error: snap_metadata_val object (): invalid extentref_tree_oid (0x0)

Hello everybody.

I was suffering this error and I fixed it deleting the dataless snapshot.

But the next day a new dataless snapshot appeared and with it the first aid error.

Any clue? What can I do to avoid these dataless snapshots?

Best regards.

Hey,

I came across the same problem as well. I cannot delete this bloody localsnapshots.

I removed all TM backups from my external drive and disable the automatic TM backups and I made a manual back up for couple of gigabytes and stopped it. Then I listed the snapshots. I was able to delete the fresh snapshot refering today however something dated back to 2018-03-25-021312 is still not removable. This is the same error I got:

Error parsing argument com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-03-25-021312

There is an update to my High Sierra however I cannot even update it. Whatever I delete form my mac piles up as still used space. My 500Gb SSD shows only 3-5gb free space even if I deleted at least 60-70gb yesterday. It is so frustrating.

Is there any solution for that yet? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Iˋve got a similar problem:

- My MacBook Air doesnˋt boot anymore. Not even into recovery mode.

- fsck -y tells Snapshot metadata tree is invalid

- Sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots / shows a dataless snapshot

- I canˋt delete the entry: sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-01-28-213323 only results in „failed to delete local snapshot ´2018-01-28-213323´. Sudo doesnˋt ask for the adminpassword.

Any hints to delete the entry?

My recent experience was slightly different, posting here in case it helps anyone with similar issue.

After my MBP 2014 didn't wake from sleep I did a hard restart into single-user mode and ran fsck; got the "volume could not be verified completely" error. Unfortunately when I ran the Terminal command # tmutil listlocalsnapshots / it only showed one snapshot and it was NOT listed as dataless.

What I wound up doing was using the app Daisy Disk to find "hidden space" and delete the chunk of space set aside for Time Machine. When I ran # tmutil listlocalsnapshots / again it listed the snapshot as dataless so I ran the command to delete it. In all likelihood I probably could have deleted it without trashing the hidden space first; regardless, my next pass at fsck completed successfully.

Much thanks to oxfrombws for your solution; I had never encountered this before and I was at a loss!

You could manually become root by issuing the command "su -l" and entering your root password, and then try the tmutil command without sudo in front of it?

Thanks mate. I was facing this issue, but the strange thing I had found thread where the listlocalsnapshots was with cammel case and found me, that I don’t have any. I used yours, without cammel case and it worked like a charm. Thanks.

Thanks! This fixed my problem — I should add that I repeated the command for every snapshot, and freed up several hundred GB of unusable drive space while I was at it. (There were several older snapshots listed in mine)

TLDR: THANK YOU HEAPS DARLING

Thanks for your tips. Have the same problem and google led me here.

I followed your steps, but it just doesn't work in my case.

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-22-071811 (dataless)

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-24-112803

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-24-125246

$ sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2017-11-22-071811

Error parsing argument 2017-11-22-071811

Is there any other way to delete these snap shots files?

Any advice?

Thank for your help.

Unfortunately "su -l" gave me su: Sorry.

Google it and use "sudo su" but still get "Error parsing argument 2017-11-22-071811"

In the end I did a clean install from scratch and have the time machine off at the moment.

I am dealing with this error and also cannot delete the dateless snapshot.

root# tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-27-194607 (dataless)

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-06-120144

root# tmutil delete com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-27-194607

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-27-194607: No such file or directory (error 2)

Total deleted: 0B

Thanks very much for the help. This totally solved the problem I was getting. Just one minor thing: you mentioned "If you see dateless snapshot" and "with the actual date of the dateless entry". I believe these should both say "dataless", not "dateless". Thanks again.

Believe it or not, it is correct in the way it was written.

The item in the backups is marked “(dateless)” even though you have to delete it using the date shown for the “(dateless)” line item.

Perhaps the backup is out “on a date” “without a date”?

I have the exact same problem, but I don't have a clean copy to do a clean install and restore after.

Anyone knows how to solve this "Error parsing argument"?

Also happens to me, that my files says a.m. and p.m.

Hey friend, I have been trying this command for a while now, and it doesn't work for me it keeps saying "Error parsing argument". I also want to delete the "time machine backups". because it was taking space from my mac system storage, but the command keeps giving me the same error. Do you know how I can deal with?it. I've got MacBook Pro 13 retina 2015.

Output is:

com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-03-25-021312

It does not state (dataless).

And yes I use excatly:

sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-03-25-021312

and I always get this error:

Error parsing argument 2018-03-25-021312

I could delete todays localsnapshot with this command but there is problem with the one above.

My HD space is shrinking to 1.5 GB and cannot even use my macbook pro properly because of this HUGE bug or whatever. I dont know what to do!