APFS & High Sierra Compatibility

[wolfboy]

You can check to see what will not work with APFS right now by going into About this Mac > System Report > Applications > Sort by 64-Bit (Intel) to No.

Select all the No's then copy/paste all the data in the bottom window to a Google Doc (it auto creates a ToC). For me, I see a ton of Adobe stuff, though mostly installers and uninstallers. If you're still using InDesign CS6 or Office 2011, you're SOL.

 

[nutmac]

You can check to see what will not work with APFS right now by going into About this Mac > System Report > Applications > Sort by 64-Bit (Intel) to No.

Select all the No's then copy/paste all the data in the bottom window to a Google Doc (it auto creates a ToC). For me, I see a ton of Adobe stuff, though mostly installers and uninstallers. If you're still using InDesign CS6 or Office 2011, you're SOL.

32-bit apps work fine with APFS.

Apple has told developers that starting January 2018, Mac App Store won't accept 32-bit apps. But 32-bit apps will still install and function fine, at least as far as macOS High Sierra (10.13) is concerned.

macOS 10.14 or 10.15 may remove support for 32-bit apps entirely (my guess is 10.15), however.

 

[gp3]

...I did an upgrade install from 10.12 to 10.13 leading to a fairly unstable system...a clean install of 10.13 gave a much better result for me - very fast and stable and all apps (Office, Coda, BBEdit, Adobe apps...) work from one MAJOR failure unfortunately: Google Drive no longer seems to work using the new APFS - see attachment - I would be pleased to know if anybody has a workaround!!!

A temporary solution is to use Disk Utility to create a HFS+ disk image (.dmg), mount it and use as the "Google Drive folder". It worked for me.

 

[kungfupanda]

...I did an upgrade install from 10.12 to 10.13 leading to a fairly unstable system...a clean install of 10.13 gave a much better result for me - very fast and stable and all apps (Office, Coda, BBEdit, Adobe apps...) work from one MAJOR failure unfortunately: Google Drive no longer seems to work using the new APFS - see attachment - I would be pleased to know if anybody has a workaround!!!

There is a workaround - take a look here:
https://productforums.google.com/fo...rchin/drive/category$3Adrive-for-desktop-sync

Definitely a bit of hassle, and only a temporary fix until Google fix this, but it should get you up and running.

Best wishes,

Jon

 

[macryan1]

Disk Warrior v5 does not work with High Sierra and APFS. Tried it on my upgraded MacBook Air. No go. DiskWarrior has gotten me out of numerous messes....hope Alsoft gets out an update when 10.13 goes final.

I also notice that my MBA has fans going constantly ....it only has 4gb RAM...that may have something to do with it.

 

[agentx]

Disk Warrior v5 does not work with High Sierra and APFS. Tried it on my upgraded MacBook Air. No go. DiskWarrior has gotten me out of numerous messes....hope Alsoft gets out an update when 10.13 goes final.

I also notice that my MBA has fans going constantly ....it only has 4gb RAM...that may have something to do with it.

Of course it won't do anything, Diskwarrior was made to fix problems with HFS file system not APFS !

 

[LarryJoe33]

I think the intention of APFS will mean less use of these 'disk manager' apps due to the fault/file tolerance and reliability of APFS

Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is a must for me. Simple to use, it creates a perfect image of a drive/partition. It is essential to me as restoring an image (backup) is a life saver when I screw up things. I started using it when I replaced my internal HHD with SDD. Disk Utility couldn't/wouldn't do it. Worth every penny.

EDIT: Sorry I quoted the wrong person, meant for the person who asked what we use these apps for.
[doublepost=1500658568][/doublepost]

A big concern of mine is what apps will no longer work with APFS, specifically: DiskWarior, TechTool Pro, Quicken 2007, and Carbon Copy Cloner.

Or is that silliness and apps that work with Sierra "should" work with High Sierra?

I haven't found anything yet that does not work. That said, I agree with everyone else on the disk utility apps and whether they would work with APFS. I doubt it. I use CCC but I did not upgrade to APFS, I am still on HFS. Office runs fine. I am pretty sure that Office and CCC are the only non-Apple apps on my MBP.

 

[Janichsan]

By the way, CCC works with APFS, even if the developer suggests not to use the new filesystem, as he thinks it's immature.

 

[rpmurray]

By the way, CCC works with APFS, even if the developer suggests not to use the new filesystem, as he thinks it's immature.

As I understand it, APFS is also poorly documented by Apple so third parties like Alsoft are probably going to be awhile in getting out updates.

 

[LarryJoe33]

CCC5 works with APFS, read, write, restore, etc.

 

[mrapplegate]

CCC5 works with APFS, read, write, restore, etc.

Snapshots which backup programs would love to use are not available to anyone outside of Apple yet ( https://bombich.com/blog/2017/07/07/pondering-conversion-from-hfs-apfs), I was going to wait, but the news today was that Apple will force APFS on those with SSD drives, not a good idea in my opinion. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208018

 

[LarryJoe33]

Snapshots which backup programs would love to use are not available to anyone outside of Apple yet ( https://bombich.com/blog/2017/07/07/pondering-conversion-from-hfs-apfs), I was going to wait, but the news today was that Apple will force APFS on those with SSD drives, not a good idea in my opinion. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208018

https://bombich.com/blog/2017/07/31/carbon-copy-cloner-5-now-available-beta-testing

See APFS and High Sierra support

 

[mrapplegate]

https://bombich.com/blog/2017/07/31/carbon-copy-cloner-5-now-available-beta-testing

See APFS and High Sierra support

I understand it works with it, but snapshots are not working as he stated in the blog post I linked to.
From his blog,

Snapshots are probably the most exciting and promising feature of APFS, but that aspect of the new filesystem simply isn't ready at all. In fact, it remains to be determined whether third-party developers will ever get access to snapshot APIs. That one needs to be repeated to sink in. The programming interface for creating and manipulating snapshots is not available outside of Apple, and there's absolutely zero documentation about how they work and how to manage them. Yet here we are, just months away from this filesystem being pushed into production on millions of Macs, and we can't use this great new feature.

 

[LarryJoe33]

I understand it works with it, but snapshots are not working as he stated in the blog post I linked to.
From his blog,

Got it. I was commenting on CCC and it's ability to do what it is known to do well, Clone. CCC5 supports restoring to an APFS partition (CCC4 could clone APFS to HFS, but not back).

Snapshots looks exciting. That said, if Apple is still working on supporting it through the OS/Utilities, I can understand why they aren't releasing the secret sauce just yet.

 

[mrapplegate]

Got it. I was commenting on CCC and it's ability to do what it is known to do well, Clone. CCC5 supports restoring to an APFS partition (CCC4 could clone APFS to HFS, but not back).

Snapshots looks exciting. That said, if Apple is still working on supporting it through the OS/Utilities, I can understand why they aren't releasing the secret sauce just yet.

I agree, but find it annoying the best feature of APFS, in relation to snapshots will be withheld for now. I hope they let others use it soon. At least CCC will do what it was meant to do. Other aspects of APFS( fast copying, instant folder size computation, granular file encryption, etc) might offset the one thing that backup companies really need access to.

 

[LarryJoe33]

I agree, but find it annoying the best feature of APFS, in relation to snapshots will be withheld for now. I hope they let others use it soon. At least CCC will do what it was meant to do. Other aspects of APFS( fast copying, instant folder size computation, granular file encryption, etc) might offset the one thing that backup companies really need access to.

I agree completely. I have to wonder if Apple is hoarding a bit here, maybe targeting iCloud based snapshot backups using local APFS technology to assist. With Time Capsule not supported, I am guessing the next version of TM might be iCloud based.

 

[mrapplegate]

I agree completely. I have to wonder if Apple is hoarding a bit here, maybe targeting iCloud based snapshot backups using local APFS technology to assist. With Time Capsule not supported, I am guessing the next version of TM might be iCloud based.

That's an interesting idea. iCloud does lack a desktop part and with the storage savings of snapshots it would be a perfect fit. TM in the cloud would be good.

 

[Ebenezum]

That's an interesting idea. iCloud does lack a desktop part and with the storage savings of snapshots it would be a perfect fit. TM in the cloud would be good.

In theory if one has very little data (-20GB). On the other hand if we are talking large amount of data (500GB+) its going to take forever to restore via iCloud.

Even if Apple would make such feature available I will not be using it due to 1. It would take too long to restore compared to external drive and 2. Privacy, I am not convinced saving my data to iCloud would be smart thing to do.

 

[mikecwest]

In theory if one has very little data (-20GB). On the other hand if we are talking large amount of data (500GB+) its going to take forever to restore via iCloud.

Even if Apple would make such feature available I will not be using it due to 1. It would take too long to restore compared to external drive and 2. Privacy, I am not convinced saving my data to iCloud would be smart thing to do.

It would also be bad, for people who sometimes connect to wireless devices that have limited data. Lets say you have a Sprint HotSpot, and it connects via wifi, it will use all of you data very quickly. I did that with the iCloud Photo Sync, when it tried to sync 35 gigs of photos from the last 12+ years.

 

[mrapplegate]

In theory if one has very little data (-20GB). On the other hand if we are talking large amount of data (500GB+) its going to take forever to restore via iCloud.

Even if Apple would make such feature available I will not be using it due to 1. It would take too long to restore compared to external drive and 2. Privacy, I am not convinced saving my data to iCloud would be smart thing to do.

Even if they just allow snapshots to backup locally to a NAS device that would be a start. I agree that backing up large amounts of data to the "cloud" is slow. It took forever for me to make the initial backup to Backblaze, so I can imagine the downsides of doing it to iCloud.

I'd be happy with Apple allowing SuperDuper or CCC to use snapshots in their programs until it was feasible to upload large amounts of data. After all what is the average upload speed here in the US for most people? I only pay for 5 Mbps, which takes forever to upload data.

 

[John Svec]

Well Diskwarrior Fixed HFS file system problems so will be obsolete on APFS
Techtool is a bag of ***** if you ask me ;-)
Quicken 2007 might still work.
Carbon copy cloner we will have to see what happens it uses rsync to copy and ASR for block restore.
Us tech admins are awaiting whats going to happen but we mostly are saying goodbye to Imaging workflow.

I think you need to read up about APFS more. And i am sure they are doing much more under the hood regarding time machine.

CCC works fine with APFS I just made a bootable clone yesterday of 10.13.1 it does not ask to make a recovery drive, it automatically make an APFS "container" disk. My copy booted fine from a "spin drive" just took forever compared to my Samsung PCIe 512 Flash disk... ~1500 mb/s

BTW... Winclone 6.1.7 seems to work fine as well on APFS 10.13.1
Making a Windows 10 backup right now

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

I want to avoid APFS. Does Carbon Copy Cloner works in High Sierra under HFS? I am planning to copy a HD with High Sierra to an SSD.
Will that succeed?

 

[LarryJoe33]

I want to avoid APFS. Does Carbon Copy Cloner works in High Sierra under HFS? I am planning to copy a HD with High Sierra to an SSD.
Will that succeed?

Yes, it works just fine, great software.

 

[DesterWallaboo]

From Alsoft's website:

• What's in the works

The next major release of DiskWarrior will include the ability to rebuild APFS disks.

https://alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/highsierraapfs.html

They say the flooding in Texas set them back on development by about 3 weeks. But DiskWarrior 5.1 is coming with APFS support.

 

[Ebenezum]

Given that Apple hasn't released APFS documentation to developers I have a feeling its going to take at least 6-8 months before Diskwarrior, Techtool Pro etc. will be compatible with APFS. Even longer if the documentation isn't released soon...

In my opinion Apple should have waited until the documentation was ready before releasing APFS, if Disk utility can't fix APFS volume you are in trouble because other disk utilities aren't compatible.