HT204435: Mac OS X: About file system journaling

Learn about Mac OS X: About file system journaling
[GoldenDrake]

Q: How can I disable journaling in El Capitan?

In OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), "Disable Journaling" does not appear under "File" in Disk Utility, even when pressing Option. Running "sudo diskutil disableJournal" in Terminal doesn't work either. When, or how, can this capability be restored for El Capitan users?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Oct 31, 2015 3:39 PM

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Q: How can I disable journaling in El Capitan?

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  • by bigschwabbel,Helpful

    bigschwabbel bigschwabbel Nov 1, 2015 10:56 AM in response to [GoldenDrake]
    Level 3 (808 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 10:56 AM in response to [GoldenDrake]

    I just tried it on 10.11.1. I didn't have any problems disabling and enabling journaling on a flash drive and on a mounted and active Macintosh HD of a test system. I was logged in with an admin account and didn't have to use sudo. A simple "diskutil disableJournal /dev/disk0s2" worked as expected.

     

    Have you specified a volume? It won't work with a disk.

    Are you receiving an error message when trying to perform the task?

    Have you checked that the volume is actually using journaling?

    Have you tried the force option of diskutil disableJournal?

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Oct 31, 2015 4:55 PM in response to [GoldenDrake]
    Level 6 (19,272 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 31, 2015 4:55 PM in response to [GoldenDrake]

    May I ask why you want to disable journaling?   I ask because I would on a journaled file system (NOT Apple's, rather for Linux, Solaris, AIX) and I would like to understand the benefit of trading no journaling for very long fsck_hfs run-time after a system crash?

  • by [GoldenDrake],

    [GoldenDrake] [GoldenDrake] Nov 1, 2015 10:35 AM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 10:35 AM in response to BobHarris

    Linux can READ from a journaled HFS+ file system, but can only WRITE to non-journaled HFS+ (I don't know if Linux has the same limitation with respect to other journaled file systems). So, because I was once again experimenting with a triple boot setup on my Macbook, I was interested in allowing my Linux partition to have read/write access on my Macintosh HD. I have since abandoned that project: triple boots are risky and delicate, difficult to set up and difficult to maintain through OS updates, etc., so I've decided to stop playing around with that idea...for now.

  • by [GoldenDrake],

    [GoldenDrake] [GoldenDrake] Nov 1, 2015 10:50 AM in response to bigschwabbel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 10:50 AM in response to bigschwabbel

    Thanks for the feedback, bigschwabbel! Now that I'm trying again, the Terminal command is working for me (without requiring sudo). I wish I had copied and pasted the error message I was getting before, but anyway, it is working now, although the option to "Disable Journaling" still doesn't appear for me while pressing Option in the Disk Utility GUI.


    As mentioned in my response to BobHarris's comment, I was in the midst of the messy, risky business of setting up a triple boot (OS X, Windows, and Linux on separate partitions), so that could be why I was seeing unusual behavior. I've decided not to continue with that plan, so my hard disk is now (more or less) back to its original state and thus may be more willing to put up with my request to disable journaling (which I then promptly re-enabled, of course, since I'm no longer interested in disabling it). Anyway, thanks for letting me know the problem wasn't due to the El Capitan update!

  • by BobHarris,Helpful

    BobHarris BobHarris Nov 1, 2015 10:57 AM in response to [GoldenDrake]
    Level 6 (19,272 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 1, 2015 10:57 AM in response to [GoldenDrake]

    How about running Linux is a virtual machine?

    VMware Fusion

    Parallels

    VirtualBox

  • by [GoldenDrake],

    [GoldenDrake] [GoldenDrake] Nov 1, 2015 10:56 AM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 10:56 AM in response to BobHarris

    Yes, that is a MUCH safer option, so I'm experimenting with that now. Looks like it suffices for everything except running high-end 3D games, more and more of which are available on Linux, but of course I can simply run those in OS X or in Windows 10 via Boot Camp (a much safer dual boot option). Thanks for the advice!

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 17, 2015 8:01 PM in response to [GoldenDrake]
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2015 8:01 PM in response to [GoldenDrake]

    Im having a similar issue with not able to disable journaling with clicking file & option key. I have tried through terminal diskutil disablejournal also with sudo as well. This is the message i get when using terminal.

    Usage:  diskutil disableJournal [force] MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode

    Disable journaling on an HFS Extended volume.  The volume will be

    temporarily mounted if necessary, so normally this works whether or not the

    volume is mounted.  The force option, however, causes a direct write to the

    on-disk volume data, and requires that the volume not be mounted.

     

    I want to disable it temporary to scan computer with fixmestick.

    I Appreciate The Support.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Nov 18, 2015 4:18 AM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 18, 2015 4:18 AM in response to Andrew9813

    Andrew9813 wrote:

     

    …This is the message i get when using terminal. …

    A message like that indicates that you have mistyped the arguments to the command. You got the command itself correct, but you didn't supply the information it expected in the arguments.

    You didn't indicate what your command was, but I'm not sure I could readily figure out what was wrong with your arguments.

  • by jmfromanderlecht,

    jmfromanderlecht jmfromanderlecht Nov 18, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Barney-15E

    In the terminal application, type :


    1) List the partitions

    diskutil list


    2) Disable the partitions

    diskutil disableJournal /dev/disk0s1 + [Enter]

    diskutil disableJournal /dev/disk0s2 + [Enter]

    diskutil disableJournal /dev/disk0s3 + [Enter]

    diskutil disableJournal /dev/disk0s4 + [Enter]


    Reboot with fixmestick

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 11:38 AM in response to [GoldenDrake]
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 11:38 AM in response to [GoldenDrake]

    I've tried things said by jmfromanderlecht. Here is a screen shot or what i have tried in terminal from before and with the suggestions. Screen Shot 2015-11-18 at 13.34.17.png

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Nov 18, 2015 11:48 AM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 6 (19,272 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 18, 2015 11:48 AM in response to Andrew9813

    /dev/disk0s1

    /dev/disk0s2

    /dev/disk0s3

    etc....

     

    NOT "Macintosh HD"

     

    And on the command line white space is an argument separator.  So even if "Macintosh HD" was correct (which it isn't), you have to protect the the spaces from being seen argument separators.

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 12:27 PM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 12:27 PM in response to BobHarris

    I tried what you suggested diskutil disableJournal /dev/disk0s2 + [Enter] and the is the message  that i get.

    Usage:  diskutil disableJournal [force] MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode

    Disable journaling on an HFS Extended volume.  The volume will be

    temporarily mounted if necessary, so normally this works whether or not the

    volume is mounted.  The force option, however, causes a direct write to the

    on-disk volume data, and requires that the volume not be mounted.

    Ownership of the affected disk is required.

     

    Also do you know a way to reenable so i can just enable and disable journal with the disk utility app instead of terminal.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Nov 18, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 18, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Ok, you're not supposed to type the words, "+ [Enter]"

    He just meant to hit the return (or enter) key on the keyboard.

    And, you don't even need the /dev/ part. Just this:

    diskutil disableJournal disk0s2

    In the future, don't bother trying to type in what you entered and what the response was. Just copy the whole thing from the line where you enter the command until the end of the response. Then, just paste that text into a reply here. We then don't have to guess at what you really typed as we'll be able to see it.


    As you can see, this is why playing in the Terminal can be hazardous. If any of those partial commands you tried would have done something disastrous, you would have been SOL.

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 1:09 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 1:09 PM in response to Barney-15E

    i put what you said and i received this message. An error occurred journaling the file system: This operation requires a disk that contains a file system (-69829)

    do you no how to reenable disable journaling with the disk utility app.

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