For the Mac you can’t
walk over to.

Q: Does this weaken FileVault?

Your disk stays fully encrypted at rest. Persistent protection stores one selected user's password in that Mac's System Keychain so macOS can unlock the disk across reboots — which reduces pre-boot protection. That's the trade-off, you confirm it explicitly, and you can limit it to one-shot next-restart-only arming instead.

Q: What actually happens after a real power cut?

Power returns, the Mac starts automatically (RestartReady checks that setting in advance), and macOS presents a FileVault unlock prompt over SSH. A trusted companion on the same network — another Mac or a Docker container — detects that prompt and submits the password, optionally only after you approve on your iPhone. Then the Mac finishes booting and your remote tools come back.

Q: Do I need the iPhone approval step?

No — it's per Mac. Want hands-off recovery? Let a trusted local unlocker act automatically. Want a human in the loop? Require phone approval and every unlock waits for your Face ID. Neither mode ever moves your password through the cloud.

Q: What does RestartReady send over the internet?

Sparkle update checks — that's it, and no telemetry. There are no licence or trial checks: RestartReady is free. If you enable phone approval, a Cloudflare Worker routes push notifications and metadata-only status: Mac names and opaque request IDs. FileVault passwords, recovery keys and SSH keys never touch it.

Q: Is it a remote desktop or VPN?

Neither. It's the companion to the ones you already use. Automated unlockers deliberately work local-network-only — they won't fire unlock attempts across a VPN — because the unlock step belongs on hardware you trust, in the same room as the Mac.

Q: What if I change my password?

The status flips to Needs password update and stays there until you fix it. RestartReady never silently claims protection it can't prove — a stale credential shows as a problem, not a green light.

RestartReady brings a remote Apple Silicon Mac back online after restarts, macOS updates, crashes and power cuts — with FileVault on.

Download for macOS See it work

Free · Apple Silicon Mac mini · macOS Sonoma through 27

The RestartReady app on macOS showing “Protected for the next restart,” with all readiness checks passing — FileVault, Remote Login, power recovery, the privileged helper, and a linked Docker unlocker

Every remote tool you use lives above the FileVault lock.

Screen Sharing, SSH, Tailscale, your remote desktop app — they all run inside macOS. After a restart with FileVault on, macOS hasn’t started yet. It’s waiting at a password screen in an empty room, and everything you’d use to fix it is unreachable. RestartReady exists for exactly that moment.

Survive every restart

Arm the next restart only, or turn on Always Recover and every reboot — updates, crashes, maintenance — comes back to a fully running Mac. The credential never leaves that Mac’s System Keychain.

Be ready for power cuts

RestartReady verifies your Mac will power back on by itself and be unlockable over SSH at the FileVault prompt — hostname, addresses and SSH identity captured before you ever need them.

Unlock from across the room

After a real power cut, a trusted device on the same network — another Mac or a Docker container on your NAS — answers the FileVault prompt. With your approval on your iPhone, if you want it.

Pull the plug. On purpose.

This is a live simulation of one bad night — with the real transcript macOS prints at the FileVault SSH prompt. Flip the switch, cut the power, and see the difference.

macmini-studio.local Mac is running normally

RestartReady

recovery — ssh — 80×24 03:06 AM

# It’s the middle of the night. Nobody is near this Mac.
# Set the switch above to choose its fate, then cut the power.

The lock and unlock transcript above is verbatim — it’s what a locked Apple Silicon Mac prints over SSH.

Plain English,
or nothing.

These are the app’s real headline statuses. The rule behind them is simple: unknown state is never shown as protected state. If RestartReady can’t prove your Mac will come back, it says so — with a next step, not a shrug.

Protected for future restarts
Power recovery ready
Needs password update
Power recovery needs attention
Protection expired
FileVault is off

3:09

RestartReady now

Unlock “Mac mini Studio”? Your Docker unlocker found it locked after a power cut.

Interactive — try both buttons.

Your iPhone
holds the veto.

Don’t want any device unlocking your Mac unattended? Require phone approval. The unlocker spots the locked Mac, your iPhone gets a push, and nothing happens until you approve with Face ID. One approval authorizes exactly one unlock — performed locally, over your own network.

The cloud middleware routes pushes and status only. It never sees FileVault passwords, recovery keys or SSH keys. There’s nothing in it worth stealing.

We’d rather you read this
than find out later.

Unattended recovery is a security trade-off. RestartReady puts it in front of you — this exact dialog — before it will arm anything:

RestartReady stores this user’s password on this Mac

To recover after unattended restarts, RestartReady stores the selected Mac user’s password locally so macOS can unlock FileVault before the login window. Your disk remains encrypted, but pre-boot protection is reduced.

Cancel I Understand

What we won’t claim

A true cold boot with FileVault always needs a FileVault-capable credential before macOS finishes booting. RestartReady prepares the Mac and gives your trusted devices the unlock path — it doesn’t pretend the laws of encryption stopped applying.

Where secrets live

In the Mac’s System Keychain, your companion’s Keychain, or a host-mounted secret on your Docker box. Never in push notifications, never on our servers. No telemetry, either.

Paranoia, dialed your way

Per Mac, you choose: ask for the password every time, require Face ID or Touch ID before use, or save it for automatic unlock. A changed SSH host key stops automatic unlock until you confirm it’s still your Mac.

Not a remote desktop — the thing that saves yours. Keep using Screen Sharing, SSH, Tailscale, Astropad Workbench, Jump Desktop or Apple Remote Desktop. RestartReady’s only job is making sure there’s a running Mac on the other end.

Requirements

Hardware: Apple Silicon Mac mini
macOS: Sonoma 14 · Sequoia 15 · Tahoe 26 · macOS 27
FileVault: On — that’s the point
Network: Ethernet recommended for unlock at the FileVault prompt

Download — it’s free

Free, with nothing held back. Updates via Sparkle, no telemetry ever.

Add an unlocker on your Docker box.

A companion to the Mac app, not a standalone — set your Mac up in RestartReady first, then run this on a NAS or home server on the same network. It answers the FileVault prompt using the profile the app exports, with optional iPhone approval.

docker pull ghcr.io/mouxy/restartready-listener:latest

Runs on your own hardware, on your own network — it never stores FileVault passwords in its config.

Questions, answered honestly.

Does this weaken FileVault?

What actually happens after a real power cut?

Do I need the iPhone approval step?

What does RestartReady send over the internet?

Is it a remote desktop or VPN?

What if I change my password?

The next power cut is already scheduled.
You just haven’t been told.

Download for macOS

Free · Set up in minutes · Pull the plug on purpose and watch it come back

For the Mac you can’twalk over to.