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How To Delete Container Disk Mac



Summary: This article talks about how to delete or remove an APFS partition/volume/container from the Macintosh HD or an external hard drive on macOS Big Sur 11/Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13.

Overview of Apple File System (APFS)

APFS, short for Apple File System, is a new file storage system for macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Apple devices. Compare to the 30-year-old HFS+HFS+, APFS has many new features and benefits, such as improved storage, faster performance, enhanced data integrity, and encryption, etc. Once macOS 10.13 was released, Apple made APFS available to every Mac computer, iPhone and iPad owner, eventually APFS replaced HFS+. When and if you upgrade your system to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, 10.14 Mojave, or 10.15 Catalina, the system drive will be automatically converted HFS+ to APFS.

Step 3: Click the 'Delete' button when been reminded 'Delete APFS volume?' Step 4: Wait until the deletion process finishes. How delete an APFS partition or container? Different from deleting an APFS volume, if you right-click the APFS partition or container in Disk Utility, you will notice there is no delete option you can choose. With a FileVault-encrypted startup disk, you can restart into OS X Recovery and launch Disk Utility to erase the volume. However, before erasing, you need to select the disk and then choose File. After upgrading to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, you may notice that there is a category named 'Other Volumes in Container' in Storage and 'Other Volume' in Disk Utility on your Mac. And the problem is that when you are getting the warning ' your disk is almost full ' from the Mac, other volumes in container are taking ten or even hundred gigabytes. This is the base storage unit for APFS, and it’s managed differently from older file systems. Each container can export one or more volumes, the actual “drives” you see in Finder. Because of this, you’ll see an APFS Container and your volumes in Disk Utility, separate from the physical drive the container is located on.

If you upgrade to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, 10.14 Mojave, or 10.15 Catalina, you might have spent some time experimenting with APFS (Apple File Stem). This is a completely different file system, which comes with some new concepts for formatting and managing your Mac drives. Therefore, many people don't know how to delete an APFS partition, container, volume. A people asked for help from a forum:

I got a 'Your disk is almost full' message. My MacBook became very slow. When checking storage, 'Other volumes in container' was taking up to 30gb, but it constantly changed. Sometimes it took a gig or two, and other times 30gb. I'm running a High Sierra 10.13. How to delete this APFS partition? Any suggestion will be appreciated!

Similar to the example above, lots of Mac users have noticed some weird stuffs called 'Other Volumes in Container' in Disk Utility. It's impossible to ignore them as these volumes always take hundreds of gigabytes of your Mac hard drive space and their size keep growing. In this case, you may wonder what is other volumes in container and how to get rid of them on Mac to free up space. No matter what the reason you decide to delete an APFS partition, just follow the step-by-step tutorial.

Before you start deleting an APFS partition, container, volume

1. When deleting an APFS partition, all data stored on the partition will be erased. Therefore, before you proceed, please make sure you have made a complete backup of your important data. You can manually take a backup of your files on any external drives. Alternatively, you can also turn on Time Machine, take advantage of iCloud or Google Drive.

2. Please note that under APFS, there is a new concept: container. A Container is the basic storage unit for APFS. Every APFS container contains one or more volumes. And a physical drive can be divided into several containers. The volumes are the actual 'drives' you see in Finder but the containers can only be viewed in Disk Utility. First of all, you should make it clear which one you want to delete.

It's totally different to delete an APFS volume and an APFS partition, container. Considering many users are so confused about the meaning of APFS partition, APFS container or APFS volume, we will show you methods to delete an APFS partition, container, and an APFS volume.

How to delete an APFS volume?

Let's start with the easier one. An APFS volume can be deleted with simple steps, whether it on the Macintosh HD or an external drive. You can use Disk Utility to remove an APFS volume the right way:

How To Delete A Container Disk In Mac Os

  • 1. Go to Application > Utilities > Disk Utility and find the APFS volume that you want to delete.
  • 2. Right-click the APFS volume and choose 'Delete APFS volume'.
  • 3. Click the 'Delete' button when been reminded 'Delete APFS volume?'
  • 4. Wait until the deletion process finishes.

How delete an APFS partition or container?

Different from deleting an APFS volume, if you right-click the APFS partition or container in Disk Utility, you will notice there is no delete option you can choose. Actually, deleting an APFS partition or container is not as easy as you think. Here are different methods depending on whether you are deleting an APFS partition on the Macintosh HD or an external drive.

1. Delete an APFS partition or container on the Macintosh HD

Note: an APFS partition or container on the Macintosh HD includes system files, if you delete any of them, you will make the Mac computer not bootable.

  • 1. In the Apple menu, choose Restart on your Mac.
  • 2. As your Mac restart, hold down the Command + R combination immediately when you hear the startup chime. Release the keys until you see the Apple logo.
  • 3. When you enter into macOS Recovery mode, click 'Utilities' on the top menu and select 'Terminal' from the drop-down window.
  • 4. In the Terminal window, type the command diskutil list and press Return to show all of the mounted drives on your Mac.
  • 5. Enter diskutil apfs deletecontainer disk0s2 and replace disk0s2 with the actual APFS container's identifier.

2. Delete an APFS partition or container on an external hard drive.

If you have an >APFS external hard drive and you want to merge one of APFS partitions on it, you can follow the steps below.

  • 1. Go to Application > Utilities > Disk Utility.
  • 2. Click 'View' from the left menu bar and choose 'Show All Devices'.
  • 3. On the left panel, right-click the APFS container and click on 'Eject' from the provided options.
  • 4. After the APFS container is ejected, you need to launch Terminal (Application > Utilities > Terminal).
  • 5. Now, type the command diskutil list. This will show all the information related to your disk. Based on the displayed data, you need to distinguish the identifier for the APFS container.
  • 6. After noting the identifier, you can enter diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk2s3. (Replace disk23s with your actual device identifier)

How to avoid data loss when deleting an APFS partition, volume or container?

Cs6 download mac free. The real deletion varies greatly and may make us getting into data loss problems. Mac os catalina free disk space. Here are two methods to avoid data loss when needing to delete APFS partition, volume.

Method 1: Restore data from Time Machine Backup

Apple's Time Machine software is a built-in backup utility in macOS or Mac OS X which can help you recover recently deleted files or photos, recover your Mac from an old Time Machine backup.

1. Restore files from Time Machine backup

How To Delete Container Disk Mac Pro

  • 1. Select 'System Preferences' from the Apple menu and choose the Time Machine icon.
  • 2. Tick 'Show Time Machine' in the menu bar.
  • 3. Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and choose 'Enter Time Machine'.
  • 4. Choose the folder once containing the lost files and Browse the items in the backup folder by using on screen up/down arrows or using the timeline at the edge of the screen. If you want to find files of older version, using timeline to navigate the files is faster. You will be able to see a lot of snapshots of this whole folder and how the folder changes.
  • 5. Select an item and prese Space bar or double-click it to preview it.
  • 6. Select the file you want to restore, and then click Restore.

2. Restore an APFS partition from Time Machine backup

  • 1. Click on the Apple logo at the top left corner of your screen and select 'Restart'.
  • 2. When your Mac boots up and hear the startup chime, you need to immediately hold down the Command + R keys.
  • 3. After booting your Mac into macOS Recovery mode, you will see a window named macOS Utilities. Choose 'Restore from Time Machine Backup' and click 'Continue'.
  • 4. Select the hard disk which contains the deleted APFS partition and click 'Continue'.
  • 5. Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore and click 'Continue'. Your Mac will restore the whole hard disk from Time Machine backup. Once it's done, it will restart.

Unable to restore files from Time Machine Backup? A professional APFS data recovery tool can help you recover Time Machine Backups from APFS disks.

Method 2: Recover lost files with best APFS data recovery software

It is recommended to back up files on other drives before deletion if those files are important for us. But if we forget to make back up, or realize there are still useful files on the deleted APFS volume after deletion, only Method 2 can help us to get lost files back. As the best APFS data recovery is quite complex, there are only a few Mac data recovery software can support it. Fortunately,iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is one of a few Mac data recovery software that can recover deleted/lost files from APFS volumes.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is a professional & free Mac data recovery software that can recover lost data from deleted APFS partition/container,recover lost data from formatted APFS drive, recover lost data from unmountable APFS drive, recover lost data from inaccessible APFS drive, recover lost data from corrupted APFS drive, etc.

Aside from data recovery from APFS drive, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can also recover lost data from as HFS drives, HFS+ drives, exFAT drives, FAT32 drives, recover lost data from formatted, unmountable, inaccessible, corrupted hard drive, external hard drive, SD card, USB drive, pen drive, etc. on macOS Big Sur 11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

Tutorial to recover deleted APFS volume with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

  • 1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
  • 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
  • 3. Choose the hard drive where you have deleted an APFS volume, click 'Next' to search for the deleted APFS volume and files on it.

Note: If lost files are not found in quick scan mode, please check the 'File types' option in the Preferences panel, check deep scan option and try again.

  • 4. Preview the listed searching files, choose files we need and click 'Recover' to finish deleted APFS volume recovery on Mac.

Conclusion:

This post shows you step-by-step tutorials to delete or remove an APFS partition, container or volume on the Macintosh HD and an external drive. In case you may lose important data after deletion, you can download the best APFS data recovery software - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to help you recover lost data from deleted APFS volumes and from recover lost data from corrupted APFS partitions as well.

Hope one of these solutions will be helpful. If you have any question or suggestion, please let us know.

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Checking your storage on Mac isn't difficult – but managing it can be. One of the more curious storage compartments is the 'other' storage on Mac, which sounds like a catch-all for files that can't be labeled properly.

And that's sort of true! But the other volumes in container can get full, and reduce the Mac storage Other space for your Mac. And keep in mind there's no 'how to get rid of other on Mac' option; the partition isn't there to delete totally. Here we'll show you how to check your other space, and offer guidance on managing it.

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How to Check Storage on Mac

This will be quick! Just follow these directions:

  • Click the Apple logo on the top left of the menu bar
  • Select 'About This Mac'
  • Choose 'Storage'

And there you go! That's the simple way to check the storage available on your Mac. Now, do you see that 'Manage…' button on the right-hand side of the window? Click it!

Depending on how you use your Mac and what apps you run, that 'other' category could be taking up quite a bit of space, and you could free it up very easily — potentially saving yourself from having to buy additional storage.

View and Manage the Other space on Mac

The next window you arrive at shows how Apple manages your system memory. In macOS Sierra, Apple added a default feature named 'Optimize' that helps balance the load between cloud storage and on-device memory use. As you can see in the window (below), 'System' and 'Other' are greyed-out.

This is because the other space is tricky to manage, and required digging into the Library on your Mac. As we cautioned in our article on deleting apps from your Mac, foraging through Library is a tad frightening, so proceed with caution.

Harga software adobe. But what is other on Mac? In essence, it's caches, plug-ins, and documents macOS wants to keep around. Here's how to open Library, so we can start to discover what 'other' is on Mac:

  • Open Finder
  • Select 'Go' from menu
  • Hold down 'option' key on keyboard; you should see a new option for 'Library'
  • While holding down the option key, select 'Library'

You'll see a Library folder in the list. Click it to see all your apps and associated files. There are also folders with names like 'Caches.'

We can't caution you enough: if you're not sure what it is you're looking for, don't delete it – and remember you can't delete Other on Mac entirely. There's a reason Apple hides the Library; small changes can have deep, lasting effects.

But, if you know what needs deleting, this is where you'll find it. If you're positive an app's files or plugins need to go, this is where you'll find them. Simply right-click the folder or file you want gone, and select 'move to trash.' Then empty the trash can, and you're done. This is how you remove files from the Other storage category.

But that's scary stuff. We have a better way

The Best Way to Reduce Other Storage on Mac

Apple's Optimize service is great for Macs with tons of on-board storage, mostly because those machines need very little interaction when it comes to managing files and storage space.

How To Delete Container Disk Mac Os

The best option is to find a file manager you can control. ForkLift is a really solid option that brands itself as a replacement for Finder – and it's not wrong. You can connect multiple servers (FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, AFP, WebDAV, SMB, and NFS), and archive unnecessary files or folders. Like Finder, it has a preview for files you're accessing, and also lets you compare files so you can delete duplicates as needed.

A much more robust method is with CleanMyMacX. This app is almost a must-have for any Mac owner. It managed files, folders, apps, extensions, updates, mail attachments, and the trash bin. But it's core function is to make sure your Mac is optimized, and it does an amazing job. https://bestmup941.weebly.com/airserver-7-1-1-download-free.html.

Reduce storage with CMM X

How To Delete Container Disk Mac

Install CleanMyMac X and forget about manual storage cleaning. The app wipes away all junk from your Mac in seconds.

With CleanMyMacX, all you have to do is activate its Smart Scan feature. It discovers unnecessary files for you, and optimizes your Mac for speedier performance. It even makes sure your Mac has no malware!

Trusting CleanMyMacX to do its job correctly is never a question, but you can dig deeper if you like. Once a smart scan is complete, you can select 'review details' under the Cleanup task before you select 'run.' In this details log, you'll see two main categories: system junk, and trash bins.

System Junk is where those pesky cache files are, along with log files. You can choose 'show' to see which caches CleanMyMacX is getting rid of, too.

Conclusion

The one thing to remember about other storage on Mac is it's not always going to vanish. Your Mac stores all kinds of things there, like application support and font files. You need that stuff – and is again why we caution you not to simply clear out everything in your Library that doesn't immediately resonate.

But you don't always need caches, and cleaning your files manually can take a long time. When you're ready to clear 'Other' on Mac, it's almost always because you want it to run smoother, or stay running at optimal performance levels.

This is why we advocate for apps like ForkLift and CleanMyMacX. Even if you want the more manual controls ForkLift offers, its ease of use makes storage management faster and easier.

How To Delete Disk Storage

We think most will find value in CleanMyMacX, too. Its simple one-click optimization makes system maintenance a breeze!

Best of all, both ForkLift and CleanMyMacX are available free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp. In addition to these apps, you get access to dozens of other handy macOS apps!

Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

How To Delete Disk File

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