Catalina 3 volumes instead of 2?

Thanks, several shutdown and reboot didn't do it for me. My ghost volume appeared after the following sequence

• Single APFS volume for Mohave on 512GB 2014 MBA
• Carved out 60GB for Bootcamp. Installed Win10
• Split Mohave volume into 2 equal size. Installed Catalina on the new volume (APFS) I think this is when the ghost volume appeared.
• Removed both Mohave and Catalina volume. Collapse back into a single volume (left bootcamp volume alone) Formatted APFS and reinstalled Catalina. Ghost volume still present.

I did all the Catalina installation from scratch because simple upgrade from Mohave totally kills performance for some reason where as fresh install and manually copy back my data does not. Strange. Posted that issue here

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250787284

BTW, since my ghost volume appears empty and unused. I unmapped it in DU (not in recovery) and didn't see any adverse effects so I just deleted the volume. Now everything is back to normal and hopefully stays that way.

Found the solution. Looks like Catalina has some path that easily incurs permission problems. Here are a couple of posts that resolves the problem. Noting it here to assist someone in the future.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250858918?answerId=251754921022#251754921022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250858918?answerId=251765679022#251765679022

Yes, am aware of the Catalina split into 2. Note I have 2 Macintosh HD - Data volumes. One shows parts of volume used along with home user icon (3rd pic). The other one has nothing used (4th pic). Seems like the volume for 4th pic is redundant?

Thanks! I could actually unmount (Disk Utility) that drive while booted/running on Macintosh HD without any observable problems.

I'll backup and give that volume removal a try. If that doesn't work, I'll go to Recovery to try and remove. Last resort is start over with formatted drive of course.

Fully on latest 10.15.1 Got into a state where basically can't access most files under home folder in some strange way. Even finder can't remove files or change file names under various folders including Desktop. My account (file owner) has read write permissions to all files/folders. But then a reboot made it all working perfectly again.

Catalina data volume split and per app folder access security maybe have some issues. Hope people don't lose data.

Just an update for everyone. Every few days, my file system becomes problematic. Finders can't move files between folders I own (all under my user Home) Reboot always get rid of the problem. Sounds like a tricky file system bug. Use the Macbook Air few hours daily. On 10.15.1

Did the following, still no dice

Test 1

Backed up via Time Machine

Reformatted internal SSD's non bootcamp partition as APFS

Network Recovery to 10.15.1 with restoring from Time Machine

Still get unable to access my user files after awhile. Reboot always fixes it.

Test 2

Copied user files to external USB drive formatted as HFS+

Wiped the entire internal SSD including bootcamp and format single partition as APFS

Network Recovery to 10.15.1 and setup a new user account

Copied backed up user files from external USB HFS+ to new user account

Still get unable to access my user files after awhile. Reboot always fixes it.

Seems only possibility left are failing SSD or Catalina bug. I guess I can do Test 2 and go back to Mojave to see if problem goes away. That would isolate HW vs Catalina.

Thanks photos weren't much of an issue on restore since I use iCloud, they auto restored. Music wouldn't update album up at all after I copied files back into music folder. Perhaps have to do as you say.

Thanks

Since I had no issues unmounting the ghost volume, just deleted it (first backup user data to external disk) while running Catalina (not Recovery). All back to normal now.

I think I've already done that but will give it another go and report back. Have a bootcamp partition that I left alone (not wanting to setup Windows again)