Yosemite’s paused encryption problem fixed in 10.10.3
When Yosemite was released in October 2014, one of the changes it introduced was including a new FileVault 2 enablement option in Apple’s Setup Assistant. This option encouraged new users of Yosemite to enable FileVault 2 encryption and had the choice to enable FileVault 2 selected by default.
When the encryption process began, a significant issue then appeared for a number of users where the Mac would report Encryption paused during the encryption process, then never resume the encryption process.

This produced a situation where the Mac could not complete encryption, but would not decrypt either because the encryption process had not completed. The only fix appeared to be deleting the existing CoreStorage volume, which addressed the issue at the cost of deleting everything stored on the boot drive.
Fortunately, OS X 10.10.3 includes a fix that should stop this issue from occurring on OS X 10.10.3 and later. There is also now a procedure that should fix Macs still affected by this problem. For more details, see below the jump.
The root cause for the encryption pausing and not resuming was a problem with resizing the CoreStorage volume. When the CoreStorage volume was unable to grow, the encryption was paused and could not resume until the resize issue was addressed.
To fix this issue:
1. Update your Mac to 10.10.3, or boot from an alternate drive which is running 10.10.3.
2. Unlock the encrypted drive if necessary
3. Open Terminal
4. Run the following command to get the disk identifier for the boot drive:
diskutil list

5. Once you have the disk identifier information, run the following command with root privileges:
fsck_cs -y disk_identifier_goes_here

Running the fsck_cs tool should repair the CoreStorage volume and address the resizing issue. As part of the output, it should show that encryption is resuming.
Thanks for this, it’s driving me crazy.
I’m running OS X 10.10.3.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work for me. I can run ‘sudo fsck_cs -y disk0s2’ but afterwards my FileVault status is still “Encryption paused”.
Anything else I can try, I would really like to fix it without reinstalling?
Same issue on my iMac, 10.10.3, driving me crazy, don’t want to have to reinstall… help!
Hi guys, this issue has been around for quite some time, some of the solutions work for some people and not for others, depends on the machine state and what’s configured on a user by user basis etc which makes it tricky. What has worked for me is what many users don’t want to do but defiantly fixes the problem. The latest version of OS X fixes the file vault issue but it needs to be re-installed on a clean drive !! So I did the following steps
1. Backed up Machine (laptop MacBook Pro) to SSD external drive with thunderbolt connection using Time Machine
2. Re formatted the HDD using unencrypted option using Disk Utility
3. Installed latest OS X download which has updated fix from Apple
4. Then did an update (file recovery) using backup from 1 above.
This seems daunting but is not too bad as long as you have fast connection for OSX download and transfer for machine image.
The install of the news OSX fixes the file vault issue but needs to be installed on a new formatted unencrypted drive. Reinstall of previous applications and user files is clean using apples time machine, but you need to remember passwords etc to re-instantiate some of the services.
When you reboot machine you should see FileVault unencrypted. This worked for me, anyone trying this entirely at your own risk, if your not sure, get an apple guy or someone you trust to complete the process, good luck.
As you point out, this has been a problem for a long time, and Apple haven’t solved it even now. The above solution didn’t work for me, and booting into Disk Utils and running First Aid results in ‘Something has gone wrong’ during the resize of the logical volume.
Let’s be clear about this: unless the users have been doing strange things with their hard drive, this is nothing to do with the user’s configuration or machine state, but has everything to do with Apple: failing to partition the hard drive properly in the first place, and/or failing to write software that handles hardware configurations they themselves have set up.
Tricky doesn’t enter into it: resolving ‘tricky’ things is why Apple charge so much more than competitors with more powerful computers: Apple controls both hardware and software here.
Reformatting the computer is a waste of my time and effort. Most people have to pay for their mistakes. It’s an injustice that Apple grow rich on the back of not having to pay for theirs.
This is keeping me from updating to Maverick. So if I have 10.10.5, will this work for me?
Hi, I have Yosemite 10.10.5 and tried out the above steps without success. When i add: fsck_cs -y disk0s2 i get the response Permission denied. An advice?
The FileVault is stuck in Encryption paused, this does so i cannot update to El Capitan.
i did
sudo fsck_cs -y disk0s2
and it seemed to work fine
i get the response: Incomplete or inconsistent CoreStorage Physical Volume set any ideas?