How to Manage FileVault to Maintain Remote Access to Your Mac

The FileVault security system, introduced many years ago on macOS, prevents anyone from starting or restarting your computer and accessing its startup volume, which is encrypted. (FileVault handled encryption in its early days, but it is now hardware-managed and always enabled with any Intel Mac with a T2 Security Ship and with all Apple Silicon M-series Macs.)

This poses a problem if you use Remote Screen Access to use your Mac. If you need to make a change that requires restarting your Mac, it will return directly to the FileVault login screen, which cannot be accessed through remote control software. The password must be entered on this screen to unlock the startup drive and boot into macOS.

Manually restart and bypass FileVault

If you need to restart manually after making a change, you can use a Terminal command that will restart your computer in macOS. only once.

1. Make changes on your remotely controlled Mac before restarting. This may include installing software ending with a restart option. Do not click this button.
2. At the terminal, enter sudo fdesetup authrestart -delayminutes 0 and press Return. Together 0 to the number of minutes you want the Mac to wait, or leave it to 0 to restart immediately.
3. After restarting the Mac, you should be able to resume your remote session and access the login window to enter the account password.

There are three important reservations:

• This only affects the reboot created by the fdesetup order. Subsequent restarts will go through the FileVault connection.
• Starting a Mac after shutting it down or shutting it down (for example, via a HomeKit or other remote-controlled outlet or UPS) still requires a FileVault connection.
• It is possible that fdesetup rebooting will fail and not allow you to return.

Disable FileVault to ensure remote access

You can disable FileVault in System Settings > Privacy and security > File Vault. Then, every time your Mac restarts, it will still allow access from the main macOS login window. It works in case of power outage, crash and auto restart, or manual restart. (Make sure System Settings > Energy “Auto start after power failure” is enabled.)

However, this carries the risk of your data falling into the wrong hands. With FileVault disabled, anyone with access to your computer can reboot it into recoveryOS, typically used for Disk Utility or reinstalling macOS, and easily recover all your stored files.

Disabling FileVault is a common practice for Macs used as servers, which are typically stored in locked rooms, secured with biometric or other unique passcodes, and monitored by security cameras.

For a home user, you need to consider whether your Mac leaves the house, how vulnerable you are to theft, and whether you're concerned about your data ending up in someone else's hands.

With Find My enabled, if the Mac is connected to the Internet, you can lock and restart it remotely to prevent access. However, thieves are unlikely to connect a Mac before trying to access the data if they are sophisticated enough to extract your information.

This Mac 911 article answers a question submitted by igamesnews reader Cynthia.

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