104 Macworld • February 2022HELP DESK
additional bar in place: your drive is
encrypted and its files unavailable
until there’s been a successful macOS
login. At that point, the Mac enters
into its normal operation mode. (With
Intel Macs with a T2 Security Chip
and on all M1 Apple silicon Macs,
the drive’s contents are always
encrypted, but the drive is mounted
at start-up without an additional step
if you haven’t enabled FileVault. Read
our explanation from last year [fave.
co/3DAzTX8] about how T2 and M1
Macs interact with FileVault.)
The strong security FileVault offers
can also be a problem. Suppose
you forget your password (unlikely,
I hope!). Or something in macOS
breaks or is corrupted in the account
login process or files (unlikely, but ithappens). In those cases, you may
be unable to gain access without
knowing your Recovery Key or if you
are able to log into iCloud to retrieve
a version Apple holds in escrow for
you. (If you can’t immediately find
your Recovery Key or remember
whether you chose the iCloud escrow
option, read “Is your macOS FileVault
Recovery Key current? Here’s how to
check [fave.co/3y3NGo1].”)
Apple relies on the FileVault
Recovery Key to let you regain access
to your Mac or to reset your account
password when you’ve forgotten it.
Unfortunately, the company doesn’t
provide a single set of straightforward
instructions for how this works in a
single place for the multiple cases you
might encounter. Here’s what to do.The question mark is your key to unlocking a Mac that’s protected
by FileVault.