Automatic Login disabled because FileVault is on but it can't be turned off

It’s a known bug in Tahoe, which enabled FileVault by default, but precludes turning it off if automatic login was enabled prior to the upgrade. Likely to be addressed in a point update, until then you need to turn off FV in the Terminal app with the following command:

sudo fdesetup disable

(type your password if prompted, even though it won’t show your typing just press return after your pw)

deh2k wrote:

I seem to have gotten into a catch-22 situation with automatic login and FileVault.

I have a headless Mac Mini server running MacOS 26.1 that I use for Time Machine backups and some other things. It was set to automatically log into my account in order to start file sharing. Recently (probably during a MacOS update), it stopped logging in automatically. The weird thing is that System Settings says it can't log in automatically because FileVault is enabled, but I see that FileVault appears on but grayed out and there is a message that says FileVault can't be turned on because automatic login is enabled.

So I seem to be stuck in limbo. I'd like to ask the Mac Universe if anyone has an idea of how to fix it.

Turn it off using the Terminal.app

To check the status of file vault within Terminal, copy & paste:

fdesetup status

if you want to disable FileVault :

sudo fdesetup disable

it is a known bug.