MacOS Tahoe stuck at login screen

[Matgen84]

To all:

 

Since Beta, I have the same issue. Few minutes ago, I update macOS Tahoe 26.0 to 26.0.1 on my Z390 machine (SMBIOS iMac20,1, Opencore). Unfortunately, after the last stage, Tahoe stuck at login screen after entering my password session. I don't use FileVault on my mechanical hard disk

.

When I clean install macOS Tahoe, this problem do not exist !

 

Now, I wait at least 30-45 minutes...I hope to see Desktop Finder 🥲

Anyone have a ideas !

config.plist

[asapreta]

In your update install is iCloud connected?

[jlrycm]

This is the FileVault issue widely reported since the very beginning of Tahoe. You have to decrypt your drive in recovery and also tweak your EFI folder as a workaround as documented in Dortania’s bug tracker repo

https://github.com/acidanthera/bugtracker/issues/2499

After installing macOS 26, if you had FileVault enabled (be it on the current system being upgraded to macOS 26 or other macOS versions installed next to macOS 26), you might not be able to log in with your password.

To fix this, you need to decrypt it from recoveryOS: 0) make sure you remember your passphrase, which is usually your account password

1.    ⁠⁠Reboot to Recovery Mode
2.    ⁠⁠Open Terminal
3.    ⁠⁠Run diskutil apfs list and locate your Data disk (example: I have my system installed on P50 patition, my data apfs partition should be P50 - Data) and remember its identifier (something like diskXsY, where X and Y are numbers). You should find FileVault: Yes (Locked)
4.    ⁠⁠run diskutil apfs unlockVolume /dev/diskXsY to unlock your encrypted APFS disk, you will be asked to enter your passphrase, you should get Unlocked and mounted APFS Volume.
5.    ⁠⁠run diskutil apfs listcryptousers /dev/diskXsY to list user UUIDs for the encrypted volume. Note the Local User UUID
6.    ⁠⁠run diskutil apfs decryptVolume /dev/diskXsY -user UUID_OF_LOCALUSER and replace UUID_OF_LOCALUSER with the UUID you got from step 5
7.    ⁠⁠it will prompt you to enter your passphrase agian, and will tell you that the process is running. To check the progress, run diskutil apfs list

To watch the whole thing going, and gets updated live, run sh while true; do diskutil apfs list | grep -B2 -A6 diskXsY; sleep 1; printf "\033"; done

Note if your system crashed in the middle of the decryption:

If you're lucky, the decryption would just be paused, reboot to Recovery Mode, and open Terminal:

1.    ⁠⁠run diskutil apfs list and check if your Decryption is Paused.
2.    ⁠⁠if it is, unlock your volume again by running step 4 from above
3.    ⁠⁠run again diskutil apfs list and check if the decryption resumed
4.    ⁠⁠if not, open a new Terminal window, andr run /usr/libexec/apfsd, you should see the decryption progress again.

Edited October 12, 2025 by jlrycm

[Matgen84]

@jlrycm Thanks.
Can be FileVault issue, my Hard disk is not encrypted. I have this problem after each update....without finding a solution.

[jlrycm]

1 hour ago, Matgen84 said:

@jlrycm Thanks.
Can be FileVault issue, my Hard disk is not encrypted. I have this problem after each update....without finding a solution.

To prevent this, disabled Jumpstart in config plist file and add apfs_aligned.efi from OcBinaryData.

[Matgen84]

@jlrycm More one hour after update to 26.2 : same issue. apfs_aligned.efi  can fix that if I boot from a USB bootable ?

[jlrycm]

1 hour ago, Matgen84 said:

@jlrycm More one hour after update to 26.2 : same issue. apfs_aligned.efi  can fix that if I boot from a USB bootable ?

Loading apfs_aligned.efi driver and disabling jumpstart can prevent the auto-encryption, but if Tahoe automatically initiated the encryption, you’ll have to verify the encryption status in recovery and if it was initiated, you’ll need to wait until it finishes to decrypt the drive in recovery following the post above. 
 

have you tried this? When you type the password, don't press Enter.
Hold down the Shift key + Enter.

Edited December 13, 2025 by jlrycm

[Matgen84]

Just now, jlrycm said:

Loading apfs_aligned.efi driver and disabling jumpstart can prevent the auto-encryption, but if Tahoe automatically initiated the encryption, you’ll have to verify the encryption status in recovery and if it was initiated, you’ll need to wait until it finishes to decrypt the drive in recovery following the post above. 

As I wrote before, my hard disk is not encrypted. Since September, Apple has corrected his process: FileVault is no more by default. So when I clean install 26.1, I do not choose FileVault option.

 

This issue make me crazy 😉 

[jlrycm]

Just now, Matgen84 said:

As I wrote before, my hard disk is not encrypted. Since September, Apple has corrected his process: FileVault is no more by default. So when I clean install 26.1, I do not choose FileVault option.

 

This issue make me crazy 😉 

have you tried this? When you type the password, don't press Enter.
Hold down the Shift key + Enter.

[Matgen84]

1 minute ago, jlrycm said:

have you tried this? When you type the password, don't press Enter.
Hold down the Shift key + Enter.

 

Yes, I try it. Few second spinning wheel. then nothing it's happen: always stuck.

I can clean install 26.2 but without knowing the cause of this problem... I believe the result will be the same for updating to 26.3. It's very annoying.

[jlrycm]

6 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

 

Yes, I try it. Few second spinning wheel. then nothing it's happen: always stuck.

I can clean install 26.2 but without knowing the cause of this problem... I believe the result will be the same for updating to 26.3. It's very annoying.

If you opt for clean install, ensure you load apfs_aligned.efi and disable jumpstart in the config file. I’m not sure why but others suggested me to use this to prevent the login screen issue even if it is not caused by the Tahoe auto encryption issue.

[Matgen84]

40 minutes ago, jlrycm said:

If you opt for clean install, ensure you load apfs_aligned.efi and disable jumpstart in the config file. I’m not sure why but others suggested me to use this to prevent the login screen issue even if it is not caused by the Tahoe auto encryption issue.

 

I will do that. About this issue, I notice that GateKeeper is enable after update. Some apps are moving to Relocated Items directory, Security sub-folder !!! 

 

Any ideas. Thanks a lot.

[Max.1974]

@Matgen84 I have old HDD drives, and after installing the FileVault deactivation key for both Clover and OpenCore, there is no longer an option to enable FileVault (at least when using Clover).