Is there a repair for "fsroot tree is invalid" error?

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Is there a repair for "fsroot tree is invalid" error?

2018 Intel i7 Mac mini. Update to 12.2.1 causes (or reveals) file system or disk corruption. Reinstallation from Recovery Mode produces an endless loop of installation errors - "about 26 minutes remaining" with advancing progress bar, followed by high fan noise and auto restart. Erasing the volume from Target Disk mode allows reinstall of Catalina, which boots and runs successfully. Upgrade to Monterey reproduces the initial failure. Output from Disk Utility:

Running First Aid on “Untitled” (disk5s5)

Checking file system and repairing if necessary and if possible.

Volume was successfully unmounted.

Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/rdisk5s5

Checking the container superblock.

Checking the EFI jumpstart record.

Checking the space manager.

Checking the space manager free queue trees.

Checking the object map.

Checking the encryption key structures.

Checking volume /dev/rdisk5s5.

Checking the APFS volume superblock.

Checking the object map.

Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

Checking the snapshot metadata.

Checking the extent ref tree.

Checking the fsroot tree.

warning: (oid 0x162e8) apfs_root: btn: invalid o_cksum (0xb0b7fbfc5852e63)

fsroot tree is invalid.

The volume /dev/rdisk5s5 could not be verified completely.

File system check exit code is 8.

Restoring the original state found as mounted.

File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

Operation failed…

Basic internet search shows this is not unique to Monterey. At least two sources blame poor documentation of APFS for the inability to determine root cause and make repairs. A couple sources also say this is indicative of SSD failure.

Why does this happen with Monterey, but not Catalina? Is there a way to pinpoint the source of the error? Can it be fixed?

I would like to get back to Monterey on this machine. Between my daughter and I, we have two Intel Minis and one M1 Mini. Having them all at the same OS version is convenient. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Posted on Feb 16, 2022 12:55 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

60,452 points

Feb 16, 2022 8:32 AM in response to Michael Snow

When First Aid is unable to repair an APFS volume (try it from Recovery Mode just in case -- just make sure while in Recovery Mode that you are using the same OS or newer), then You need to erase the whole physical drive (or at the very least the hidden Container) before reinstalling macOS and restoring from a backup. Erasing just the one APFS volume may not be enough since there are multiple APFS volumes used by macOS 10.15+.

If Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) does not boot to the Monterey online installer, then you can create a bootable macOS USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

If you have a Time Machine backup, then you should be able to migrate from your TM backup when first booting the clean install of macOS 12.x Monterey.

FYI, I recommend always running First Aid on the hidden Container to make sure all the APFS volumes used by macOS are scanned. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok" click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if any unfixed errors are listed. If there are any unfixed errors, then you try running First Aid from Recovery Mode, otherwise you will need to erase the drive and restore from a backup or clone.

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Answer 2

Feb 16, 2022 5:37 AM in response to Michael Snow

There was an issue with people upgrading directly from Catalina to Monterey but I thought that Apple had resolved that with Catalina and Monterey updates.

A workaround to the issue would be to get your initial Catalina install straightened out and cleaned up. And instead upgrade to Big Sur in the interim before upgrading to Monterey.

This should get you to the Big Sur download: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132?mt=12

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Answer 3

Michael Snow Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 17, 2022 2:56 PM in response to HWTech

I spent entirely too much time fighting with this today, and made little progress.

Only Catalina will install from Recovery Mode.

With Catalina installed, both Big Sur and Monterey upgrades fail and make the system unbootable.

Booting from an external drive running Catalina, it is possible to install Big Sur on the Mac mini internal drive, but not Monterey.

With Big Sur running on the internal drive, upgrade to Monterey fails and destroys the Big Sur installation.

I have run First Aid from Disk Utility on every drive. No errors reported until the failed upgrades/installs. I have reset NVRAM and deleted the system containers and partitions after each failure.

The nearest Apple Store is about an hour from my house, and I’m strongly considering dropping it off for service. I haven’t had to do this since my PowerMac G5 had a processor failure (thank goodness for Apple Care) in 2010. Everything has worked very well since then. I don’t have the time or energy to keep fighting it. As soon as the next generation of Apple Silicon Macs is released, these Intel machines will be gone.

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Answer 4

Michael Snow Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 17, 2022 2:51 AM in response to Michael Snow

I waited until the release of 12.3 to see if it made any difference, but every option that I tried produced the same failure. My college-student daughter needed a new laptop, so I took the uncooperative Mac mini to the Apple Store and traded it for a new M1 MacBook Air for her. I am now using her old 2020 Core i5 MacBook Air, which I completely wiped, used internet recovery to install Catalina, and successfully upgraded directly to Monterey 12.3 with zero issues. It seems possible that there was a hardware problem with the i7 Mac mini, but I ran out of patience trying to diagnose it. Thanks to those who tried to help.

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Is there a repair for "fsroot tree is invalid" error?

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