for up to a couple of minutes, before finally showing the desktop and allowing the computer to be used.
If this is happening to you, then the problem is very likely from a bug with how Yosemite is handling your FileVault disk encryption that you set up prior to upgrading to Yosemite. Continue reading
How to secure individual private files in OS X
Your account in OS X should be relatively secure, and provided you store your files within the structure of your account (ie, the Documents, Music, Movies, and Photos folders in your home directory), then other users on your system will not be able to access your documents. However, this security has its limits, and may break down for several reasons, especially if you transfer documents from your Mac to other systems, or to online services which you access from other systems: Continue reading
How to secure and lock down your Mac
There are numerous ways that a thief can get into your Mac, including booting your system to another hard drive to bypass the security of the built-in operating system and access any file on disk, or simply booting to the OS X Recovery partition and using the password reset tools to change the password of an account on the system. While keychain information and other secured documents will be safe from such approaches, other non-secured files will still be accessible. Continue reading
Tips and tricks for securing your Mac
Securing your Mac and the online services you use revolves around layering your security options, so not only do you have your computing content secured by a proper password, but it is also properly packaged for security. In addition, how you configure your Mac can greatly affect how secure it is.
There are several easy approaches you can follow to ensure your Mac is as secure as possible, especially Continue reading