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How To Login To A FileVault-Protected Mac Remotely?

Oh, I have two headless Mac minis one running macOS High Sierra and the other running macOS Big Sur. I want to encrypt their drives however when I reboot I am not able to initiate Screen Sharing in order to log into the computer. I must attach a keyboard and monitor. Is there a way that I might be able to do that? Paul

Best Answered by

Vain Rowe

Answered on Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Although FileVault gives more security and remote access presents a relatively seamless experience when you sit at your computer, the reboot authentication requirement for FileVault does pose a bit of a problem for you, whether you apply Screen Sharing, SSH, or any other remote-access technologies.

You here can run a certain command line in the destination device to restart a FileVault-protected system and return it to  a working state:

sudo fdesetup authrestart

This command will ask for the current user's password or the recovery key for the FileVault volume, and then store the current user's credentials so when the system is restarted the computer can use these credentials to unlock the reboot screen.