Disk utility warnings

Hey there Markarian421,

It sounds like you're receiving alerts about the external disk you use for Time Machine on your Mac, and that Disk Utility reports an error after running First Aid.

If both the external disk software and First Aid are identifying an issue with the disk, there may be an issue that needs to be repaired.

Check out the details below from Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac:

"If you continue to have problems with your disk or it can’t be repaired, it may be physically damaged and need to be replaced. For information about servicing your Mac, see Find out how to service or repair your Mac."

We hope this helps.

So I've been down that road.

Have erased SSD reinstalled system, and data from backup. Here's what I've learned:

I have a 2018 15-inch (I'll call it "15") MacBook Pro and a 2019 16-inch (I'll call it "16")MacBook Pro. The 16 started giving these errors and I worked with Apple support, the thought there was it's not the SSD it's individual snapshots that maybe Drive Genius doesn't understand. The 15 didn't show the errors until I turned on automatic backups, then boom Drive Genius reported consistency errors.

So you can go into Disk Utility and run a repair on it (the SSD) and while it will not fix them it will tell you which snapshots are throwing the error. You can then select and remove the offending snapshots, and if you run it again all will be well.

Well, I did contact Drive Genius folks and they said Monterey was not fully supported yet, for example, you can't make a bootwell drive easily or at all.

I got tired of doing this so I just go into Drive Genius and reset the warnings and errors.

I then added a utility called Drive DX which is designed to monitor the health and function of SSD drives, and that gave me the full piece of mind I was looking for.

So I think the facts are:

1. Both MacBooks are driving Drive Genius crazy and that leads me to believe it's Drive Genius, not the SSDs
2. DriveDX gives you the real details of the SSD including "estimated life remaining" and with the addition of a login extension it will also work on regular HDDs too
3. I'm thinking I will remove Drive Genius (it's not so smart)
4. Apple's Disk utility WILL also report the errors if you bother to look but Apple support was more along the lines of deleting the offending snapshot.
5. It doesn't seem to be an issue with other files on the SSD only the snapshots. While taking up space and not really counting towards the remaining space on the drive might be part of the issue. I think it has something to do with the special snapshot file.
6. If you boot off the recovery partition (I did this with Apple Support) and try ti fix the drive, sometimes it will tell you the drive can't be fixed. But if you delete just the one offending snapshot and retest then there are no errors. Which all involved thought was very strange.
7. I show exactly the same issues on 2 different SSD machines. Sounds like software or something, not SSD hardware related.
8. Shutting off automatic backups solves the problems because snapshots for the last 24 hours are kept on the machine drive, no automatic backups no automatic snapshot creation. Manually you connect the time machine drive and start it.

Hope that helps and puts your mind a little at rest.

Steve

From what appear on their Site https://www.prosofteng.com/drive-genius-mac-protection-software - they sate Big Sur as last supported version of macOS

Not seeing anything specific to Monterey as of yet.

May I suggest a different Application that have appeared on these Apple Support Community Forums and suggested by some More Senior Contributors

Have not had personal need to use but from the reports that appear - it may provide additional information on the State of the drive.

DriveDx 

I have the same message now appearing in Drive Genius, When I run disk utility, I get the same warnings and eventually these warnings turn into errors that can not be fixed by disk utility in recovery mode. 2nd level apple support had me delete the offending snapshots and everything then tests ok. I did get DriveDX and the SSD tests ok. I have discovered that Disk Utility has a View Snapshots, so I just delete the offending one, and when retested all is well. I may try manual updates for a while.

I have another Macbook pro, with the same OS, but with a different external drive for time machine backups.

I'm kinda lost here...

Steve

I am having the same problem with Monterey, drive genius and my 2019 MacBook Pro. I delete the time machine snapshots, run disk utility from a separate drive and it clears the problem but it always recurs in a few days. Prosoft advised me to wipe the ssd drive and reinstall Monterey followed by data

Also saw the above advice about shutting off time machine automatic back ups.

Is this an Apple bug? What happens if I ignore it

You are welcome and thank you too.

Do come back to the Apple Support Communities ( ASC )  in the future, if / or when additional question may arise

this is very helpful

thank you very much

E