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I believe there are working workarounds for this if you really want to, like creating a Disk Image inside the APFS volume in which you locate Time Machine. I believe that works.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of this. I do know that APFS doesn't support hard links to directories and Time Machine depends upon them.
 
Interesting, I wasn't aware of this. I do know that APFS doesn't support hard links to directories and Time Machine depends upon them.

Indeed that is true, but if I'm not mistaken the only reason the workaround is functional, is that the disk image that you create inside the APFS disk, can act as an HFS volume inside the APFS drive. It's clunky, it's stupid and it's just not advisable. Until TM is redone to work with APFS, just use it on a JHFS+ drive.
 
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OP wrote:
"Please explain what is the big deal about APFS? I don't see any but problems and crashes"

I sense that APFS is the source of a large portion of the problems that users are experiencing with High Sierra.

Not ready for primetime, in my opinion.
I disagree. Do you have any evidence of this?
[doublepost=1516840698][/doublepost]
Might surprise you but yes, I did read the entire thread. Do you even remotely understand my point? Do you have any idea what it means to replace a file system, aka the underpinnings of literally everything on a computer? Have you ever experienced data loss due to a buggy file system, because, oops, the developers missed something? I have, and that’s why I’ve become very cautious.

For you, it’s no big deal. It’s just a file system, right? Who cares, Apple surely knows what they’re doing. To me, it’s holy crap they’re touching the file system. If they mess this one up it’s not just root access to a computer, or reconfiguring App Store Access without providing the correct password. If they mess this up they mess up big time. And that’s why it’s a bad idea to force it down our throats whether we like/want it or not.
Do you have any idea what it means to use a file system had has hack upon hack to try do deal with modern requirements? Do you have any idea the advantages of a ground-up redesign using modern tools and benefiting from lessons learned from the previous files systems and their evolution?
 
It’s like talking to a wall. One that doesn’t listen very well, either.

Again, and for the last time: I am not and under no circumstances claiming any sort of superiority for HFS+. I am fully aware of APFS’s feature set, its limitations and advantages. I am also more than aware of the hoops Apple developers had to jump through to get HFS+ to where it stands today. My one and only problem is the way that Apple is forcing us to swallow the APFS pill whether we like it or not. I strongly dislike the fact that there is no easy way to opt out. I for one prefer to wait for the .1 or even .2 release of any software, and I would have preferred to let others do the APFS beta testing but as it stands Apple is forcing me to join their APFS beta program against my will.

That’s my only gripe with APFS. Not the file system. Not its feature set. Not the fact that as of Jan 2018 it remains a file system largely unsupported outside the Apple universe (good luck running any sort of forensic analysis on an APFS-formatted drive...). It’s the fact that Apple is forcing it down my throat against my will. That’s all.

And with that I am out of here. I’ve got better things to do than to repeat myself over and over and over again.
 
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That’s my only gripe with APFS. Not the file system. Not its feature set. Not the fact that as of Jan 2018 it remains a file system largely unsupported outside the Apple universe (good luck running any sort of forensic analysis on an APFS-formatted drive...). It’s the fact that Apple is forcing it down my throat against my will. That’s all.

And with that I am out of here. I’ve got better things to do than to repeat myself over and over and over again.

Just thought you might be interested in this part from Apple's Developer site


"An open source implementation is not available at this time. Apple plans to document and publish the APFS volume format specification."

So yeah - right now it's unsupported outside of the internal Apple world (and a single reverse-engineered Windos driver), but with further documentation and specification coming that will change later. (and yes, I'm aware that your problem is with how you have no guarantees right now, but just thought it might interest you still)
 
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It’s like talking to a wall. One that doesn’t listen very well, either.

Again, and for the last time: I am not and under no circumstances claiming any sort of superiority for HFS+. I am fully aware of APFS’s feature set, its limitations and advantages. I am also more than aware of the hoops Apple developers had to jump through to get HFS+ to where it stands today. My one and only problem is the way that Apple is forcing us to swallow the APFS pill whether we like it or not. I strongly dislike the fact that there is no easy way to opt out. I for one prefer to wait for the .1 or even .2 release of any software, and I would have preferred to let others do the APFS beta testing but as it stands Apple is forcing me to join their APFS beta program against my will.

That’s my only gripe with APFS. Not the file system. Not its feature set. Not the fact that as of Jan 2018 it remains a file system largely unsupported outside the Apple universe (good luck running any sort of forensic analysis on an APFS-formatted drive...). It’s the fact that Apple is forcing it down my throat against my will. That’s all.

And with that I am out of here. I’ve got better things to do than to repeat myself over and over and over again.

well, if you're gone you won't read this; but true, it is like talking to a wall; why not chose to hear what people are saying?

it's the future file system, and it's the current one too. accompanying a new OS that you can chose not to update to, it's what apple deems necessary for what's next. and again, you can chose to not move to HS. sadly, you can't have everything your way (that keeps me hacking/customizing my OS, something i've done for years); but some things are absolutes, and... APFS is, and will be, one of them.
 
I guess that I'm "a wall" insofar as APFS is concerned.

I'll stay with HFS+. Probably for the indefinite future.

(I held out for a few years with OS 9 after the intro of OS X, too) :)
 
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I guess that I'm "a wall" insofar as APFS is concerned.

I'll stay with HFS+. Probably for the indefinite future.

(I held out for a few years with OS 9 after the intro of OS X, too) :)

nothing wrong with that either. but the obvious thing is... you'll update at some point, then find that your mac continues to behave as a mac (as mine does right now), and... life will go on. (until the next 'new' file system...) :D
 
well, if you're gone you won't read this; but true, it is like talking to a wall; why not chose to hear what people are saying?

it's the future file system, and it's the current one too. accompanying a new OS that you can chose not to update to, it's what apple deems necessary for what's next. and again, you can chose to not move to HS. sadly, you can't have everything your way (that keeps me hacking/customizing my OS, something i've done for years); but some things are absolutes, and... APFS is, and will be, one of them.

Sounds like you are all in and trust Apple without a doubt.
 
I guess that I'm "a wall" insofar as APFS is concerned.

I'll stay with HFS+. Probably for the indefinite future.

(I held out for a few years with OS 9 after the intro of OS X, too) :)

It is immensely confusing how you and Fisherking have super similar usernames.... Do you two know each other?

nothing wrong with that either. but the obvious thing is... you'll update at some point, then find that your mac continues to behave as a mac (as mine does right now), and... life will go on. (until the next 'new' file system...) :D

Apple will likely refine APFS, ironing out the bugs and so on in the next while, so if you jump on the boat later on, you're at less risk. The bleeding edge, and even just the edge that has stopped bleeding and is now healing up, is always more susceptible to issues, and a file system is major. I have no issues with APFS, but I also wouldn't convert all my backups all at once (not that I can since I have a TM backup that for now doesn't support APFS).
And the next new file system will come in 2037 if there's an equally long time span between HFS+ and APFS, as there'll be between APFS and the next one.
 
My one and only problem is the way that Apple is forcing us to swallow the APFS pill whether we like it or not
But that's what happens when you live in the Apple ecosystem. Their actions on APFS is no different then any other feature added to OS X. You by and large give up a lot of choice and freedom when it comes to living in Apple's ecosystem. I'm not defending them, just pointing out that its not new
 
Sounds like you are all in and trust Apple without a doubt.

not at all, and i've had my share of (sometimes significant) issues over the years. my point is, i've chosen to live in the apple universe, and i like diving into the new. and i accept the consequences of my actions.

all tech companies stumble, apple included.
 
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It’s like talking to a wall. One that doesn’t listen very well, either.

Again, and for the last time: I am not and under no circumstances claiming any sort of superiority for HFS+. I am fully aware of APFS’s feature set, its limitations and advantages. I am also more than aware of the hoops Apple developers had to jump through to get HFS+ to where it stands today. My one and only problem is the way that Apple is forcing us to swallow the APFS pill whether we like it or not. I strongly dislike the fact that there is no easy way to opt out. I for one prefer to wait for the .1 or even .2 release of any software, and I would have preferred to let others do the APFS beta testing but as it stands Apple is forcing me to join their APFS beta program against my will.

That’s my only gripe with APFS. Not the file system. Not its feature set. Not the fact that as of Jan 2018 it remains a file system largely unsupported outside the Apple universe (good luck running any sort of forensic analysis on an APFS-formatted drive...). It’s the fact that Apple is forcing it down my throat against my will. That’s all.

And with that I am out of here. I’ve got better things to do than to repeat myself over and over and over again.

APFS was in beta with Sierra, released with MacOS High Sierra, High Sierra is at .3 release, and iOS deployed APFS with 10.3 and I don't think there any reports of problems with APFS on iOS.

Since APFS was deployed on iOS, it is now being used on orders of magnitudes higher numbers of all Macs in use on earth.

You are not reasonable in calling APFS on MacOS 'APFS beta program' and High Sierra is past your milestone of .1 or .2 release for use. 100's of millions of iOS users and millions of MacOS users are using APFS and they are doing the 'beta testing' for you.

It seems you have a philosophical objection to Apple's habit of forcing advances to their devices. Perhaps another platform would be a better fit for you.
 
I agree with mj_ and Fishrrman, at this point APFS isn't solid enough for use. I installed it on a external SSD for testing purposes when High Sierra was released and had too many problems such as incorrect amount of used space which was relatively minor issue but I also noticed snapshots weren't working properly which is much more problematic. Maybe 10.13.3 fixes these issues but didn't have time to install it yet.

During beta testing Apple provided a option in the installer to skip APFS conversion but for some reason it was removed when High Sierra was released. I used the Terminal command to skip APFS when installing High Sierra to another external SSD and that install has worked much better apart from problems installing .2 update. It seems High Sierra works relatively well but APFS itself might be another story.

I also helped some friends who tried to install High Sierra only for the APFS conversion to fail, result was a very challenging data recovery because it was very hard to find any software that would support APFS.

That experience and the lack of documentation makes me very nervous, lack of third party utility support is problematic and I have no intention to use High Sierra until APFS is documented properly.
 
That experience and the lack of documentation makes me very nervous, lack of third party utility support is problematic and I have no intention to use High Sierra until APFS is documented properly.


Yeah - I personally have found APFS to work flawlessly with anything I've used it on, but this is exactly the biggest downside to APFS right now. When Apple releases the documentation, APFS will quickly become a much more attractive option for a lot more circumstances.
 
For years it was where's ZFS now Apple has CoW files system and everyone goes your shoving it down our throats.


I think the big difference here is that ZFS is very much a known quantity. APFS is a new player in the game and it takes a lot of time to really assess a file system properly, and for wider industry support.
 
How so? Can you give examples of where APFS is causing issues?

Preview can't render clear pdf documents.
To use HEIF/HEVC you must install High Sierra, that is a problem. I downgraded to Sierra yesterday because High Sierra can't render a clear PDF, I paid $1000 for a phone and can't use HEIF/HEVC on Sierra. That's a problem.
 
Preview can't render clear pdf documents.
To use HEIF/HEVC you must install High Sierra, that is a problem. I downgraded to Sierra yesterday because High Sierra can't render a clear PDF, I paid $1000 for a phone and can't use HEIF/HEVC on Sierra. That's a problem.

yeah, really. that's a problem you're having, not a universal issue related to the new file system...
 
You can do an install without APFS if you do it through the Terminal in a Recovery Disk

Can you provide the steps to perform that install.
Unrelated to APFS



Also unrelated to APFS. And you can just make JPG versions

May be you can help with this, High Sierra render PDFS sharp and crystal clear on "safe mode" but in normal mode are blurry. Tell me what to do, I'm willing to learn and fix this problem because I want to use High Sierra.
 
Can you provide the steps to perform that install.

I can't remember what they are to be honest. I've not done it myself, but just read about it. Another method that probably works though is to clone the data from an APFS volume running HS to an HFS+ volume.

A tip for you is to use Google though.... It works magic. Here's a link that describes the the process with the Terminal I couldn't remember:
http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/17/how-skip-apfs-macos-high-sierra/

May be you can help with this, High Sierra render PDFS sharp and crystal clear on "safe mode" but in normal mode are blurry. Tell me what to do, I'm willing to learn and fix this problem because I want to use High Sierra.

What GPU do you have? Sounds like it could be an issue tied to a specific GPU driver or something.
Does it also happen in a guest account?
 
This MacBook Pro is the mid 2015, the one without egpu. I tried google already, some users from this forum did help me but without success, and yes, it happened with the guest account a well. I hope Apple fix this in the next release. Sierra renders the pdfs very clear.
 
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