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What to do with APFS warnings and errors

Should you attempt a repair in Recovery mode? Is it just a warning? How to identify the file or folder with a problem, and what to do to fix or prevent it from recurring.

March 20, 2026 Macs, Technology

Which snapshots could you delete?

As Time Machine has changed, first to back up APFS volumes, then to create backups as snapshots, its needs have changed. This makes it complicated to decide which local snapshots you can delete without affecting its backups.

February 2, 2026 Macs, Technology

Explainer: snapshots

Fundamentally simple: a preserved copy of a volume at a moment in time. How its size can only increase with time, how they’re managed, what they’re used for, and the tools for using them.

January 31, 2026 Macs, Technology

Why did that macOS upgrade take so much space?

Why upgrading to Tahoe shouldn’t consume the last free space on your Mac’s SSD, and once it has settled should use little more than currently. How to clear out old snapshots and reduce System Data.

October 2, 2025 Macs, Technology

Save space on the internal SSD by adding another volume

T T Read More

If you’ve got large files like Virtual Machines or media libraries on the Data volume on your Mac’s internal SSD, use this method to keep the size of its snapshots smaller.

May 28, 2025 Macs, Technology

What isn’t backed up?

Backups don’t include everything. Here are details of those items excluded from Time Machine backups, and why they’re excluded.

May 2, 2025 Macs, Technology

Last Week on My Mac: Giving a fsck

What disk checks are made in Safe mode? How are they different from those run during normal startup? If Disk Utility is to be our only APFS repair tool, shouldn’t have more and better features?

March 23, 2025 Macs, Technology

What is System Data in Storage Settings?

T T Read More

The bar chart in Storage Settings shows most of your startup volume is full of System Data. What does it mean, and what use is it? Is its measure of used and free space accurate?

February 11, 2025 Macs, Technology

Start planning your Mac’s Spring clean

Spring will soon be upon us, and it’s time to plan our Spring software housekeeping to clear out the junk that has accumulated over the winter. How to go about it.

February 6, 2025 Macs, Technology

Why use APFS?

Deciding which file system to use for hard disks can be difficult. Here are the advantages and disadvantages explained in detail, for HFS+ and APFS.

January 9, 2025 Macs, Technology

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