Mac OS X Encryption Problem

© July 2006 Anthony Lawrence

"Well, you did me in good this time. Or maybe I did myself in, I don't know. Either way, I'm poached."

That's a heck of a way to start a conversation, especially at 7:00 AM on a crackly cell phone. I recognized the voice, though. Long time customer, recent convert to Mac OS X.

"Why are you poached?", I asked warily.

"Well, I read your 'Mac OS X File Encryption' article and now I can't decrypt the folder. I KNOW I used the right password, but it won't open. Just keeps flashing at me. I'm poached."

The article he referred to was OS X file encryption. I took a quick peek to see where I could have led him astray. After a moment's thought I asked "When you created the encrypted .dmg, did you do it from the command line as I showed there?"

"Probably", he answered.

"But now you just double clicked on it and it's the GUI that is asking you for the passphrase, right?"

"Yes - but it won't take it. I KNOW it's right!"

"And I know what's wrong", I said.

Do you?

Answer

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