APFS seems to be causing problems... how to resolve?

[matthewpomar]

I upgraded from Sierra to High Sierra to Mojave and thus converted from HFS to APFS. It seems that this is causing me problems (locking up Finder, Disk Utility freezing during scans, Steam client freezing due to empty directory presumably based on research). Now I cannot even perform a Time Machine backup due to "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to backup from" error message, even thought I have a ton of free space.

I've read that APFS is not reliable. I may be wrong to blame all of these problems on APFS, but I figured I start there and try to eliminate that as a possible cause. I thought I'd try wiping the disk clean and reformatting with the latest version of the installer, hoping that it lays down a solid/clean file system structure, which might be more reliable.

I have a classic Mac Pro, with a Kingston HyperX Predator AHCI mounted via PCIe adapter. I'm using a non-flashed RX 580 video card. I'm also at 141 boot ROM (I know I'm at least behind from 142, but is there a newer version?).

I'd like install Mojave from scratch, but not sure if I can due to non-flashed video card.

Can I simply create a Mojave installer disk, select it from "Startup Disk" and reboot to start the installer and install a fresh version on the AHCI drive and restore from backup?

What issues might I encounter in this plan?

Thank you.

 

[treekram]

I've made several posts saying APFS in the latest macOS updates is mostly stable. I saw your post and said - "Oh, maybe I'm wrong". But the caveat I always give to my "mostly stable" statement is that it's mostly stable except for fusion drives and certain older Mac Pro configurations so in reading your post I see that here's another case of that Mac Pro exception.

Some people say that "cheap eBay PCIe adapters" for the MP can cause problems - I don't know if that's the case with your MP. You should visit the Mac Pro forum here if you haven't already. They have people who know the older Mac Pro inside and out and they seem pretty active. I don't know if these people visit this forum on a regular basis or not.

 

[Cordorb]

If the system is on an external boot disk then you can try a non APFS Mojave
Thunderbolt is faster but a SATA to USB-3 adapter will work for testing with a SSD.

 

[davidlv]

I upgraded from Sierra to High Sierra to Mojave and thus converted from HFS to APFS. It seems that this is causing me problems (locking up Finder, Disk Utility freezing during scans, Steam client freezing due to empty directory presumably based on research). Now I cannot even perform a Time Machine backup due to "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to backup from" error message, even thought I have a ton of free space.

I've read that APFS is not reliable. I may be wrong to blame all of these problems on APFS, but I figured I start there and try to eliminate that as a possible cause. I thought I'd try wiping the disk clean and reformatting with the latest version of the installer, hoping that it lays down a solid/clean file system structure, which might be more reliable.

I have a classic Mac Pro, with a Kingston HyperX Predator AHCI mounted via PCIe adapter. I'm using a non-flashed RX 580 video card. I'm also at 141 boot ROM (I know I'm at least behind from 142, but is there a newer version?).

I'd like install Mojave from scratch, but not sure if I can due to non-flashed video card.

Can I simply create a Mojave installer disk, select it from "Startup Disk" and reboot to start the installer and install a fresh version on the AHCI drive and restore from backup?

What issues might I encounter in this plan?

Thank you.

Take a look at this thread in the Mac Pro section:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-0-0-0-0-does-not-work.2182219/#post-27384507
It seems several people have had success updating the firmware to 1.4.4.0.0.0.0 by installing a SSD drive in one of the SATA II drive bays (temporarily using tape or with an adaptor like OWC's (on sale now at https://eshop.macsales.com/search/XLR8YourMac.Specials?APC=XLR8YourMac13 for just under $18)
Format the SSD to APFS, use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy your PCI drive to the new SSD, and boot from it.
Then download the latest Mojave installer from the App store and start it up to get the firmware update.
You can reinstall Mojave after that, which may solve your original system issues.