Creating a Mobile Account for Active Directory on Mac OS

Mac OS local accounts or mobile accounts are able to initiate encryption on Mac OS X Mountain Lion or later. Other Mac OS user account types will be unable to initiate encryption.

If a Mac OS account other than a local account or mobile account attempts to initiate encryption, the following notification appears:



The following task shows how to create a mobile account for your Mac OS account to bypass this issue.

  1. Go to System Preferences... in the Apple menu.

    The System Preferences window appears.

  2. Select User Groups under the System section.
  3. Click the lock icon in the lower left corner.
  4. Click Create... next to Mobile account.
  5. On the following screens, select any personal settings, and click Create to proceed from one screen to the next.
  6. When prompted, enter your Active Directory password and click OK.


    Your mobile account has been created. You may now use this mobile account to initate encryption.

Parent topic: Encryption Management for Apple FileVault