Disk Utility freezes on first aid

Question

Level 1

39 points

Disk Utility freezes on first aid

i ran a quick first-aid with disk utility today just to make sure everything is running smoothly on my mac. unfortunately the disk utility got stuck on "preforming fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk1s1". i gave disk utility a good 10-15 minutes before i decided to force shut down my mac and boot it back up into safe-mode. when in safe-mode i ran disk utility there before restarting back to normal; first-aid showed everything was ok. i would say this is a first, but unfortunately this has happened before about 2-3 weeks ago with the exact same issue.

i decided to reboot into recovery mode, where i ran another disk utility first-aid(everything ok) and decided to reinstall the current version on macos high sierra. the reinstallation from recovery just finished and disk utility shows that everything is fine, but i do not know why this has happened.

Why did disk utility freeze at "preforming fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk1s1" and what can i do in the future if this happens again? Has anyone else ran into this issue with Disk Utility where they have to force shut down their mac just because it freezes up?

macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)

Posted on Apr 25, 2018 1:55 AM

Reply

Answer 1

putnik

Level 4

1,185 points

Apr 25, 2018 11:08 AM in response to SebasT14

I just tried this and my rMBP froze too. Now I think it has to do with the new APFS Snapshots and may be made worse by those added while using Carbon Copy Cloner. These can take a very long time to scan during First Aid. It can be disabled in CCC, if it is not to your liking. Anyway, I sent a report to Apple about it.

Reply

Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,356 points

Apr 25, 2018 12:58 PM in response to SebasT14

Disk Utility First Aid on an APFS drive involves far more steps than on a HFS+ drive of the same capacity. This requires more patience than most of us are accustomed too, and it will seem like first aid is hung for a long time before progress resumes. Speaking from personal experience with High Sierra 10.13.4 on a 2014 Macbook Air with 120Gb drive.

Reply

Answer 3

SebasT14 Author

Level 1

39 points

Apr 26, 2018 12:56 PM in response to putnik

The previous screenshot i showed is the details of first aid running in Disk Utility.

It never gets to the "Checking the fsroot tree" line as it freezes on the "Preforming fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk1s1" line and never advances any further. The only solution to this is to force-shutdown my mac and boot up into recovery mode to make sure everything is fine(ive had to reinstall MacOS two times already trying to fix this)

Reply

Answer 4

SebasT14 Author

Level 1

39 points

Apr 25, 2018 5:29 PM in response to VikingOSX

Ive had it hang for over 30 minutes with no progress except for the fact that i had the spinning pinwheel of death that made me have to force shutdown my MacBook.

On a separate note, one of the calls i had with Apple support said its an issue with Disk Utility trying to sync with the internet and it causes the crash; but no other support advisors can confirm other than the one center i connected to.

Reply

Answer 5

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Apr 25, 2018 11:27 AM in response to SebasT14

See these articles Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks - Apple Support

Repair a disk using Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 6

SebasT14 Author

Level 1

39 points

Apr 25, 2018 5:31 PM in response to putnik

I haven't had it freeze on the snapshots part, as i never get to it if it freezes. When it does however i get stuck on "Preforming fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk1s1"

Reply

Answer 7

putnik

Level 4

1,185 points

Apr 26, 2018 11:02 AM in response to SebasT14

The "fsroot tree" and "snapshot" checks come within the fsck_apfs checks. You need to "show details" to see them.

Reply

Disk Utility freezes on first aid

Similar questions