How to read an APFS Physical Store partition?

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Level 1

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How to read an APFS Physical Store partition?

Hello,

After upgrading to macOS Mojave 10.14.1
I plugged in my Seagate USB APFS based hard drive and it got converted automatically to APFS Physical Store and is not mounting anymore. But, the USB hard drive is detecting in Disk Utility.

I know erasing it / formatting it is a quick fix, but is not an option as because the hard drive has data in it.

This scenario has occurred twice to 2 of my Seagate hard drives only after upgrading to macOS Mojave.

I was using APFS on High Sierra with these 2 USB hard drives and there was no issues at all ever.

Is Mojave known to be a problem creator to convert APFS partition automatically to APFS Physical Store?

Can anyone provide me some details on this issue, if possible?

Would really appreciate inputs / a solution to reverse back from what macOS Mojave has done.

How to get back from APFS Physical Store to APFS so that my mac can read it back?

Also would be helpful, if you can please let me know what exactly does 'APFS Physical Store" actually mean?

Why does it appear as an option in the list of file systems in Disk Utility when attaching a drive that's already got converted to 'APFS Physical Store"? What are the conditions for which macOS will display the label 'APFS Physical Store' in Disk Utility? Has anyone experienced these issues.

Apple's technical support in my country was not able to solve the issue nor could answer some of the basic questions which I've asked above to them. Looking for any information on a solution from this post. Thanks!

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016), macOS Mojave (10.14.1), APFS issues.

Posted on Nov 11, 2018 1:57 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,638 points

Nov 12, 2018 6:50 PM in response to intellogo

A "physical store" is the physical disk. APFS "synthesizes" virtual drives from the physical disk.

Here is the output of diskutil ap list

APFS Container (1 found)

|

+-- Container disk1 2ADA4F4E-613A-43E6-9072-E1AAF1459219

====================================================

APFS Container Reference: disk1

Size (Capacity Ceiling): 479238864896 B (479.2 GB)

Minimum Size: 479238864896 B (479.2 GB)

Capacity In Use By Volumes: 260844290048 B (260.8 GB) (54.4% used)

Capacity Not Allocated: 218394574848 B (218.4 GB) (45.6% free)

|

+-< Physical Store disk0s2 42AD4F32-B659-4434-BF34-73EDEE431231

| -----------------------------------------------------------

| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk0s2

| Size: 479238864896 B (479.2 GB)

|

+-> Volume disk1s1 8D15CACC-8568-3711-AC55-8250C7986C97

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s1 (No specific role)

| Name: Pilsner (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: /

| Capacity Consumed: 251544113152 B (251.5 GB)

| FileVault: Yes (Unlocked)

|

+-> Volume disk1s2 387C0DBE-F689-486B-9C86-F6D32DC3F800

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s2 (Preboot)

| Name: Preboot (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: Not Mounted

| Capacity Consumed: 36052992 B (36.1 MB)

| FileVault: No

|

+-> Volume disk1s3 317C70EE-BB33-482C-BF9D-7467937D2CF4

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s3 (Recovery)

| Name: Recovery (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: Not Mounted

| Capacity Consumed: 514666496 B (514.7 MB)

| FileVault: No

|

+-> Volume disk1s4 4808A21E-AF67-4C6C-BEDD-BA4E48F97BF1

---------------------------------------------------

APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s4 (VM)

Name: VM (Case-insensitive)

Mount Point: /private/var/vm

Capacity Consumed: 8589963264 B (8.6 GB)

FileVault: No

The physical SSD is identified as disk0, with disk0s2 the physical drive where the synthesized drives reside.

disk1 is the synthesized "drive."

disk1 is a synthesized "Container" divided into 4 volumes, the main storage area (Pilsner in my case), VM, Preboot, and Recovery.

Here is a list showing the structure: diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *480.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 479.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_KernelCoreDump 655.4 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +479.2 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Pilsner 251.5 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 36.1 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 514.7 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 8.6 GB disk1s4

Your external drive should not have been converted automatically. Only boot drives are converted.

Disk Utility, by default, only shows the Volumes (partitions) on a drive. You can show the physical device by selecting Show All Devices from the View popup menu.

That will show the physical disks along with the Partitions or Containers and Volumes (APFS).

Can you post the output of the two commands? Copy and paste into Terminal, then copy the output and paste into a reply here.

diskutil list

diskutil ap list

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Answer 2

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 14, 2018 11:09 AM in response to Barney-15E

Result for command 1 below:

Gautams-MacBook-Pro:~ Gautam$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 700.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 298.8 GB disk0s3

4: Windows Recovery 500.2 MB disk0s4

5: Windows Recovery 900.7 MB disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +700.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 205.4 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 45.7 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk4 1000.0 GB disk3s2

/dev/disk4 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +ERROR disk4

Physical Store disk3s2

Result for command 2 below:

Gautams-MacBook-Pro:~ Gautam$ diskutil ap list

APFS Containers (2 found)

|

+-- Container disk1 5793197F-A707-426E-9D9A-41D210EF1E28

| ====================================================

| APFS Container Reference: disk1

| Size (Capacity Ceiling): 700021972992 B (700.0 GB)

| Capacity In Use By Volumes: 207257952256 B (207.3 GB) (29.6% used)

| Capacity Not Allocated: 492764020736 B (492.8 GB) (70.4% free)

| |

| +-< Physical Store disk0s2 E0B9CA48-C042-409A-BE41-A42CE3A61E0D

| | -----------------------------------------------------------

| | APFS Physical Store Disk: disk0s2

| | Size: 700021972992 B (700.0 GB)

| |

| +-> Volume disk1s1 7C8B0B30-B75B-3F67-9E9A-08D8EBDD7F75

| | ---------------------------------------------------

| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s1 (No specific role)

| | Name: Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)

| | Mount Point: /

| | Capacity Consumed: 205445652480 B (205.4 GB)

| | FileVault: No

| |

| +-> Volume disk1s2 90128193-EDC8-4571-A941-0CAC6E349C9E

| | ---------------------------------------------------

| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s2 (Preboot)

| | Name: Preboot (Case-insensitive)

| | Mount Point: Not Mounted

| | Capacity Consumed: 45731840 B (45.7 MB)

| | FileVault: No

| |

| +-> Volume disk1s3 B30DE922-6D7B-478F-AC02-801D3D2F8EEF

| | ---------------------------------------------------

| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s3 (Recovery)

| | Name: Recovery (Case-insensitive)

| | Mount Point: Not Mounted

| | Capacity Consumed: 512757760 B (512.8 MB)

| | FileVault: No

| |

| +-> Volume disk1s4 2EB65167-6DC8-47FE-BDAC-D7B8472BEDE8

| ---------------------------------------------------

| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s4 (VM)

| Name: VM (Case-insensitive)

| Mount Point: /private/var/vm

| Capacity Consumed: 1073807360 B (1.1 GB)

| FileVault: No

|

+-- Container ERROR -69808

======================

APFS Container Reference: disk4

Size (Capacity Ceiling): ERROR -69620

Capacity In Use By Volumes: ERROR -69620

Capacity Not Allocated: ERROR -69620

|

+-< Physical Store disk3s2 7C592CB7-3140-4645-8928-787177BBF2C0

| -----------------------------------------------------------

| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk3s2

| Size: 999995129856 B (1000.0 GB)

|

+-> No Volumes

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,638 points

Nov 15, 2018 3:48 PM in response to intellogo

So, what do you see in the reports which gives you the hint that something is wrong with the external USB hard drive?

All of this:

+-- Container ERROR -69808

======================

APFS Container Reference: disk4

Size (Capacity Ceiling): ERROR -69620

Capacity In Use By Volumes: ERROR -69620

Capacity Not Allocated: ERROR -69620

|

+-< Physical Store disk3s2 7C592CB7-3140-4645-8928-787177BBF2C0

| -----------------------------------------------------------

| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk3s2

| Size: 999995129856 B (1000.0 GB)

|

+-> No Volumes

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Answer 4

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 18, 2018 4:30 AM in response to LexxDataRecSolutions

Thanks for your suggestions!

Data recovery actions is a last step for me.

Only 1 person from the Apple Phone Support Escalation Team out of the entire lot who I spoke with has told me to report the matter to Apple's Software Developers Team at developer.apple.com. I'm posting there to see what response is available to know why this scenario happens / happened and how to avoid it or steer clear from it next time as it can put one in a very dangerous situation of loosing access to all data on an external hard drive.

I had already tired and purchased 'iBoysoft Data Recovery' recently which costs a bit more than 'R Studio for Mac'. I checked with iBoysoft. its seemed to successfully scan both the 1TB hard drives within 2 hours and re-construct the exact folder & file structure within 1.5 hours to recover to another location. I also opened different files within the reconstructed folders to check the data in it and it looked fine!. Even the UI seems user friendly.

Have you heard / used 'iBoysoft Data Recovery' before? What's your opinion? How is Disk Drill different?

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Answer 5

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 18, 2018 5:27 AM in response to Barney-15E

Alright, thanks for the points!

Only 1 person from the Apple Phone Support Escalation Team out of the entire lot who I spoke with has told me to report the matter to Apple's Software Developers Team at developer.apple.com. I'm posting there to see what response is available to know why this scenario happens / happened and how to avoid it or steer clear from it next time as it can put one in a very dangerous situation of loosing access to all data on an external hard drive.

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Answer 6

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,638 points

Nov 18, 2018 5:37 AM in response to intellogo

I've got half a dozen drives connected to my Mojave Mac. None have ever been automatically converted to APFS.

I also don't remember anyone reporting such an occurrence.

Hopefully someone will find your report intriguing enough to check out.

Did you attempt to Encrypt the drive? That will convert the drive to APFS.

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2018 2:41 PM in response to intellogo

Hi, Disk Drill team here. We would really be interested in investigating your case closer. Can you give us a buzz at help@cleverfiles.com? There are several potential outcomes in your scenario, and we might be able to compile a custom test build for you to reconstruct your original data structures.

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Answer 8

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 1, 2018 2:23 PM in response to Barney-15E

I don't use the 'encryption' feature especially so that I can recover from a hard drive which ever faces data disaster scenario. I know it gives ultimate security to the data stored on the drives, but I was reading online that using the encryption feature can also make it near impossible to recover the data if that scenario arises. I also use some data recovery software for iPhone & Mac and they will ask to disable the encryption feature to be able to analyze the drive / make backups.

I was instructed by the Apple technical support escalation team to submit my case to the Apple Developer team with all the video recordings, screenshots, system logs, system reports and a clear description of the issue. The team responded after 10 days and let me know that they're analyzing the stuff to see why & what is going on with my case.

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Answer 9

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 15, 2018 12:25 PM in response to Barney-15E

So, what do you see in the reports which gives you the hint that something is wrong with the external USB hard drive?

Attaching some snapshots as in Disk Utility

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Answer 10

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,638 points

Nov 14, 2018 1:52 PM in response to intellogo

There is something wrong with that drive. You can try Disk First Aid, but you will probably need data recovery software or a service to recover the data. I don't have any recommendations.

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Answer 11

Nov 16, 2018 12:56 AM in response to intellogo

try to scan external disk DYI recovery software like DiskDrill or R-Studio

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