Relocated Items in macOS Catalina Explained

[lakerchick4life]

deleted mine..this is what I had in relocated items folder
there is a file called "What are relocated items
There are two folders, Security Folder and VM Folder
in the security folder there are two folders in that, coreservices folder and directoryservices folder
there are NO additional files in those two folders
in the VM Folder there is only one file something called "SwapFile0" and thats it
I contacted Apple, she said go ahead and delete it basically nothing is in there..so I did, put it into the trash, zero errors, no issues removing it

 

[ZMacintosh]

Instead of going through the hassle and risk of disabling SIP, just drag the Relocated Items folder into the /tmp folder and restart. anything in the /tmp folder gets removed anyway on restarts.

 

[chrfr]

Is it that /usr/local is symlinked to the Relocated Items folder? Where the heck did it go?

/usr/local isn't moved or linked to Relocated items.

 

[realeric]

Timemachine couldn't downgrade Catalina to Mojave because the system volume was split to two volumes.

 

[GregA]

.... APFS-formatted disk uses a space-sharing "container" that can house multiple secure "volumes" or file systems. This allows the disk's free space to be shared on demand and allocated to any of the individual volumes in the container as required.

When you upgrade to macOS 10.15, Catalina is installed on a dedicated read-only system volume called "Macintosh HD," while your files and data are stored separately in another volume named "Macintosh HD - Data."

Does the Fusion drive works fine with these 2 volumes?
And just like now the most frequently used files are put on the SSD?

 

[Analog Kid]

So you were able to pull your hard drive from a PowerPC based Mac into an Intel machine with out any issues and carry on? I didn’t know you could do that.

When I moved from a PowerMac G5 to an Intel Mac Pro, I had A software RAID set that I pulled from one machine into the other, and it ran flawlessly.

 

[HowEver]

DO NOT confuse Relocated items with your Recovered items folder. Very different things.

 

[MacRumorUser78]

How do you get the little red number bubble on the settings icon to go away?

I don’t want to upgrade to this horrible os and there is no option to hit a skip button.

So down in my dock the settings app just stays with the number 1 in the red bubble.

Remove the macOS Catalina guilt trip from macOS Mojave – The Robservatory

robservatory.com

 

[MacRumorUser78]

Thanks for the article. I rarely look at the Desktop and hadn't seen this.

I have several items, most look like related to old programs; but two are inaccessible folders (marked with red dot with a minus through it).
/Users/Shared/Relocated Items/Configuration/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/
/Users/Shared/Relocated Items/Security/System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default/

Both claim to be zero bytes, so probably nothing to worry about.

 

[Kabeyun]

Since the macOS volume is read-only, are library files (e.g. prefs, application support files, etc.) unmodifiable, or are they on the data volume?

 

[JosephAW]

Does it move Mac Ports /opt/local items?

 

[rwright]

Instead of going through the hassle and risk of disabling SIP, just drag the Relocated Items folder into the /tmp folder and restart. anything in the /tmp folder gets removed anyway on restarts.

Agreed, easier and, more importantly, safer because you aren't running w/o SIP at any point. Just tried it and it works fine (didn't do it from Finder, used Terminal but assume either way will work). I wasn't going to bother because it was such a small amount of space but after all the betas I had 5+ of these folders.

 

[MacSSD]

Haven't upgraded yet but glad I saw this article as I too would have been wondering what is up with the folder and can I uninstall it. Very good article.

 

[yadmonkey]

All this because Apple decided to implement a non-solution to a non-problem.

 

[Casey Royals]

so it appears if you stored files in folders in the root directory you need to move them into this Shared folder now ... what a PITA

 

[Aston441]

...

In fact, you could make any volume bootable just by copying a System folder to it. Mac power users would keep a minimal copy of System around for this purpose.

....

Ok

That woke up a neuron in my brain that hasn’t fired in 30 years.

😮

 

[quaffa]

How reassuring. I, like many others I believe, had wondered what this file was. The easiest thing is simply to delete the shortcut from the desktop and then forget it.

As an aside, I see that the instructions on how to disable the SIP in order to completely delete the folder itself still refer to 'Trash'. After the upgrade to Catalina my Trash seems to have been renamed to 'Bin'. Is that just me?

 

[one more]

macOS Catalina, bringing your favourite old Windows thrills to your Mac! 😋

 

[ZMacintosh]

so it appears if you stored files in folders in the root directory you need to move them into this Shared folder now ... what a PITA

I dont think that's ever been a good practice anyway. you can move them to the root of the current user folder. this is most likely due to the changes of the macOS volume container changes separating the system and user data (ie; iPhone)

 

[sugargliderdude]

Timemachine couldn't downgrade Catalina to Mojave because the system volume was split to two volumes.

clean install of mojave then use time machine to restore

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

My mom will love that UX.

 

[opeter]

So you were able to pull your hard drive from a PowerPC based Mac into an Intel machine with out any issues and carry on? I didn’t know you could do that.

Hmmm ... interesting question.

You can do the same with Windows too, but there can be some problems, if the hardware changes to much. But if you upgrade, let's say, something with intel CPU/chipset, than it might work.

Here is a test in a virtual machine (you can find many more on YT and elsewhere):

However, this is the most interesting of them all, because it is on real, actual hardware:

 

[coolfactor]

Since the macOS volume is read-only, are library files (e.g. prefs, application support files, etc.) unmodifiable, or are they on the data volume?

They will be on the Data volume. Apps started adopting a new way of organizing Prefs, etc via "Containers", which you see in your ~/Library/ folder. Each app gets its own managed Container folder that contains subfolders for Preferences, etc. Instead of an app's files spread across a range of folders, they are all available from this single app-scoped Container folder. I'm guessing Catalina enforces this approach now. Just a guess, as I haven't yet upgraded.

 

[sgtaylor5]

How do you get the little red number bubble on the settings icon to go away?

I don’t want to upgrade to this horrible os and there is no option to hit a skip button.

So down in my dock the settings app just stays with the number 1 in the red bubble.

Go here for the list of commands to run. Thank you bogdanw!

 

[Codpeace]

You still have full control over the system. If you want to hack on MacOS, you can disable all the extra security features.

Partitioning the OS separate from user data is good practice. Not only does it increase security, but it makes system updates cleaner (just update the OS partition, don't touch the user ones) and also makes it easier to migrate to a new system. (Just copy the data partition verbatim)
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Indeed. A lot of really old school Mac users like myself went by the "Put stuff in the root of the boot drive" for a long time; it was a hard habit to break.

It's weird because I've been a UNIXhead for a long time too, and typically on UNIX systems you don't do that. But Macs have always felt "different" and thus I'd subconsciously treat them differently. It doesn't help that MacOS classic encouraged data storage pretty much anywhere and kept the OS entirely contained in a "System" folder. In fact, you could make any volume bootable just by copying a System folder to it. Mac power users would keep a minimal copy of System around for this purpose

This is a great comment. This bit below — is there someplace you could steer me to so I could learn why this is true? I’m definitely open to the ideas here, but im originally from MS DOS / Windows land, and I’d like to learn more about UNIX / MAX OS fundamentals like this.

Many thanks!

—It took me years (of OS X) to fully accept that no user data should be stored outside the /Users folder. It felt overly complex but you save yourself potential trouble by sticking to this rule.—

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Sorry my formatting was jacked! I’m on my phone and it was impossible to control... I think it’s clear which part is mine...