Takes forever to log in

[DanL]

MacBook Pro w/Sierra. I enter my password to log in, and it just SITS for thirty seconds or more before actually logging in. What's going on, and how can I speed it up. This isn't right.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

It could be a couple of things:

• Do you have FileVault enabled?
• What Login Items are loading?
• How much free space is available?

C

 

[DanL]

FileVault IS turned on (by my employer, who won't allow me to turn it off). The delay has been getting longer and longer. Actually, right now, it is up to several minutes. What might FileVault be doing that is taking so long, and how can that time be reduced?

That being said, nothing else about the machine seems particularly slow.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Personally, I dislike FileVault, as it causes more issues than it prevents. It basically encrypts the drive, and it needs to unencrypt when you login and access files. Sadly, many folks have lost their data due to FileVault itself becoming corrupted, which is why I never recommend using it. Some businesses do require it, which can cause issues like you are experiencing.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to optimize it, as there are any controls for it. In addition, if you are running low on free space, it can cause slowness, as FileVault needs extra space to encrypt/decrypt files as they are accessed. If free space gets critically low, then you may not be able to login at all.

C

 

[DanL]

Not really running low on free space. About 2/3 of the disk is used, with 100GB remaining.

 

[DanL]

So here's a good one. I try to turn off FileVault. I get a message "Filevault is encrypting the data on your disk. Wait until your disk is fully encrypted beforeturning off FileVault."

Duh whaaaat? I want to turn off FileVault specifically to keep everything from being encrypted!