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Cannot open Sparsebundle file

When I try to open My.sparsebundle, I enter my password and I get a pop up that says:

“The disk image couldn't be opened

Failed to mount filesystems”


I don’t know why I’m getting this. I’ve been successfully opening this with the same password for most of this year. I’m certain I’m using the same password. I waited a while, restarted the Mac, enter my password to open this sparsebundle and I still get the same pop up.


What is causing this problem?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Dec 23, 2022 8:59 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 24, 2022 10:03 PM

Hi curt0,


Your password to unlock the disk image appears to be correct, but the underlying filesystem inside the image is likely corrupt. Follow these steps to fix the issue.


  1. Open Terminal, located in Applications -> Utilities.
  2. In Terminal, type "hdiutil attach" (without the quotes), and add a space.
  3. Locate the sparsebundle disk image in the Finder, then drag and drop it onto the Terminal window. This should automatically provide the filepath to that image.
  4. In Terminal, add a space after the image path, and type "-nomount" (again without the quotes). Hit Enter/Return.
  5. If asked for the image password/passphrase, enter it when prompted. Terminal won't show you any characters as you provide the password.
  6. If successful, the image should be attached, but not mounted. Terminal should print out a list of partitions on the image. At this point, quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
  7. In Disk Utility, select the volume inside the image (the most indented entry under the disk image), and run First Aid on it.
  8. If that succeeds, run First Aid on the next layer up (either an APFS container, or the virtual disk itself). Keep going up until you have ran First Aid on the virtual disk (top layer) itself.
  9. If all passes of First Aid succeed, select the volume inside the image (bottom entry), and click Mount.
  10. If successful, the volume should mount, and it should now be accessible as normal in the Finder.


To prevent this issue from happening again, make sure to eject the disk image when you're done using it. If it resides on an external drive, eject the image first before ejecting the external drive.

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4 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 24, 2022 10:03 PM in response to curt0

Hi curt0,


Your password to unlock the disk image appears to be correct, but the underlying filesystem inside the image is likely corrupt. Follow these steps to fix the issue.


  1. Open Terminal, located in Applications -> Utilities.
  2. In Terminal, type "hdiutil attach" (without the quotes), and add a space.
  3. Locate the sparsebundle disk image in the Finder, then drag and drop it onto the Terminal window. This should automatically provide the filepath to that image.
  4. In Terminal, add a space after the image path, and type "-nomount" (again without the quotes). Hit Enter/Return.
  5. If asked for the image password/passphrase, enter it when prompted. Terminal won't show you any characters as you provide the password.
  6. If successful, the image should be attached, but not mounted. Terminal should print out a list of partitions on the image. At this point, quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
  7. In Disk Utility, select the volume inside the image (the most indented entry under the disk image), and run First Aid on it.
  8. If that succeeds, run First Aid on the next layer up (either an APFS container, or the virtual disk itself). Keep going up until you have ran First Aid on the virtual disk (top layer) itself.
  9. If all passes of First Aid succeed, select the volume inside the image (bottom entry), and click Mount.
  10. If successful, the volume should mount, and it should now be accessible as normal in the Finder.


To prevent this issue from happening again, make sure to eject the disk image when you're done using it. If it resides on an external drive, eject the image first before ejecting the external drive.

Dec 24, 2022 2:08 PM in response to curt0

curt0 wrote:

When I try to open My.sparsebundle, I enter my password and I get a pop up that says:
“The disk image couldn't be opened
Failed to mount filesystems”

I don’t know why I’m getting this. I’ve been successfully opening this with the same password for most of this year. I’m certain I’m using the same password. I waited a while, restarted the Mac, enter my password to open this sparsebundle and I still get the same pop up.

What is causing this problem?


you give no backstory...


see if there is anything here: Create a disk image using Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support


Jan 12, 2023 6:55 AM in response to Encryptor5000

That fixed it! Thank you very much!


Sorry for the late reply. I was out of town for a couple of weeks.


The image is on the Mac's SSD, so it's internal. I always click on the up-pointing triangle icon in the left pane of Finder to un-mount the image. Sometimes, it tells me that other programs are using stuff in the image and so it cannot un-mount it. (This can happen even though the programs are no longer showing data from the image. As an example, I might open a document from the image with Preview and then close the document so that Preview is no longer showing it.) I will kill all of the programs that have accessed stuff in the image, but it will still give me the same message. Finally, I restart the Mac, which un-mounts the image. Will this corrupt the image? If so, how do I get around that message the next time?

Jan 22, 2023 10:18 AM in response to Encryptor5000

Thank you for the advice. That did not work for me, using a dmg that was created from a FAT32 volume.

In that case, I used the "DropDMG" app https://c-command.com/dropdmg/ to mount the image from the file menu within the app. From there, I could create a new .dmg file (in HFS+ Journal format) and copy the files manually to it using the Finder.



Cannot open Sparsebundle file

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