How to Install Filevault for Apple

Warning: The University of Utah and the Systems and Technology office take no responsibility for damages, data loss or performance issues from enabling encryption. If you choose to enable encryption yourself, back up your laptop files before proceeding. If you do not feel comfortable following these steps consider taking your laptop to a third party tech support for help.

Step 1: Please Read before Starting

When encrypting your laptop, a recovery key will be generated and displayed. You should make a copy of this and keep it in a safe place. If you forget your computer password, the recovery key is used to unlock your encrypted hard drive. IMPORTANT Do not lose your recovery key. If you get locked out of your computer and do not have the recovery key, there is nothing that can be done besides wiping the computer.

After turning FileVault on, you need to restart your computer to start the whole disk encryption. You can use your computer while it is being encrypted.

After your computer has been encrypted, log in to your computer as usual with your username and password.. The whole disk encryption is invisible and seamless while you use your computer.

Step 2: Turning on FileVault

Unfortunately, SYSTECH cannot help with student encryption. Please follow this link to find Apple’s detailed instructions on enabling FileVault.