Apple Intelligence now features Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools enhancements, seamless support for ChatGPT, and visual intelligence.

Apple Intelligence has also begun language expansion with localized English support for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. Learn more >

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can't split volume because volume would be too small error

In Disk Utility, I can't split my Macintosh HD volume because it says: "This volume can not be split because the resulting volumes would be too small."

Here is what it looks like:

User uploaded file

This is my disk:

User uploaded file

diskutil list says:

User uploaded file

Using newest Macbook Pro and OS 10.13.6.

Anyone know why I can't partition it?

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Aug 15, 2018 5:59 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 3, 2018 1:36 PM

Ok. It took a call to Apple and a bounce to engineering, but I think I have an answer. At least it fixed the issues on my computer, although I cannot understand why this would have created the problem I was experiencing. Apparently Disk Utility would not allow me to partition the internal drive while TimeMachine had a local snapshot.


The fix is relatively easy. In Terminal enter


tmutil listlocalsnapshots /


Once you see the list go ahead and delete them


tmutil thinlocalsnapshots /


That should allow you to partition the drive. On mine when I added the new partition it showed as if I had created two partitions, one the intended partition and then a second unmounted partition of essentially the same size that was formatted with APFS partition store. On restart the second ghost partition was gone and the issue resolved.


Good luck if anyone stumbles across this problem.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 3, 2018 1:36 PM in response to Sean Calvert

Ok. It took a call to Apple and a bounce to engineering, but I think I have an answer. At least it fixed the issues on my computer, although I cannot understand why this would have created the problem I was experiencing. Apparently Disk Utility would not allow me to partition the internal drive while TimeMachine had a local snapshot.


The fix is relatively easy. In Terminal enter


tmutil listlocalsnapshots /


Once you see the list go ahead and delete them


tmutil thinlocalsnapshots /


That should allow you to partition the drive. On mine when I added the new partition it showed as if I had created two partitions, one the intended partition and then a second unmounted partition of essentially the same size that was formatted with APFS partition store. On restart the second ghost partition was gone and the issue resolved.


Good luck if anyone stumbles across this problem.

Aug 26, 2018 7:21 PM in response to Dudemario

Same issue with a 2018 MacBook Pro. The only difference is it has the smaller internal drive, 256Gb internal with only half used. I have not added a Boot Camp partition so only one partition on the drive currently.


Trying to create a partition for installing Ubuntu as dual boot.


It gives the same message in both Disk Utility regularly and when starting up in recovery. All commands, +, -, name, format, etc are greed out and you cannot drag to adjust. Possible this is an issue just with the newer hardware?

Can't split volume because volume would be too small error

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.