The system used to format and organize files on a disk. This includes directory structure, permissions management, metadata, and more. The current default file system for macOS is APFS (High Sierra and higher) and HFS+ (Sierra or lower).
Questions tagged [filesystem]
1007 questions
10
votes
2 answers
MacOS cannot copy "special" files...they are marked with "s"
Their permission scheme is srwxr-xr-x.
I can't copy them, as I get the following error message.
cp: cannot create special file '/Volumes/Samsung_T5/Dockers/vms/0/00000002.00001003': Operation not permitted
I tried with sudo, but the files are…
Glasnhost
- 735
6
votes
1 answer
Mounting Ext3 filesystem with OS X 10.7.4
I'm trying to mount an Ext3 external USB hard drive in OS X 10.7.4. I installed OSXFUSE (with macfuse compability layer), which worked fine. After that I tried to install EXT2FS but the install processs always aborted.
Any ideas?
Chraig
- 61
4
votes
2 answers
Why does the file creation date remain the same when copying and pasting a file?
When copying a file from flash drive to macOS file system, the file creation date remains the same as the original file.
If it is on Windows, the file creation date of a new file when copying a file and pasting it will not be same as the original…
3
votes
0 answers
Should I still use case insensitive file system in macOS Mojave?
I switched to MacBook from Linux OS. In the beginning, I was using macOS High Sierra and people recommended to use case-insensitive file system because some apps may not work with case-sensitive file system.
Now I have upgraded to macOS Mojave, I am…
sgon00
- 2,314
2
votes
2 answers
Wisdom of storing help files in user directory
What is the wisdom of storing the following reference files in the user's directory?
Might I have done something when installing XCode for them to go to ~/Library instead of, say, /Library ?
1.8G…
Calaf
- 4,359
2
votes
1 answer
Where can I find the icon for external Drive?
I know a bunch of system icons are located under /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources, but I can't seem to find the icon for external drives there. Any idea where it might be?
Dan
- 463
2
votes
1 answer
Why is there no difference between 2 differently capitalized folders?
I have an empty directory called "foo". I try to create a new directory called "Foo". But I cannot create it:
***@###:~/test$ mkdir foo
***@###:~/test$ ls
foo
***@###:~/test$ mkdir Foo
mkdir: Foo: File exists
***@###:~/test$ ls
foo
The same…
vvvvv
- 891
2
votes
1 answer
Why is there an infinite loop in the File System on a Mac? /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Volumes/Macintosh HD
While playing around with find in Terminal I came across this odd behavior:
There seems to be an infinite loop in the Mac File System like so:
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Volumes/Macintosh HD/
...and so on.
Apparently it is possible to access Volumes…
michaelh
- 131
1
vote
1 answer
I want to install Adobe CS 6 on an external hard drive but can't select the install location
My SSD is formatted case sensitive, so when I attempted to install I got this:
Installation on case sensitive volumes isn't allowed. Please choose a case insensitive location.
But I can't select the install location.
Boti
- 349
1
vote
0 answers
How Far Back Should My .fseventsd Logs Go?
I've been trying to diagnose an issue with fseventsd eating up a tonne of CPU time after a restart, and I've discovered that the .fseventsd folder on each of my volumes contains thousands of files going back more than a year (February 2022).
What…
Haravikk
- 1,577
1
vote
0 answers
Dot underscore (._) files reappear
I have an external USB drive that is formatted with ExFAT. I'm on MacOS Ventura. I noticed that some of my files on that drive have attributes that I deleted with xattr -cr. The attributes vanished but now I have thousands of dot underscore files…
user15110545
- 11
1
vote
1 answer
How come I cannot view /Users/foo/ from a second admin user, but I CAN view them from macOS on another partition?
I've been trying to get a clean macOS.
First effort was to create a second admin user. I found that userB couldn't see /Users/userA/*.
Second effort was to create a second APFS partition, and install macOS onto it (from userA).
Now my machine boots…
P i
- 1,745
1
vote
1 answer
Why are folders with weird names automatically appearing on my Desktop?
Many of these weird folders show up all the time with these titles: 00, 0a, 0b... 0f; 01, 1a, 1b...1f; 02, 2a, 2b...2f; 03, 3a, 3b... 3f; etc up to ff. Why? What is this? What can I do to stop it?
They come back when I throw them out, which I've…
Gianna Lete
- 11
1
vote
1 answer
Simple tool to recover old version of overwritten file
I accidentally overwrote a small text file. I have no selectable TimeMachine snapshots - the "up" buttons are greyed out (note; tried Ctrl + Shift + C to remount but it makes no difference). Which is not surprising, as I have no external drive setup…
AshCooman
- 327
1
vote
2 answers
Does the Downloads folder always exist?
Is a user's downloads folder always called "Downloads" and located in the same path, or does its name and path change due to localization?
NeoTheThird
- 113