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TrueCrypt on OS X Yosemite and beyond

The developers of TrueCrypt ceased development of this excellent encryption software sometime in 2014. At the time, their web site said it was no longer safe to use TrueCrypt, and they discouraged doing so. The official website has since been replaced by a page simply explaining how to transfer your data out of a TrueCrypt image. The original website content has been replicated and is available viewing here.

The notion that TrueCrypt is suddenly not secure to use is incorrect, as documented here. TrueCrypt 7.1a is the version to use for now. There is currently (as of 2014/2015) a full security audit being carried out on TrueCrypt, and a non-profit organisation is in place to continue to opensource development of TrueCrypt (likely under a new name). You can read about that here.

Downloading TrueCrypt 7.1a for Mac

Until a new and audited version of TrueCrypt is released, the general recommendation is to use TrueCrypt version 7.1a. Download it by following the links provided here or here (which will link you through to a GitHub file respository here).

Installing TrueCrypt on Mavericks and Yosemite

The next issue is getting it to install on versions of OS X that came out after TrueCrypt 7.1a was released in February 2012. Here’s the solution to that.

1. Mount the DMG file, and extract the TrueCrypt 7.1a.mpkg
 file from the DMG (just drag it to your Desktop or Downloads folder).

2. Option-Click or two-finger click to on the mpgk file, to bring up the context menu. Select Show package contents.

3. Edit the distribution.dist file. Near the top (it will start at line 12) you’ll find this:

function pm_install_check() {
if(!(system.version.ProductVersion >= '10.4')) {
my.result.title = 'Error';
my.result.message = 'TrueCrypt requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.';
my.result.type = 'Fatal';
return false;
}
return true;
}

You need to change it to this. Note, all that has changed is ‘10.4’ in the second line. You change it to your version of OS X, for instance, ‘10.10.2’.

You need to change it to this:

function pm_install_check() {
if(!(system.version.ProductVersion >= '10.10.2')) {
my.result.title = 'Error';
my.result.message = 'TrueCrypt requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.';
my.result.type = 'Fatal';
return false;
}
return true;
}

Or, alternatively, you can change it to this, which will make it install on all future versions of OS X:

function pm_install_check() {
return true;
}

Save that file.

Double-click the TrueCrypt 7.1a.mpkg file to install TrueCrypt.

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