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OS 10.14.6

For the everyday user, is it advisable to have file vault "on"?

jaybass

Why do you feel that you need it? Do you have security concerns? If not, FV might be more trouble than it's worth, mainly because, if you forget the password, you're screwed.

I never said I needed it. I am just looking for opinions. Apart from losing your password, what other problems is there?

jaybass

My opinion only

If you are on a laptop or in an environment where your system may be exposed there is no good reason not to turn file vault on. There is a zero detectable performance hit, and other than additional security requirements such as two factor authentication no real annoyance. This is even more true in macOS 11 in macOS 12 particularly with a APFS. Two factor authentication and the FileVault recovery key take care of the lost password situation. That’s not to say that lost password can’t be very inconvenient. One final item if your drive is filed vaulted and being backed up to Time Machine Time Machine is going to virtually insist that it be encrypted also.

Based on your reply, I don't think I need it. Thank you joe.

jaybass

Whether you need it or not is a personal choice. From my experience once it is up and running, it is invisible and falls more int the category of why wouldn't you use it?

Did you know that iPhones and iPads are all file vaulted and there is no way to turn it off?

Having read the following, I will try file vault "on"

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David Blache
, Mac user and developer since the 1990s
Updated 1 year ago · Author has 9.9K answers and 7.9M answer views
There are virtually no cons.

Contrary to what another answer here claims, FileVault takes only a minute or so to enable and works quietly in the background to encrypt your data with no noticeable slowdown. You can use your computer normally while it does its thing.

Also, when you enable it, you are given a recovery key so that if you forget your password you can still access it with the recovery key. You can even choose to store the recovery key in your iCloud account for safe keeping. So forgetting your password isn’t as big of an issue as some want you to believe.

The encryption it uses is very secure. With your data encrypted even if someone removes the hard drive or SSD, they cannot access your data.

You really have no excuse not to use FileVault on any recent modem Mac. It does a fine job of protecting your data.

Jaybass