What if you want to boot your Mac using two or more different versions of macOS, with different versions of APFS? Here’s how to avoid problems.
Disk Utility
Originally two separate apps, they were brought together in Mac OS X, and have survived largely unscathed to Sequoia. Here are some highs and lows to remember.
If the Finder’s Get Info dialog may report inaccurate total file size, does that mean the folder sizes are also incorrect? And does this affect volumes too?
Union mounts let you merge the contents of two volumes without copying any files. Do they work as expected in Sonoma’s APFS, though?
This reference covers fsck_apfs, diskutil information, diskutil apfs, conversion of HFS+ to APFS, mount_apfs, and newfs_apfs.
Knowing a little about sparse and clone files in APFS is dangerous, as it can lead you to draw the wrong conclusions.
New version creates and maintains Case-sensitive APFS sparse bundles in addition to its previous range of formats.
Why macOS may refuse to give you a very large sparse bundle, how you can’t change the password of encrypted sparse bundles, and more.
Many of us keep an emergency external drive at the ready by our Mac, in case we need to use it to recover from problems. What’s the equivalent for Apple silicon?
Two problems undermine Disk Utility’s First Aid: it persisting bug in failing to unmount volumes to check and repair, and its default omission of containers. And errors in APFS seem to be on the rise.
The Eclectic Light Company 